Northern Isles Day 8

Northern Isles Day 8

I can’t believe I didn’t wake till 9.10, though I had been awake listening to Somerset Maugham short stories during the night. He was a great storyteller but disturbing so I moved on to Cranfield by Elizabeth Gaskell.

It was a stunningly bright and sunny morning as we headed off to Melby to park up for a walk to Huxter ancient water mills. It was a lovely coastal walk and back by the road. We had a late lunch at the car park at Melby which was busy with 5 vehicles.

We headed across country stopped often at beautiful spots for photos and a look around. The scenery in that western area was reminiscent of Lewis - open peaty boggy views interspersed with lochans.

We called in to Scalloway. When on a round Scotland school cruise on Dunera 60 years ago we were entertained by families there. It was all in the evening and dark so no memories were rekindled.

From there we drove to Hamnavoe (one of them there seem to be a few here) and looked for a place to park for the night. We stopped in a car park at Meal Beach but felt it was too close to houses so drove further on to Minn Beach. It was a lovely walk down the hill to the pristine white beach (blipped) and causeway to a little island where we walked up to the cliffs. It’s so beautiful in the sun looking at the purple and turquoise beach and dark jagged cliffs. There’s no sign saying we can’t stay overnight and by the time we got back from the beach another van had parked up.

So Sunak has followed the lead of Javid. Interesting developments after the current PM’s latest “mistake”.