Today it's raining steadily. (Reminds me of Sydney, just before I left.) So, I'm inside watching the rain on the window of the guest house. If it lets up a bit, I might drive the 17 miles to Lerwick to go to the museum, but that's as far as I'm going today.
Yesterday I took two ferries to the Island of Unst. I'd intended to see the Viking ruins, standing stones and puffins in the wildlife sanctuary. By the time I'd taken two ferries to get there, failed to make the cut on one and had to wait an hour for the next, and drove around Unst hitting the sights, it was nearly 6 pm, and I wanted to get back to Mainland before they stopped the ferries. I didn't have time to walk to the wildlife sanctuary. I hope the weather improves tomorrow. I can try again then, or any time, I guess, until Wednesday night, when I will take the ferry to the Orkneys.
I haven't told you about my situation here in the Valleyfield Guesthouse. It's very friendly, open, and the proprietor, Marina, is a wonderful woman. There's a lot of contact with the other guests, but everyone here now, except for me, is a FIFO worker for one of the companies here. A lot of them seem to work on the windmills or for the government. Anyway, they seem to be well-behaved. Marina keeps them on the straight and narrow. She's been doing this for 40 years, I think, renting most of her rooms to the company lads, and she knows exactly how it works. (Her guest house is more like a home for them; a lot more soulful than some of the accommodation provided by the companies, male only and, as I hear, liable to descend to toxic masculinity.) I'll ask some of my housemates and Marina if I can take photos, and you may see them below.
Below are some of the photos I took on Unst.
I went back to Unst today (using two ferries to get there as you must, and two to get back here to Mainland), hoping to see more puffins. I'd been told they are everywhere in the Hermaness Wildlife reserve, but I did not even see one. And the wind was so srong, I thought it would blow me over the cliff into the cold Atlantic Ocean. My face was so cold, I wore a mask to stop my nose freezing off.
Well, tomorrow is my last day in The Shetlands. I leave on the 5 pm ferry for the Orkneys, where I will stay for 5 days.
The Muness standing stone
A reconstruction of a Viking longboat.
My trip is winding down fast now.
