Sunday, July 21

We started the day with a traditional British breakfast: fried egg, mushrooms, cooked half of tomato, black pudding, ham, sausage, and baked beans. Also, apple and orange juice and French press coffee. It was all good. This is a good B&B.

Back in our room, Karen, the owner brings us her phone with a call from Cherry Lynn and her friend Robert Turnbull. We tell them what we have been doing and they give us some more information about places to see and things to do. They live in California and it was around 2 AM for them. After we hang up, Karen gives us some more information. We are loaded.

Since its Sunday and shops are closed, we decide its a good day to explore Northmavine. Almost an island in its own right, only the narrow isthmus at Mavis Grind joins it to the rest of the mainland of Shetland. We stop at a pull-off at Mavis Grind behind a couple of other cars. You can look one way and see the North Sea. You look in the opposite direction and you see the Atlantic Ocean. They say that with a good arm, you can thrown a rock from one to the other. Very impressive. In case you didn't believe that this is a small world, here is another example that it is.  We start talking to two couples who are standing around like us. Linda takes their picture and then they take our picture. It turns out that the one couple who live here are named Brian and Thelma.  While we are standing there,  Brian's brother Jack  drives up. Just happened to be driving by. Jack has a niece who is Robert Turnbull's son's partner. Get that. The other couple is Charles and Sheila and they are from south England. Sheila's parents and Jack's parents were good friends and that's how they got to know each other. Sheila has been away for 30 years and she and Charles were being shown around for we think her birthday. You have probably heard of the saying that everyone is connected to others by no more than 6 degrees of separation. Well, this seems like one degree. It really is a small world. We run into them a couple of more times during the day because we're all visiting the same places.

We continue down the road and the road keeps getting more and more narrow. First we lose our lines on each side, then the middle line. However, there are frequent pullovers they call  "Passing Place" and since the land is so bare, you can see a car coming from a long way off and prepare for it. We drive out to a point called Stenness. Its a small bay with ruins of fishing lodges, where fishermen lived. This area flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries. Men would set out to sea for days on end in open rowing boats called sixareens, 7 men per boat, going out more than 40 miles not returning until they were full off fish. In one instance, some of the men fished for their "Laird" and were all lost at sea. The Laird sued the surviving women for the cost of the boats because he wanted them off his land since they weren't producing any income. It was tough to be poor back then.

Next, we stopped at the lighthouse at Eshaness. This setting was the best of the day - spectacular. The Atlantic Ocean crashing upon rocks at the  base of high cliffs with inlets running hundreds of yards inland. We walk around and take many, many pictures. I forgot to mention that Lerwick was overcast and just a little foggy, but as we drove west, the sun came out, and there was big blue sky. That also helped make  this spot really special.

We stopped at a cafe/caravan park for an espresso and ran into our new found friends. They were eating lunch and convinced us to eat the fresh, locally grown food. I had my espresso after a lunch of roast pork and Yorkshire Pudding for me and a chicken dish for Linda. Both of these servings came with mixed vegetables: carrots, green beans, cauliflower, and some unidentified leafy thing, plus - get this - a roasted potato and mashed potatoes. Wow!! Ruth Ann would have loved it - big pile of mashed potatoes.

Then  it was time to push on. Our objective was North Roe for no other reason than it was the farthest point north that we could drive to. As we are getting near, Linda says STOP!!!  There is an airplane in the backyard of a house. There is an information board beside the road that it was being restored by this guy. It took a lot of effort to get it there from the Sumburgh Airport and when he finishes, it going to take a lot to get it back to the airport. We don't know what he's going to do about the wings. A little further up the road, we're in the fog and the road ends at someone's house.

On the way back to Lerwick, we get back to the sun and then lose it as we approach town. We walk around town again like last night, aimlessly, and end up at an Indian restaurant on the other side of the piers and eat too much.

End of an adventurous day.