1. TRAIN Gilshochil- Queen Street. 13 mins
2. TRAIN Queen Street- Aberdeen. 2 1/2Hrs
3. FERRY Aberdeen- Lerwick. 12 hrs (overnight)
4. BUS Lerwick- Toft. 40 mins
5. FERRY Toft- Ulsta. 20mins
6. BUS Ulsta- Gutcher. 25 mins
7. FERRY Gutcher- Belmont. 10 mins
8. BUS Belmont- Baltasaound. 10 mins
An epic 22 hour adventure! The plane is more expensive and easier but also there is no bus, repeat, NO BUS to meet the plane from Glasgow. Are they trying to tell us something? So no plane unless I can get a lift.
HOWEVER, yesterday on the Shetland leg of my journey I cleverly fell asleep in the middle of Step 5, the Toft -Ulsta ferry. The night before I hadn't got to sleep till 1am and then some drunk tit came into his bunk (shared cabins like a floating youth hostel) at 3am and fannyed about for a while! Basterd! Ages to get back to sleep then up at 6.30 in a "bing-bong" hi-de-hi style "get-oot-yer-bed" announcement.
So asleep I fall on the middle-sized ferry waking up to see us docked at the isle of Yell with no idea how long we'd been there or if we were about to shove off again. I ran down just in time to have two deck hands point at me and laugh. Missed the bus. Fuct!
Luckily there were two cooncil lorries parked at the shop. I managed to hitch a lift from Lowrie, a workie from the North Mainland.
He was going to MY STREET! (well, the airstrip round the corner from my street.) He even gave me coffee and biscuits as we awaited the peerie (wee) ferry. Braw!
BTW, the way I found out there was no bus at Sumburgh to meet the Glasgow plane was by arriving at Sumburgh on the Glasgow plane and standing there like a pure diddy. Sumburgh is in the extreme south of the islands and I live in the extreme north.
(see map A=Sumburgh Airport, B= My House .) If I'd waited for the next bus, 3 hours later, I would have missed ALL my connections home. Had to get a cab to Lerwick where the bus to Toft left 5 minutes early "as it normally does" I was informed by a helpful memeber of station staff. I hitched a lift from a council electrician. I told him I was off to the ferry to meet my wife who was at a workshop in the Bonhoga Gallery- so he took me there!Not since I was a child have I had so much fun getting into cars with strange men.
3 comments:
Aye well, at least you are here now.....it looks a bit like you got a lift from your Shetland 'Dad'. he def got the look of Jackie about him. Good old Lowrie!
Now, Earl would have recognised the drunk guy on late-night public transport for what he is - Karma! You once told me how in the space of a month you went from being appalled by all the drunk Scots on the London Underground, to being a drunk Scot on the London Underground. And before you accuse people in glass houses of chucking half-bricks, yes I have woken up in Yoker Depot after falling asleep pished on the last Helensburgh train.
Quite right, but I would have the decency to check into my room, make my bed and lay a trail of pebbles to the bar before I get totally pished. That way it's just a simple falling over at the right angle.x.
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