Na rathaidean fada, lùbach tro Chuimrigh agus Alba

Today’s trivia is on Yell:

• Yell! was a British pop duo formed in 1989 by singers Daniel James and Paul Varney.
• No use yelling as, with a population of around 1,000, no one is going to hear you above the roar of the wind.
• The name Yell is derived from Old Norse gelld, meaning ‘barren’. I can voucher for that plus the peat is just one big bog, specially where the sheep and ponies go.
• Yell is the second largest island in Shetland.
• Its 27km long and 11km wide. Sydney is 41 times the size.
• The only main road runs directly from ferry terminal at Ulsta to Gutcher ferry terminal, all remaining routes are single track.

We were early as thought I’d booked the 0845hr ferry but it was the 0945hr. So we queued in the non booked line. There was around 3 booked and 10 unbooked cars, so plenty of room.

There are at least six wind farms being built or built along with the supporting infrustructure, mainly at the top end of the main island.

The tourist sights are poorly signposted and written literature is pretty vague on Yell and even the main land. So we didn’t get to see everything on the today’s sightseeing agenda 😥.

First stop was the award winning West Sandwick beach . . .

Just driving around me managed to see . . .

and this lamb was on the wrong sideof trench to get to mummy but eventually made it.

and some more real McCoy . . .

On a wind swept headland after navigating mud, bog (another word for mud) and sheep 💩💩💩 we came across the figure head of the German barque Bohus that came aground in September 1924.

Yell is slow driving as there’s only one spline road and single track roads off it that are windy and slow. Luckily very few cars, basically non and no campervans, yet!

We won’t be going to Unst tomorrow as there’s only spots on ferry at midday and coming back at 2pm, nothing earlier or later and not enough time to do much in less than two hours. If it’s like that now, how bad must it be during tourist season?

You need to book ferries but you don’t pay until on board. I suspect people just book and don’t turn up but it’s a big risk if need to be back on the main island. Not exactly a fair system bit also maybe they block out spaces for locals, which is fair. Just too risky to turn up and hope.

Today’s travels . . .