Blogging at 19:00 on Tuesday 9th April from N 60.16308°, W 01.15827° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:60.16308%2C-01.15827
Today's our last day in Shetland, we'll be sad to leave. In truth we didn't really have enough time to do this trip justice. Another week out would have made a useful difference.
From last night's overnighting spot we headed off to the western coast of North Mainland, to Esha Ness. We'd read that the area's renowned for its rugged coast and dramatic beauty. It delivers! Many of the cliffs and rocky outliers are the result of volcanic activity and the layers of lava they're created from is both fascinating and starkly obvious.
A pleasing natural feature a short walk north of the headland's lighthouse are the Holes of Scraada. The site is basically a very long sea cave but a hundred metres or so inland the cave's roof has fallen in revealing the sea wending it's subterranean way inland, complete with waves incongruously breaking on a mini 'beach' in the middle of a random bit of coastal grassland. (pic). When big waves rolled in it made huge crashing sounds and you could even feel your sternum vibrate.
The whole Esha Ness area is very attractive and - in our opinion - worthy of an excursion. Indeed all of the parts of North Mainland we saw were quiet and largely untrafficked, and - a bit like Unst - there was always a sense of wide open spaces and the ability to breathe. It's a very pleasing parish.
Unfortunately we had to leave the area much sooner than we would have preferred but we did at least fit a run and bike in before we quit. Yes, a bike! The wind had dropped overnight and for the first time since arriving in Shetland we were able to walk around vertically.
Anyway, we're out of time and currently back at Lerwick Port waiting for the ship back to Aberdeen.
We drove a total of about 380 miles in Orkney and Shetland and thoroughly enjoyed every day. The islands are quite splendid and have thrown up many rewards, some totally unexpected.
If I find time I'll do a random-ramblings type post soon just to tidy up a few bits and sprinkle a few observations that I haven't so far had time to bang on about. I would try on the ship, but for the curse of sea-sickness and all that...
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