CLUB REPORTS

Our first holiday tale is from Tom & Winnie McDonald who recently visited Shetland.

A day on Noss - Shetland 2004

Well, why Shetland? A couple of years ago, Winnie started having trouble with her knees which precluded the usual hill walking holidays we had enjoyed in the past. This gave us the opportunity to visit the Orkneys last year and the year before. Now this year we decided on the Shetlands partly because we had never been and always wanted to go and partly because we were inspired by Eddie’s talk earlier this year.

From Lerwick, on a day with a favourable weather forecast we took the ferry across to the Isle of Bressay. Our intention was to go on to the small passenger only ferry to the tiny island of Noss, now a nature reserve and home to a herd of organic sheep owned and run by Scottish Heritage. First we stretched our legs with a walk up Bressay Hill, beautiful views from the top but somewhat marred by all the TV and electronic masts on the summit.

Not knowing what to expect from the ferry it still came as bit of shock when this tiny dinghy set off from the other side of the sound. I fully expected it would be manned by some semi-retired nautical type with standard issue white beard and extra large waders. Quite a surprise then when a slip of a girl jumped off the boat and started to drag it up the small beach, apologising to us for not being able to use the normal landing platform because of the high tide and warning us in the same breath to beware the very slippery rocks. She was dead right about the rocks-they were mighty slippy as Winnie and at least two others can testify.

Kate, our ferryman, had to make two trips to get us all safely across. Only 4/5 were allowed on the inflatable at a time, depending on the weather. A quick talk in the visitors centre where we were asked to keep to shore line, walk in a anticlockwise direction and not to wander across the centre of the island as this could upset ground nesting birds. We started off round the island, a distance of about five miles. The early morning cloud cover had lifted and we were walking in glorious sunshine with just the hint of a sea breeze.

The further we walked the better it got until we arrived at the highest point of Noss about one hundred and eighty metres above the sea. The cliff face was completely covered by literally thousand of nesting birds,in this case mainly Gannets soaring, diving and swooping all around us. I know in this television age it is possible to see all sorts of wild life programmes with zoom lens, slow
motion and even night vision and all very worthy, but to be actually out there on this cliff face on such a beautiful day was a truly memorable experience. The only bird we didn’t see that day was the Puffin. However a few days later up at umburgh Head we saw hundreds.

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