The long and short of a caravan holiday in Shetland in 2021 is that
(a) it's very expensive to take car and caravan there (the overnight return ferry cost, with a cabin and evening meal, would be about £750); and
(b) there isn't anywhere to securely pitch my caravan. There's no equivalent to the staffed and gated Caravan Club sites I'm used to on the mainland of Great Britain. The thought of returning from a long day out to find that somebody has busted the door lock on my caravan and rifled its contents is highly disturbing! The intruders wouldn't have found anything worth stealing - I'd have all that with me in the car, or on my person - but the casual violation of my space, the damage done, and the prospect of further break-ins, with no simple escape to another site, would all spoil the holiday.
But there is hope. I've come across this online article by Shetland News, reporting a plan to construct a proper caravan site in central Shetland, in the valley north of Scalloway. The article was published in March this year, and will have been on hold since then, because of the pandemic, but it would fill a yawning gap in Shetland's holiday facilities and will surely go ahead:
I've marked its rough position in on the maps below, with a yellow blob:
This will be the kind of place I'd want. Coming off the ferry at Lerwick, it would only be a short tow across to the site, on good roads too. I'd be close to the action at Lerwick (meaning the best shops, and good places to eat, rather than the latest murder enquiry and getting sucked into Inspector Jimmy Perez's lovelife). And I'd be equally distant from the northern and southern parts of Shetland.
I will watch events! With this new site in the pipeline, I think I could wait a while yet before taking the caravan all that way north.
Maybe it will be Fiona's last major trip? Or the first for her all-electric successor?
So 2021 is still a 'Scotland Year', but south-west Scotland - Galloway - is back on the agenda. After a week in Fife, I'll base myself first at Ayr, then at ultra-quiet New England Bay, south of Stranraer. I can easily reach Largs and Wemyss Bay from Ayr, with the prospect of visiting Great Cumbrae island and Rothesay, two Clyde adventures well within my reach. How can one not go to Rothesay, given the opportunity?
Ayr is also a good spot for exploring Burns Country. Not being poetical, this has limited meaning for me, but again, how can one not take a look at the places where Rabbie got his inspiration? Mind you, we've already met. Here I am, cuddling up to the Great Man, at the Birks of Aberfeldy in 2015. Pictures taken with my little Leica, courtesy of friend Coline:
As you can see, despite all my seductive embraces, I could not wake him from his poetic trance. Of course, it was here, in this very spot, that he composed his most famous love poem:
Ah, the Birks!
Where the wee beastie lurks!
Where yon waterfalls thunder
As I watch them in wonder!
Thinking aye of the seasons,
And all of the reasons
Why my love comes not
To this beautiful spot.
Why she sits not with me
In the shade of the tree:
Twa hearts as one,
Twa souls entwined;
But it canna be,
For she changed her mind.
Immortal, sensitive verse, totally original in its rendition of pain and ecstasy combined; another of his wry insights into the human condition, and so well expressed in the lilting cadences of his native Ayrshire. I wish I could write like that.
