Previous Planes, boats and islands Prologue Before the tour Day 1 Linlithgow to Aberdeen Day 2 To the Out Skerries Day 3 Planes, boats and islands Day 4 Back to "Mainland Shetland" Day 5 Views from a golf ball Day 6 Bird- and helicopter-watching Day 7 Scalloway and Lerwick Day 8 The Grampions Epilogue Aftermath Next Views from a golf ball     Gallery The full gallery Links Other Atrophy pages

BBC looking for otters 2006:05:30 13:45:34 Two (random) pictures from day 4's part of the gallery. Click for larger thumbnails Click on any image to get a bigger picture in a new window; from this you can click on "prev" or "next" to see the previous or next picture. You can also click on the "more" link to view the gallery.

Day 4 :Back to "Mainland Shetland"

Back to "Mainland Shetland On the bridge

We caught the ferry early. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to the terminal where our bikes were parked. Things got ever so complicated. Peter had to persuade the captain to divert to another port, and go faster than usual, to catch another ferry that would take us to a port only a few miles from the bikes. I said things got complicated. Peter also got us a bridge visit!

Having caught the second ferry and arrived at a little port in the middle of nowhere, Peter, having failed to get through to a taxi firm, "commandeered" an innocent guy with a people carrier; we bundled sufficient of our number into this so that we could collect all the bikes. Peter did give the man a tip, although he did try to refuse! What he thought of us I don't know.

BBC looking for otters The "Drinking Horse" Looking down a cleft Photographing down a cleft

So, having picked up the bikes, ridden back to pick up the others, we set off to find our hotel at the bottom of the island. We came across the BBC looking for otters to film. Peter told them they wouldn't find them here, even though their "local expert" said they would. Peter was right!

Peter stopped to show us various interesting places, such as "The Drinking Horse", also the narrowest point on the island between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, where in times past the Vikings would drag their boats from one side to the other.

We also found some cliffs; the photographer you see was not me. My vertigo precludes me from that sort of position.

That evening, while we were eating, a man came up to our table, asked if we were the bikers. After talking about bikes for a while (like you do), Nick said he was the pilot af a SAR (Search And Rescue) helicopter, and would we like a look round his workplace? Would we indeed! The next day wasn't convenient, but we made a date for the following day. Meanwhile, he would film us riding tomorrow if he could. (Peter was in a state of total ecstasy at the thought of the possible promotional material for Highland Rider.)

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