Monday June 30

Today we went on another trip in the car to the south part of mainland Shetland...to see some more puffins. We gave Pilar a lift to Lerwick where she spent the day on vacation. If I haven't mentioned, Pilar is the other volunteer here...she is originally from Spain but is currently living in London. So Sara was behind the wheel again doing good. After dropping Pilar off, Sara decided that was enough of "city" driving with more intersections and roundabouts...so we got out of town quickly.

Here's the road that Sara prefers to drive on here:
Sheep in the road and sheep poop also in the road.



The one was thoroughly disgusted with my photo taking:


We continued driving south and came to Sumburgh (pronounced sum-burrow) Head...the southernmost tip of mainland Shetland. This is where we came to see the puffins. We parked right by the 2 little dots at the 9:00 position of the photo, then hiked out to the edge of the cliff along the fence line.






At the edge, here is what we saw:






And then this...only about 3-4 feet away


Enjoy these pictures!













































Here's Sara taking her amazing photos:


More pictures from the cliffs;











Here are some videos of the little puffins:

I forgot to mention that on the way to Sumburgh Head, the road we were on actually crossed over the airport landing strip. We were really hoping that a plane was neither taking off or landing at that moment.

As we approached the runway:



As we drove over it!!:


After the puffins, we went to an amazing prehistoric archeological site called Jarlsfhof. There are several different time periods represented here...each civilazation built their on top of the other...so the site is sort of layered. The oldest civilazation that was here goes back to more than 2000 BC...which is impossible to comprehend....that's more than 4000 years ago. Here are some photos from that time period. Click on the photo with the text to enlarge it and it will tell you details about that time period.














This is a grinding stone...a large mortar and pestle:














Throughout these photos, check out the stacked stone walls...they have no mortar or anything holding them together...just amazingly stacked to withstand thousands of years.




















Check out the wording on the sign:




















































This is the point where the structures took on rectangular shapes rather than curves and circles:





































As you look at this photo you get the span of more than 4000 years of civilazation:







We stopped for dinner at a hotel...not impressive. Then drove to St. Ninnian's Isle and the beach there.The connecting sand strip is a natural beach and is called a tumbolo:















Then on to the B and B where we are staying tonight. The lady here is very nice. Here are some views from my bedroom window:












The next 3 pictures are from my bedroom...just different times. This is simmer dim:


11:00 PM:



2:30 AM:




6:30 AM



Here was my cup of tea & biscuit prior to breakfast. It was self-serve.



The self-serve was situated in the closet. We're again talking resourcefulness


Outside in the garden of the B & B:

Location:south mainland, Shetland