Return From the Islands

Saturday, October 29, 2016 ~ by Amy

Ordaal House has a really late departure time of 2:00, which worked well with our ferry schedule. Over morning coffee I attempted to figure out the 2 inter-island ferry crossings. Because the schedule is inconsistent and they use a variety of names for the terminals, it's really quite confusing. Finally I drew myself a simple picture of the island layout with the names of the islands, as well as the ferry terminal names. There is also a name for each ferry, to add to the confusion.

I used the rest of our ham, cheese and eggs to make a brunch before we left.

As I was loading up the luggage, our hosts, Rob and Catriona, came out to chat with us. I felt bad that we hadn't really got to know them. I'm still curious about their lives and hope to get to know them a little better through the Airbnb app. The island is so desolate and they don't farm the land so how do they make a living? Do they both commute to one of the bigger islands? Have they always lived in the area?

We waved to the ponies as we drove off down the driveway and headed south down the island to the Belmont Ferry (which happens to also be called Blue Mull to make it more confusing!). We got into lane #1, for cars that want to travel to the Island of Yell but have no reservation.

As we waited to load we had a little fun with the GPS.  Again it was a pretty small crowd so we were soon loaded and on our way.

Even though I knew we had some extra time, I forced myself not to look too longingly at signs to castles and other ruins or museums as we drove south on Yell. First, we had such a terrible time finding things. Second, most of them were likely closed for the season. So in no time at all we were loaded onto the Ulsta ferry on Yell, across the water and unloaded at Toft.

Driving down the mainland island I marveled again at how very barren it looked. The recent rains had greened up some of the fields but there was still vast areas of peat bogs, etc.

By 4:15 we had arrived in Lerwick, at the main ferry terminal to mainland, Scotland. We just sat in the car and waited until 5:00 when we could load. It was nice just to sit and not have to rush or worry about driving or finding something.

Again we had paid for valet parking so we just each took a small carry-on bag and walked through the enclosed walkway and onto the ferry.

M.V. Hjaltland is no cruise ship but it is quite nice. Even though it's a very slow season for them, they try to keep things really nice for the passengers.

As on the last crossing, our room was down a very long hall. It was a slightly different configuration with a top bunk to pull down instead of two across from each other but still nice.

After settling in, we made our way to the dining room. This time we were both quite hungry so we enjoyed the meal. We also found a more cozy place to sit so it didn't feel so cold and austere. Turtle cheesecake and decaf coffee finished off the meal.

The storms of the last few days had seemed to have blown over and they assured us that it should be a smooth crossing. They were quite wrong. No sooner had we gotten to our room and settled in for the night and the ship started rocking violently. I deeply regretted having eaten dinner so recently. It was a rough night for both of us. I was grateful that they had a large stack of “sick sacks” and also that Alyssa didn't tumble out of her bunk.