Rob-n-Hild Take the High Road!

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Southern Shetland - Hild drove 96 km. Moving time 1:48 hours. Maximum altitude 99 metres.

The day started with work for both of us. Always good to bring in some pennies.

It was time to have some fun, and we headed out for a visit to St. Ninian's beach and island. This is another spot where we visited every time we were on Shetland.

It was a blustery day, but we saw the sun every now and then. The sand on the beach was as white as always and the water oh so blue. It really is a beautiful tombolo.

We had a quick walk around St. Ninian's Isle. Distance 3.29 km. 1:07 hours total with 40 minutes moving time. Climbed 89 metres to highest elevation 49 metres.

We stopped by the chapel ruins from the 12th century.

Hild was good at spotting the main track off the beach up onto the island. Pretty obvious. Rob, however, found the sneaky path through the dunes to the chapel.

The rocks on the beach were perfect for a bit of stone skimming.

We made another stop at Spiggie Beach. Hild's mum, Janet, remembers swimming at Spiggie Beach. The beach doesn't look as nice as the next beach over, so we're not sure if we found the correct place.

Scousburgh Beach next to Spiggie Beach looks a lot nicer, so we're not sure we found one of Janet's favourite beaches - or not.

Next on our list of activities was to park at Sumburgh Hotel and hike along the coast to Sumburgh Head Lightouse. Nice view along the cliffs and quite big breaking waves due to the windy day.

We walked 5.9 km, total time 2:49 hours , moving time 1:15 hours. We climbed 194 metres to maximum elevation 94 metres.

Hild was happy to finally get to say hello to Shetland Ponies. There doesn't seem to be as many as when visiting in the 70s and 80s. However, we should not trust Hild's memory.

At Sumburgh Head Lighthouse we spent half an hour watching more puffins. They are so much fun to look for among all the other nesting birds including Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Razorbills, and Guillemots.

We had brought Tammy along so she could look for cousins.

From Sumburgh Head Lighthouse we headed along the cliffs to Compass Head.

After a lot of climbing and huffing and puffing we made it to Compass Hill. There was a beautiful view back to Sumburgh Head Lighthouse.

We enjoyed looking at helicopters and planes taking off from Sumburgh Airport. It is fun to drive the route we took because the road goes across the runway. When planes are taking off, there are traffic lights to stop cars. We were not lucky enough to get to sit at traffic lights and see a plane zoom past. Would have been fun!

On the way back to our campground, we stopped by Cunningsburgh Cemetery. Part of our family hails from Cunningsburgh, Bremmer, Aith and Aithsetter villages. We walked through the graveyard looking for specific people on the Smith and Halcrow part of the family tree.

We found Hild's mum's grandmother (Janet Smith) and grand father (Adam Halcrow). In the same grave is also their son, Adam. He drowned 11 Apr 1917 when HMS Duchess of Cornwall was torpedoed. 23 people died.

We also found the grave of John Laurence Johnston known as Donnie O'Bremmer. Donnie was a friend of Hild's mum, Janet. They kept in touch after mum left Shetland.

Coming up: Shetland

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