Day 16 - Bressay
It was lovely and sunny when we woke up but heavy cloud soon arrived and there was a cold, strong breeze. We took the car over to Bressay today so that we could see more of this big island after parkrun.
There were a few coaches around and we soon found there was a French cruise ship in the harbour. It didnt affect us as they didnt get taken to Bressay, more likely they would have gone to Sumburgh.
The parkrun was difficult with the head winds. A local told me that because of the wind direction, we would have more head wind than tail and it seemed that way.
Paul drove up to the finish and we had a hot drink and he had a bacon sandwich. When I got up to leave I my ankle was hurting a lot and I couldnt put any weight on it. It has improved over the day but it happened about a month ago for no apparent reason.
We then went to the east where we could see over to the island of Noss. This is a nature reserve and the ferry is a small inflatable boat which can only take a few people at a time. We didnt go over as neither of us wanted to walk but just took photos from the car park.
There are quite a lot of little lochs on Bressay. We sat by one of them where there was a viewing area next to where they had planted a community woodland. It is protected from sheep and rabbits and the trees/shrubs planted are typical of what was on Bressay before man arrived. There are no native mammels on Bressay, although opinion is divided on whether the otter has always lived there. No signs of otters have been found in pre neolithic times. On one of the lochs I did see a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers - we saw a lot of them in Orkney last year.
We tried a few other roads and stopped at the parking areas but there were long walks to the view points. The best one was at Bressay Lighthouse where we parked at the top of the hill and had great views of the lighthouse and cliff tops. By now the sun had come out and it was feeling a lot warmer. It stayed that way for the rest of the day.
We caught the ferry back and had a walk around Lerwick before finding a place to stop for lunch at The Ness of Sound, just south of Lerwick. I had a short walk on a grassy path and saw a Redshank and then a Hooded Crow. I also found a Sea Urchin case that is intact.
Paul wanted to get the car filled up with diesel and had seen a garage just outside Lerwick. On our way we noticed a tourist sign to the Bod of Gremista. A bod is a name for a building used to house fishermen and their gear. Although now a textile museum it was originally built in 1780 to serve the local fishing industry. Arthur Anderson, who founded the P&O shipping company was born in this house. Originally salt to cure the fish was stored here along with the processed fish which was ready to be shipped out. It also provided accomodation for those working in the industry.
After a very nice chinese takeaway we went to the nearest pub to our accommodation, The Douglas Arms. All was good until 10.30 when the entertainment started. Apparently this goes on until 1.30 am. The landlady came over to us and said there would be traditional singing. The first singer who was also the guy running it sang 2 quite good songs but by Foo Fighters and Genesis - hardly Shetland traditional. Then it became karaoke with some absolutely awful singing. After listening to someone absolutely ruining "The Green Green Grass of Home" we decided to duck out. Our ears couldnt take any more.
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