Posted by Seth on July 12, 2010 under Trip Reports | 
The Shetland Islands are far removed from the rest of Scotland, their political home. Indeed, standing in the main town of Lerwick one is closer to Bergen, Norway than to Edinburgh, Scotland. But at least in the town there is a sense of being somewhere. Just forty miles northwest of Lerwick, across the Mavis Grind and up through rolling hills, one suddenly arrives at what seems to be the end of the world: Esha Ness.
The area is, quite simply, stunning. The shore line is sheer cliff faces stretching up hundreds of feet from the ocean below. The color of the cliffs is amazing as well. They are a red that contrasts beautifully with the green of the fields atop them and the blues of the ocean and sky that surround them.
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Posted by Seth on July 1, 2010 under Trip Reports |
If you’ve made it all the way up to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands at the northern end of Scotland odds are you’re there to see a bit of nature, particularly the thousands upon thousands of birds that call the islands home. Just off the coast of Lerwick are two small islands, Bressay and Noss. The latter is a national park and bird sanctuary and is accessible via ferry for folks looking to hike about as part of the bird spotting experience. The other option for birding is to take one of the boat tours around the islands. We ended up on the boat version of the tour with Seabirds and Seals.
The eastern side of Noss is essentially shear cliff faces. It is virtually impossible to reach over ground and incredibly inhospitable for most land-based animals. This makes is particularly attractive for the birds as there are very few predators. In fact, the only real threats we saw were a few bird-on-bird attacks but even those are rare. Given a space with reasonable few threats, great winds and plenty of food supplies – the ocean below is quite accommodating in that regard – the birds set up camp in force. There were thousands upon thousands of them nesting on the cliff faces.
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The tour was truly a five sense experience. Sitting on top of the boat there was the taste and feel of the salt air blowing in my face. Add on the noise and smell of the birds – not necessarily wonderful, but certainly noticed – and the awe of seeing so many in one place and it was, well, wonderful.
Posted by Seth on June 27, 2010 under Trip Reports |
The idea of talking with a local to get to know the feel for the town one is visiting is not a new one. When there are language differences those conversations can be a bit more difficult, as we experienced this week in Lerwick, Scotland, up in the Shetland Islands. Even with everyone theoretically speaking “English” there were plenty of issues having a chat with folks. Still, one of the best conversations we had was with the guy working the front desk at our hostel. Jim was incredibly personable and friendly, overly outgoing and – most importantly – was able to fill us in on some local happenings that we quite certainly would have otherwise missed.
He quite simply asked if we were going to be going to the boat burning the following night. I’m pretty sure that the only acceptable answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” It certainly was our answer.
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