On the plus side, there's not much competition for seats on the early bus to Heathrow, the queues to get breakfast are short and there's a fighting chance that the Heathrow runway delays won't have started yet. And the real bonus - there's a decent chance of being on Shetland before 11:00.
And so it was. The connection went smoothly at Aberdeen and my little rental car was waiting for me at the airport, and by midday I had my boots on and was at Sumburgh Head taking pictures of the waves rolling into the West Voe of Sumburgh. And there was, for a while at least, some sunshine too.
The last couple of stays on Shetland have been characterised by the (near) absence of wind - but there is no shortage of wind at the moment. The plane was shoogling entertainingly on the final approach, as a driver you need to remember how to park the car (for info - facing into wind so that the doors get blown shut rather than blown off - as the sign in the car reminds you "Damage will affect your excess") and as a pedestrian you need to make sure your hat doesn't blow away.
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| Waves rolling into West Voe of Sumburgh |
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| Crashing In |
And since no day at the south end of Shetland is complete without a visit to Scat Ness, that was my next stop. I've enthused about Scat Ness on more blog posts than is sensible but as a place to watch and photograph waves there's nowhere I'd rather be, particularly when the seas are rolling in from the southwest with the wind following the waves in.
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| Blowing up a Storm - on Scat Ness |
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| Incoming - Scat Ness |
