This is not good. I can't seem to load any pictures onto my blog and I have some good ones! Arghh!
We took off early this morning to head north. It meant catching two ferries (which we did not have pre-booked). It appeared that there wasn't a problem, but it was fairly busy getting on the first one to the island of Yell. GOTTA LOVE THAT NAME!
We pretty much drove straight north because we were trying to catch the ferry to Unst, because that is where I was told you could find Shetland ponies wandering freely and puffins by the thousands! Well both were a bit of an exaggeration.
When we first arrived at Unst we were greeted by about 8 Shetland ponies blocking the road. (Great pictures here, but sorry...temporarily I hope). Glen drove on and I insisted he head back (which turned out to be a good idea) and I got out of the car and he took lots of pictures of me with the ponies. One of them was rather skittish and I was told later that they can be rather nasty, but they seemed fine to me. Their manes are like straw. I would say they could all have done with a good grooming. They are truly like pot-bellied pigs! Not sure I could have got my legs to go around their bellies anyhow, so no riding....
Off we headed to the Hermaness Nature Reserve at the northern tip of Unst. The most northerly part of Britain. Fortunately, we stopped and picked up some sandwiches (for our hike later).
Now, neither Glen or I know much about birds. I recognize robins, eagles and seagulls (well probably more, but not much). The hike to the cliffs of Hermaness was about a mile along a walkway over the peat. It was a beautiful walk, but suddenly the world opened up to the cliffs of Hermaness. It was incredible. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The green of the grass against the blue ocean and brown cliffs was striking. We wandered around and discovered puffins (often disappearing into their burrows in the grass by the cliffs). Sheep with their lambs wandered freely, daring to climb cliffs that showed their amazing agility. Definitely they are less worried than people about playground safety for their young!!
We walked over to there was a gannet colony. Colony doesn't quite describe it. You knew you were getting close because of the overwhelming fishy urine odor. Then the cliffs became white with birds. They were swooping and cawing and pooping. It was sheer bird chaos. But the smell was a tad much so you didn't want to spend a ton of time here. We spent more than we'd like because Glen couldn't get the video on the camera to work. Arghh. Hold your breath!
We then hiked the other direction to another gannet colony that we thought had been white rock islands. Well, the white was gannets. It was down this very steep grassy hill (which yes, we had to climb up on the way back) (Think great pictures again).
We decided we'd best hike back out as we were worried about ferries (no problem again). Glen said we should get back so we didn't go to see the Muness Castle. Minor disappointment of my part.
Just as we were leaving a couple were walking along the road. We stopped to see if they needed a ride and they certainly did. They were completely lost. From New Zealand, someone had dropped them off at Hermaness and they had said they'd walk back. Well, the walk was about 10 miles! We drove them to the village where they were staying, but they had no idea where they were to go. We eventually dropped them off at the post office. At least they were 10 miles closer than when they started. Weird.
We are now safe and sound back at the hotel, enjoying a glass of wine and considering dinner. It just started raining so "we done good!"
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