Blog for Archer: A Journey to Fair Isle

I was excited this morning because not only was this my first chance to start to explore the Fair Isle but the weather was fine and sunny....for the moment. I packed some sandwiches and a flask and we set off towards the light house. There are birds flying all around and at such high speeds around the steep dark cliffs, that is not always easy to identify them.  Oystercatchers are everywhere. You will probably recognise them as they often live in fields or on moorland. They are very distinctive, they have bright reddish pink legs, an orange- red bill and black and white feathers, but there most distinctive feature is their call (look this up). When they fly you can see a big white V shape across their wings. They eat cockles (a small shellfish)by hammering the shells with their flattened end of their beak or prising them open. Read more about them here  This is what I saw We stopped for lunch. The sun was shining and the sea was a beautiful blue colour. I could see seals looki...

  Chris and I had planned a walk today, but when I returned from coffee with John and Dave, there was a note on the table in the croft which said 'GONE FISHING.' Chris had been invited by Steven, who owned the only fishing boat on the island, to go fishing with him and the opportunity was too good to miss. I will tell you what he caught later.  As I had heard some of the tall ships from Lerwick were in the North Haven, I decided to do the walk as planned. Tall ships are traditionally rigged sailing vessels and are very impressive. The ships in the harbour are part of the tall ships race - you can see more pictures and a map of where they sail here  This ship is called Trinovante - look this ship up After a good look at the ships, I walked onto the headland called Bu Ness. There is a colony of Arctic Terns nesting hear as well as many Puffins. As I reached the top of the hill, I looked down to sheep rock and guess what I saw?  Can you see that tiny dot in the se...

  This is a map of the Fair Isle it is about 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide It is described as the most remote inhabited island in the Britain and is at least 24 miles from Shetland. It sits in between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Where the two seas meet, the water can be very rough and dangerous and there are lots of stories about shipwrecks around the island. The blue dot is where I am staying and the arrow is where we saw the Humming-bird Hawk Moth. The Humming-bird - Hawk-moth I have seen loads of birds on the island and I will show you some more in the next post, but today I saw a Humming-bird Hawk-moth. You can see them all over Britain but you don't see them very often so it was a real treat. They are named  Humming-bird Hawk-moth because their behaviour is very similar to a Humming bird (they are tiny and flap their wing super quick so they can hover).  It was really hard to get a picture of the moth as it was so quick. Here is a picture but the video'...

  Well I suppose it had to happen at some point, 7am we arrived at North Haven and boarded the Good Shepherd IV. Captained by our friend Steven, the ferry bares more than a passing resemblance to a trawler and certainly behaves like one on the open sea. I was assured the crossing would be good but I had taken lots advice from locals about seasickness and I intended to follow it to the letter.  Fair FairFair Two hours later (and only one bout of sickness ) we arrived in Sumburgh (Shetland). A kind island resident, Matti who was also travelling on the GS, gave us a lift up to Lerwick. The Aberdeen Ferry was not due to leave until 7pm so we had six or so hours in which to explore Lerwick.  After lunch we explored Lerwick and eventually ended up in a cafe called Blyde. We got talking to the owner who had lived in Yorkshire (small world). Soon after his third cousin once removed arrived and noticed Chris's mandolin and asked if we were musicians. We told her all about our...