After a comfortable night in the böd we wake up to a grey Shetland, gone is the beautiful weather of 2 days ago. After breakfast we pack our stuff... and just miss the minibus that would have brought us to the road end. There's no other option than to start walking as there's no other buses leaving Skeld today.

We expect that more cars will leave Skeld (maybe on their way to work) than will come in, and hope to hitch a ride. Strangely enough, all the cars we encounter are heading into Skeld. But we enjoy the walk. When we walk along Garderhouse Voe we see an otter hunting in the water below us. We follow it for a while with the binoculars and while watching we hear an eerie sound which, as we found out back home, might have been a grey seal.

My partner is just packing away her binoculars when a car stops in front of us. A friendly lady offers us a lift. Although she says she isn't going all the way to the road end, when she drops us off we discover that we are actually very near, only a 2 min walk. Then we have a decision to make: are we going to Walls for a wee look around, or are we going straight to Voe where we stay tonight. A quick look at the bus time table solves the problem; because of the lift we got we are in time for the bus to Walls which is due to arrive in 5 min. And indeed, a few minutes later we see the bus appear from the mist, which is also rolling in. 

Tonight we stay in a böd in Voe. There's no direct bus from Walls to Voe and we have to travel to Tingwall and there wait for the bus that comes from Lerwick to go to Voe. Luckily it all works out well. The fog has lifted a bit and while on the bus we can now actually see more of the landscape. 

We got dropped of near Voe and walk to the village. The böd is quickly found at the marina and the keys collected. This böd is quite big compared to the other two, but again we have it for ourselves. Although Voe is small, they have a restaurant, the Pierhead. According to the guidebooks, this is a good restaurant, so that's where we are going to eat in the evening! After dinner we stay in the Pierhead for a drink and enjoy our last evening on Shetland.

After the long walk yesterday we had hoped to have a more relaxing day today. However, when we woke up in the morning and walked into the kitchen we found a swimming pool there. Water was coming through the ceiling and the kitchen floor was one big puddle. As it happens a pipe from the wate rtank in the böd's loft had burst and overnight the water had been pouring out of the tank. It took us a few hours to get the mess cleaned up and notify the relevant people and we were just in time to catch the bus to Lerwick. Turned out it was a good decision to watch the puffins last night, because we wouldn't have made it this morning!

Our destination today is Skeld, on West Mainland, supposedly an area with: "lovely beaches, hill and coastal walks, excellent bird-watching, seal-watching and otter-spotting. The coastline varies from dramatic cliffs to long, sea lochs, or 'voes', reaching far into a landscape of heathery hills and green crofts." We have booked 2 beds in Skeld Böd, which is situated above the marina in Skeld.

In Lerwick we only have limited time before the bus to West Mainland leaves, so I make a quick run to the supermarket to buy some supplies, while my partner stays at the bus station with the backpacks. When I return from the supermarket I find my partner in a grumpy mood: a Shetland seagull had decided that it didn't like her and had defecated on her when it flew past. Have to admit, it was a wee bit funny!

Very unexpectedly we got the chance to visit the Shetland Isles. We decided to go in June, so we would hopefully be able to see Puffins.

On Sunday 15th June 2014 we left Fort William for the long trip to Aberdeen: first the bus to Inverness and from there another bus to Aberdeen. Total travel time: 5h 45m! 
At 5pm the ferry leaves Aberdeen. On its way to Lerwick, the capital of Shetland, the ferry will first go to Orkney to pick people up in Kirkwall. It's a long journey, but luckily the weather is fine. Very lucky indeed because it is well known that the journey from Aberdeen to Lerwick can be a rough one! 

The next morning we arrived in Lerwick at 7:30. When we leave the boat the first thing we look for is a place to get breakfast. I guess Lerwick is used to the early arrival of travellers because it doesn't prove too difficult to find a place to get breakfast. Our plan is to catch a bus that goes south to Bigton from where we will start our walk. Before we catch the bus we have some time to walk through Lerwick. It's a beautiful sunny day and along the seafront we encounter a group of seals basking in the sun on the rocks. They are not at all bothered by our presence. We do some shopping at the local supermarket and visit the Broch of Clickimin, before we catch the bus that heads southwards out of town. 


At Bigton we walk over the tombola to St. Ninian's Isle. The tombola is a stretch of sand, with the sea at both sides, which connects the island with the mainland. While walking along the tombola we see a seal hunting for fish and when we reach the island we scare a ringed plover out of hiding. We walk around the small island. The cliffs are occupied by fulmars and down below in the sea we spot the first puffins, although they are so far away we can only just identify them as puffins. Great Skuas (named Bonxies on Shetland) soar over our heads, but luckily don't bother us. Somebody else is not so lucky: when we are at the far end of the island we hear shouting and see a man running and waving with his arms trying to scare a skua away that tries to dive bomb him.