Blogging at 21:05 on Saturday 6th April from intended overnighting spot N 60.53412°, W 01.18108° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:60.53412%2C-01.18108
We awoke to extremely strong and bitterly cold winds... again, plus - for added spice - driving rain: excellent conditions for a parkrun, then! We knew it was going to be grim so after a quick pot of tea mustered all of our warmest running tackle and headed off to the designated meeting point. We timed it just right. The ferry from the mainland that routinely delivers all of the organisers and competitors was already well on its way over the sound from Lerwick.
Heroically, the race director, timekeepers and marshals all turned out with cheery smiles, even though the usual field of competitors was at about half its normal size. It turned out that Emma and I weren't just being whining southern wimps, either; even the local regular competitors were grumbling at just how bad things were.
The run itself was as wretched as imagined. The winds were so strong and cold they conspired both to induce ice-cream headaches and blow competitors all over the road for the whole way round. The overture of lashing rain, meanwhile, saw everyone soaked through and dropping their chins to avoid the worst of the pelting face-stings. Even the full-on effort required in a 5k race did little to raise body temperature and well within the first kilometre such luxuries as being able to feel hands and feet were a distant memory.
Apart from those minor details it was genuinely enjoyable, really! The course ran through spectacular scenery, the locals were extremely friendly, and we've travelled about and done enough stuff to appreciate that this is the sort of caper that memories - and indeed characters - are truly made of.
Post parkrun (and defrost) we basically ferried back to mainland Shetland and then steered north, taking on some fuel as we went (priced about the same as an average supermarket in England at the moment).
After about an hour of heading north we ran out of mainland and so crossed - with the frequent and not too onerously priced Shetlands Ferry Service - to the island of Yell. Indeed, that's where we currently are and are intending to overnight. We found a nice little spot on the south of Yell next to a cemetery overlooking the sea and it was with some sense of familiar comfort that we found the graveyard contains a couple of commonwealth war graves. We invariably tend towards a few quiet thoughts when we stumble upon such graves and they do seem to form an incredibly recurring theme with our truck-based travels.
Initial impressions of mainland Shetland are that in spite of its ruggedness and relative inaccessibility, that it feels a bit more developed and rather busier than Orkney did. Much of the landmass is upland (very peaty) moorland, with a commensurate reduction in the abundance and diversity of birdlife. It often even feels pretty angry and hostile. In fairness, though, the lashing winds, rain and higher-ground mists we've so far encountered are very probably not currently helping.
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