Jump to content

Another extreme event! Shetland, June 2009


Recommended Posts

Another extreme event! Shetland, June 2009, Dare you visit the UK's most northerly point? (Go on, you know you want to)

 

After St Kilda (most westerly cache/event) in 2007 and St Agnes (UK's furthest south cache/event) in 2008 it was either east to Lowestoft or north to Unst in the Shetlands for an extreme event in 2009. You'll understand why I thought the Shetlands are the ones to go for! :lol:

 

Provisional date: Saturday June 20th 2009, 2pm at Herma Ness, northern tip of Unst

 

To do a circular tour of all the islands with a cache on them, of both Shetland and Orkney, I'll be travelling to the north of Scotland (picking up caches along the way) and crossing by ferry to Stromness, spending a couple of days caching and exploring Orkney and then catching a further ferry to Lerwick on Shetland. Another day cache-ploring and two short ferry rides (including one that's free, bizarrely) will get me to Unst for the day. As everything shuts down on Sunday -inc. ferries- I plan to be back on the 'mainland' of Shetland by Saturday evening, to spend Sunday there. I intend to sail back from Lerwick direct to Aberdeen, and then back south...

 

More information will follow as and when I have it- especially when the event can be listed, just before Christmas! :D

 

It's a piggin' long way, so I'm not expecting as many people (10 St Kilda, 9 St Agnes) will want to come, but it'd be nice to have some company, especially if a car share is possible. :D

 

Edited to make a couple of points clearer

Edited by Simply Paul
Link to comment

I'm gonna post a tentative, dubious WILL ATTEND on this one. I've always wanted to go the Shetlands, and looked at overnight ferries from Aberdeen to Lerwick a couple of years ago. Golf at midnight in midsummer! There's also planes to... Wick, I think? And Lerwick, too.

 

Cracking idea SP - ya loon :D

Link to comment

I looked at flying up as it'd be cheaper/quicker/safer, but then getting out to cache locations might be a problem. I suppose there's cycle hire or the occasional bus... There's also accommodation. I can drive with a tent in the car, and if the weather is really bad, I can sleep in the car instead. It provides power to charge caching equipment and gives a lot of freedom of movement. The flipside is if I can fit a couple of extra folk in the car it'll be cheaper per person for petrol and ferries than flying would be (I think- I need to double check my maths)

Edited by Simply Paul
Link to comment

I looked at flying up as it'd be cheaper/quicker/safer, but then getting out to cache locations might be a problem. I suppose there's cycle hire or the occasional bus... There's also accommodation. I can drive with a tent in the car, and if the weather is really bad, I can sleep in the car instead. It provides power to charge caching equipment and gives a lot of freedom of movement. The flipside is if I can fit a couple of extra folk in the car it'll be cheaper per person for petrol and ferries than flying would be (I think- I need to double check my maths)

I thought you were meaning Car Hire in the original post. I looked it up before and there are a Several Places in Lerwick. That doesn't however take into account the Orkneys which i'd not thought about but there are some there too. Will have to do the maths nearer the time.

Link to comment

The ONLY direct flights are from Stansted with ATLANTIC AIRWAYS FAROE ISLANDS

Fares GBP110.00 plus tax so about GBP150.00

Flights Mondays and Fridays only landing at SUMBURGH - LOCATION : 25MLS/40KMS S OF LERWICK

 

Or BA from LHR/LGW with a plane change at Aberdeen.I'd say about GBP80.00 more,

so about GBP230.00 incl taxes,but daily and various timings too.

 

:rolleyes:

Link to comment

Option 2- Fly to Inverness from Luton (easyjet, £60 return, ish- they're only giving prices to March 09 at the moment) and hire a car there? Saves a day travelling each way and all that petrol. Also, this way the mainland caches aren't out-of-bounds; it'd be nice to do Dunnet Head and those around John o'Groats, just to say I had.

 

Anyway, as has been said, it's a long way off and these details can be set much later in the day

Edited by Simply Paul
Link to comment

What a fantastic trip you've got in store.

 

We did the Orkney bit of it at Christmas and then the Shetland bit this easter.

 

For Orkney, we drove to Scrabster and got the ferry to Stromness ( 1.5hrs ) which is a really quaint likkle spot with tiny narrow cobbled streets. We did the two regular caches but ran out of time for the virtual as we only had a day and a bit before the return ferry.

 

For Shetland, we got the ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall. It takes 12 hours and you can either get a cabin, or do a cheapie like we did and just get a reclining seat in the quiet lounge which is free within the cost of your ticket. Actually, many didn't sleep in the quiet lounge but flaked out wherever there was a comfy flat spot in the bars and other seating areas.

 

Shetland was great, we didn't hang around for breakfast on the ferry and headed off as soon as we docked, heading right to Unst, the ferries went like clockwork. The ferry over to Yell was waiting on us and we rolled straight on and set off for the 20 minute trip over, costing the grand sum of £12.00!

 

Then drove across Yell to catch the next free ferry over to Unst which takes all of 10 minutes.

