Day 57 - Shetland Islands

Day 57 – Lerwick, Shetland Islands – Wednesday 11/7/12

Weather – Cloudy. 10C - 11C

Sunrise – 3.59am

Sunset – 10.19pm

Time difference - minus 9 hours ex Sydney (back an hour last night)

At 6am this morning the Lerwick pilot jumped on just west of Bressay. Shortly after we entered Bressay Sound and dropped anchor at our designated anchorage. The tender service ashore was operating not long after 7am.

What a great day we had in this most northern area of UK. Shetland was exactly as we expected, a lovely lush green back drop, with rock fences aplenty, Shetland sheep (which have a brown wool), and of course Shetland Ponies.

We were on a private tour today, organised by Pam, in a small 10 seater VW van, with an informative tour guide. We were very fortunate to be a part of this tour as it was quite special. The benefit of private tours over Princess tours really came to the fore on this small island. We were able to visit the various sightseeing spots ahead of, or at different times to the Princess tour buses, thereby avoiding the crowds, and having more time at each location.

We traversed the full length of the mainland, admiring the the natural landscape which offers dramatic coasts, cliff scenery, lovely beaches and rolling hills, and saw saw lots of all the above:) Archaeological sites dating from the Bronze and Iron Ages litter the islands, Spectacular seabird colonies and seals are among the wildlife that abound here.

We had a light lunch of hot vegetable soup, with locally baked bread (I think the bread was called barrock) , washed down with a pint of White Wife, a local Shetland brewed ale at the quaint Spiggie Hotel, which is located in south mainland, with fantastic views over Spiggie Loch.

It was a lovely day, with a great guide, who is clearly quite proud of his Island home, and justifiably so. Probably the only disappointment for Donna was that she was not allowed to pat the Shetland Ponies, as there is currently an outbreak of an equine disease (I think called Strangles), which is very contagious, and fatal, it was look only, no touching.

Upon drop off, we still had an hour left, and some unspent pounds, which we made short work of, including a serve of Haddock & Chips. It was sooooooooo nice, better than what was served up in Bergen yesterday, and so cheap.

Onto the second last tender, and back on board in plenty of time. It was a bit cold to be on deck for sailaway, so we hibernated for a couple of hours before pre-dinner drinks. We were going to see the comedian prior to dinner, but we were enjoying drinks and missed it. We noticed the many of the audience leaving the Vista Lounge, where the comedian was on, after only 20 minutes. From all reports he was not very good, so perhaps we had made the right decision.

The Captain advised that as of 11pm we tonight we will have travelled 17,872 nautical miles from Sydney, which is the half way mark (in distance) of the cruise.