Shetland: Shine on you crazy diamond

Another cue from a song; I think that there is a bit of a trend emerging. And this one is (possibly) more relevant than the last.

It turns out that my grandmother's 80 year old cousins are both in good enough shape to look after a few acres of land and keep sheep. As Skittles noted, the word 'legend' is often applied very liberally, but these guys certainly deserve the title.

Along with their nephew and his wife we enjoyed a wonderful meal, complete with home grown spuds. Conversation flowed as we traced family links, learned about Shetland and just made general small talk. The evening flashed passed, and as we took our leave at midnight it was still twilight. I'm thrilled to have completed another link in the family chain, and really hope that it will remain for years to come; "Shine on..."

Aside from meeting distant relatives, yesterday was filled with adventure. Despite the lingering fog, we opted to continue with plans to island-hop to Noss.

We started with the short ferry across from Lerwick to Bressay and after a brief spell in the interesting Visitor Centre we struck out across the island. The guidebook was wrong when it came to the distance-it was the longest 2 1/2 miles I've ever walked. However, punctuated near the beginning by a visit to the quaint little shop for supplies, our trudge through the fog peering at buildings and lochs eventually came to an end.

To cross to Noss there is a 'ferry' which runs in the summer, except in stormy weather when a red flag is shown. I wouldn't have seen a red flag at the end of my nose but some cyclists assured us it was running and we picked our way beyond the ferry sign and down the track amidst a few ruined buildings. It was surreal searching for a man in a rubber dinghy in such conditions but the makeshift jetty was pretty obvious. Joined by one other we donned life jackets and motored across the short stretch of water.

The fog was lifting all the time and as we stopped for lunch we had good visibility. Perched on the cliff above a stack we watched many seabirds, including puffins. Awesome (though smaller than you'd think).

Our return journey saw ever increasing visibility, so we enjoyed seeing where we'd been. The scenery really is spectacular, a point hammered home when we finally left Lerwick and set out en route to visit my distant relations.

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