 

We missed only 1 of the available caches due to lack of time as we reckoned it would take half a day for us to get there and do the walk and there was too much else to see in our short trip.

 

A must see is the RSPB nature reserve at Sumburgh Head and there is now a new cache placed nearby since we visited!

 

This is such a worthwhile trip and hope that whoever goes, you all have a great time.

Link to comment
if the shetlands are a little out of reach as an event place. may i suggest caithness for the event?

plenty of caches around plus new ones on the cards.

The fact they're a 'little' out of the way is pretty much the reason to hold an 'extreme' event there! However, it's been usual to hold a much more accessible event shortly afterwards, so I'll keep Caithness in mind for that. Thanks for the suggestion :rolleyes:
Link to comment

I'm sure you'll have a great time!

 

Adam & I won't be along for the trip as we've 'done' Shetland (& we've booked an Isle Of Man trip next summer).

 

We decided to drive to Aberdeen over the space of 2 days (handy sister-in-law near Newcastle to put us up) and get the overnight ferry. But then, I don't mind a long drive.

 

Lisa

Link to comment
Another extreme event! Shetland, June 2009, Dare you visit the UK's most northerly point? (Go on, you know you want to)

exploring Orkney

I'd love to go there one day and take a photo at the "Twatt" sign :P<_<
What, this one? (Seems popular!) Well, what are you up to in June next year? Part of the reason for holding these events is giving people an excuse to do something they might just need an excuse to do... :D
Link to comment
Another extreme event! Shetland, June 2009, Dare you visit the UK's most northerly point? (Go on, you know you want to)

exploring Orkney

I'd love to go there one day and take a photo at the "Twatt" sign :P<_<
What, this one? (Seems popular!)

 

It's the perfect location for a magnetic micro, but a Mystery cache with additional logging requirements (photographic proof of visit required :D ).

Link to comment

Won't be able to make the event but do go to the Shetlands to see the outlaws every 18 months. Am planning to place a few caches there at Christmas as there won't be enough caching activity for me otherwise. Shetlands is a very nice place btw and would recommend going there. If anyone needs any info about the Shetlands I'll see what I can do. My father-in-law knows virtually everything that goes on in Shetland.

Link to comment

Ahhhh... brings back memories that description of the route: the same that we took after the St Kilda event last year! Although we did do it a bit quicker than you describe. We got to Scrabster and decided to book the ferries there and then. It did cost more than 200 pounds for the round trip to Orkney, onto Shetland and then Aberdeen.

 

The following morning we got the ferry to Stromness. We had twelve hours until the overnight ferry from Kirkwall to Lerwick and managed to do the three caches that were there at the time (one crossing a causeway) and explore the island. In particular we went around the Churchill Barriers and Scapa Flow; the Itailian PoW church made out of an Anderson shelter is not to be missed.

 

So off we went to Shetland staying for a night at the campsite in Lerwick owned by the sports centre (built with the money from North Sea oil). Lots of exploring and walking around Esha Ness, Scousburgh (where the NATO communications ACE High antennas had just been cut down) and Samburgh Head, but we missed Unst and the furthest north cache. C managed to lock us out of the camper in the morning but the local garage was very good helping us get back in. Back on the overnight ferry to Aberdeen and then we drove down to the Snowdonia event.

 

It was a great trip even after the magic of St Kilda and the Western Isles. We think we could be up for this trip too. Although we explored a lot of the two main islands it would be nice to go back, spend more time there, visit some of the smaller islands and get the new caches that have popped up that way since,

 

Helen and Carolyn

 

PS C is starting on the proper log for the St Kilda event now but don't hold your breath <_<

Link to comment

JUST FOR CLARIFICATION FOLKS, NOTHING 'EXTREME' ABOUT THIS EVENT CACHE !

 

This certainly could be regarded as an 'adventure'....... catching public transport and/ or driving vast distances but hardly warrants the title 'Extreme' !!!!!

For 'EXTREME CACHING' it maybe worthwhile visiting the following bookmark listing which details the hard work and daring carried out by cachers prepared to 'push the envelope' to develop new caches somewhat different from your communal garden trad cache.

Extreme Caches :---------

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.a...ae-e0f56c7c6c5c

 

Cache safely now, no cache is worth dying for !!!!!

:D<_<:P:D:D:DB)

Link to comment

JUST FOR CLARIFICATION FOLKS, NOTHING 'EXTREME' ABOUT THIS EVENT CACHE !

<snip>

hardly warrants the title 'Extreme' !!!!!

I dunno how much of your tongue was in your cheek when you posted that :P , but......

 

Extreme

definition: most distant in any direction; eg "the extreme edge of town"

 

The most northerly point of the UK. Yep, that's extreme <_<

Link to comment

Hi Paul,

 

We hope to join you on this little jaunt - if there are any special boat trips (like St K) please let us know.

We were there in 2006 and did all caches that were there then. It was so good that we (H really) could be enticed back, and we need to revisit Orkney as we have only been there in our pre-caching days.

 

Cheers, L&H

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...