Rob-n-Hild Take the High Road!

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Yell Island Drove 52.1 km in 55 minutes. Ferry in red: 4.8 km in 15 minutes.

Our morning started when we finally got off the ferry and headed to the local Co-op to stock up on groceries. It is best to do this before heading to the relatively remote island of Yell. It was a quick drive to the ferry from Toft to Ulsta. We lined up in the unbooked line. Luckily it wasn't too busy so we got on. It was a squeeze next to a large lorry and other cars. One car had a trailer load of Shetland ponies. Cute!

Driving off the ferry toward our campsite at Burravoe, we realized that the roads here are only just wide enough for Percy. And there are plenty of roaming sheep to look out for.

It took us less than an hour to set up the tent and have the mobile office ready for use. We had a little bit of work to do before heading out for a hike.

The building with shared facilities has a roof made from an old boat. Very nice!

Our planned hike started at the campsite and circled a peninsula. It was 5.24 km long and it took us 2 hours 37 minutes. However, there was a lot of sitting down looking for otters and spotting many birds - so actual walking time was only 1 hour 11 minutes. Birds like cliffs so we had a total of 178 m ascending climb.

The peninsula even had its own loch.

Hild's mum told us of a time when Uncle Gilbert climbed to the top of a church ruin in this area - and put a potty on the top of the highest point! Naughty boy! We wonder if this methodist church ruin from 1827 was where it happened...

We met many sheep on our route. In general, we conclude that most of the adult sheep had very scruffy fleeces while the young lambs looked so healthy and snuggly. Some of them don't make it and we found a scull to prove it.

There were many pretty flowers along the trail, and as usual we don't know what most of them are.

We were told to look for otters and seals along this trail. However, we didn't see any. Many times we thought we saw them, but probably just hallucinations!

We climed a large cliff to get a good view of many birds nesting and flying around. Their flights appeared aimless, but they probably were busy doing something. We kept hallucinating puffins. Hopefully we'll see them for real tomorrow.

We spotted a lost buoy in the grass. And we keep noting that the grass is so beautifully manicured (by sheep) that it appears to be Teletubby grass!

We have not seen Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez yet, but as we were walking around Burravoe today Hild kept thinking we would find a dead body. We did find a single welly, but there was no foot in it. Phew.

Coming up: Unst Island

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