Scotland Adventure 2023 - Days 9 and 10
Our ship tied up to the Victoria Pier in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland. We have a lovely view of the town of Lerwick from our balcony. We are as far north as we will cruise on this trip. We are at 60° north latitude. All future travel will be southbound to Edinburgh through the North Sea. This island is known as the Mainland. There are over 100 islands in the Shetland’s of which only 16 are inhabited.
The view of Lerwick from our balcony.
When you look at the Shetland Islands on the map they are close to Norway. How did the Shetland Islands become part of Scotland? In fact the Shetland Islands were controlled by Denmark. In 1468 the Danish Princess Margaret was betrothed to King James III of Scotland. King James demanded a dowry of 5,000 pieces of silver. The Danish king did not have the funds to pay the dowry so he handed over control of the Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands to King James to satisfy his demand for a dowry.
We rode on our bus to visit a croft that was restoring the peat bogs. Peat was was harvested and used for heating. In some areas the peat is 36 feet thick. The peat has taken 12,000 years to form. The peat bogs are drying out and releasing co2 (carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere. Peat is 25 times better at capturing co2 than is a rain forest. Restoring the peat bogs with sphagnum moss has been effective in helping them recover. The local government is subsidizing crofters that are restoring the peat bogs. In addition the Mainland is scheduled to shut down its last remaining fossil fuel electric power station next year and rely 100% on wind energy.
David Murray is an active crofter that is restoring the peat bogs on his croft.
A photo of me helping restore the peat bogs by planting sphagnum moss.
Our next stop was Carol’s Shetland ponies. The ponies have been native to the Shetlands for thousands of years. Because they are built low to the ground and are very strong they were ideal for hauling coal from the coal mines. A Shetland pony can haul twice their body weight. Horses can only haul half their body weight (according to Carol). Carol mentioned that the previous day she had nineteen tourist buses visit her ponies. Today there will be only eight buses. Most of her ponies were fifteen years old and can live to be 45 years old. The Shetland ponies can be exported around the world although there is limited demand. Unlike Iceland when a horse leaves the island it can never return, Scotland allows the Shetland ponies to return.
Some of Carol’s Shetland ponies.
Our final stop was the museum in Scolloway. This museum is dedicated to the Shetland Bus. The Shetland Bus was the code name for a special forces unit that harassed the Nazis in Norway in WWII. Fishing boats would deliver necessary supplies to the Norwegian underground. This kept many additional German troops in Norway that otherwise would have been transferred to the defense of Normandy. The Shetland Bus conducted 80 trips across the sea with the loss of ten boats and fourty-four crewmen.
We had some company in the harbor. The Celebrity Apex was anchored out. The ship holds 3,400 passengers and 1,300 crew. That is where the other bus loads of tourists came from. We were fortunate that we only had to share one port of call with another cruise ship.
The cruise ship Celebrity Apex in Lerwick Harbour.
There are still few telephone booths in the islands. There is at least one in Lerwick.
The schedule called for a day and night at sea in transit from the Shetlands to Edinburgh. This is about 330 miles. The same distance as it is from Chicago to Mackinac Island on Lake Michigan. The ship made very good time with a following sea. The Captain decided to drop anchor mid afternoon and launch all seven Zodiacs. There is a colony of seals nearby. We climbed into a Zodiac and found the seals. Out Tauck director brought along champagne to toast our good fortune in finding the seals. It was a nice surprise and bonus excursion.
We are off in our Zodiac in search of the colony of seals. We could hear them barking on the shore and several seals swam out to greet us.
We will spend another night at sea and arrive in Edinburgh in the morning. There is a farewell cocktail party planned with the Captain and crew tonight. Our luggage will be transferred to the Intercontinental George hotel and we will enjoy two days touring Edinburgh. It has been a lovely cruise with amazingly warm and sunny fall weather for Scotland.