It’s raining … and still no one died

I don’t have one of these

We love Shetland. Sure, we’ve had sensible(ish) weather, but there’s something about the softness of it: the rolling hills and the kind and calm people. It’s fab. Our last-but-one campsite was at Skeld and then, knowing the weather would deteriorate, we drove to Sandness and walked to the watermills, along a lovely deserted coastline. We then drove to Staneydale temple, a 5,000 year old building in the middle of nowhere. It was bleak, but dry enough and, in an ancient way, quite fascinating.

We then drove to our last campsite at Levenwick, on the southern peninsula. By now the weather was getting worse and with the site up on a hill with, apparently, far reaching views out to sea, the views became shrouded in cloud and we could see nothing. We managed to pitch in dry enough conditions and the site had a kitchen and a covered outer area where we managed to meet all manner of people as we sat outside making supper, drinking our wine –  and then breakfast, drinking our tea. In its own way it was our best evening so far, such was the community. And we weren’t the only fools camping in a tent. There was a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and a much older man who was in an old one-man tent. He was an Englishman from Skye, and was accompanying his brother and wife on a holiday to Shetland. His brother and wife were in a swanky hotel; he was roughing it … and enjoying our wine. Fab.

gossip central

It rained overnight and everything went away damp. We drove to Sunburgh Head, which was a really high lighthouse where the views might have been spectacular if we could see anything. However, things did pick up. The west coast was dry and Mrs Sun was close to getting a ticket. So we walked across to St Ninian’s island, a small outcrop joined to the mainland by a sand spit, and moved further north to a harbour where we decamped, had lunch and, half an hour later, everything was dry. Lord knows what the locals thought … but they all passed the time of day with us and ignored our gypsy-like detritus. 

Love it … drying out …

That was Shetland. Five days was long enough to see everything, but you could stay for a month and slow down completely … provided the weather is fine. 

We made the ferry in good time, boarded, bought a sandwich rather than compete for space in an overcrowded restaurant where all I could see was covid, and relaxed for five hours as we made our way back to Orkney. We docked at 11 pm and drove the short distance to our prebooked campsite (£21 – everything is more expensive here). Thankfully we were pitching in the dark on day ten and not day two. We have it sorted now.

This morning it was initially very misty, but we knew rain was coming. We sorted ourselves before a blanket of water drenched everything and then drove to a local cafe where we treated ourselves to a decent breakfast. The rain is set to last all day. Tomorrow the weather picks up and Mrs Sun is catching the bus to be with us on Monday. We’ve checked other campsites, but they’re all more expensive, so we’ll stay where we are and use Kirkwall as our base. Tonight we’re watching Emma Radacanu in the US Open final. We have C’s tablet and more data than any family needs, so that’s a date. Clearly she is talented and lovely and well done here. But if I might moan … as Radacanu was winning her semi, Keely Hodgkinson was winning the final Diamond League 800 metres against a v strong field. She’s the European indoor champion and Olympic silver medalist. She’s also only a teenager (four months separate her and Radacanu). And yet we get one short athletics story on the BBC sport app, which lasts less than a day – against Radacanu’s multiple pitches which have gone on and on. And Hodgkinson won $30,000. Radacanu will take home at least £1,250,000. It doesn’t seem fair …

Enough. Stay safe everyone.