Day 5 - Baltasound (35km's) - "As far north as you can go"

I knew that when i'd heard Monika pleading to get back on the bike that I'd overslept and been dreaming but hey with only 35 kms to cover today was an easy one and time to relax !

Our morning observations confirmed amongst other things the maddening habit of home builders / designers in the UK to build every damned shower control differently ! It took us 20 minutes to finally work out that we were not going to get any hot water no matter what we tried !

Our other observation was the prolonged spell of good weather we were currently experiencing ... the sun was out at 6.00a.m and amazingly 3 hours later it was actually still there !

Finally under way we cycled past one of Shetlands most unique  tourist destinations, Bobby's Bus shelter, a furnished bus shelter that comes complete with its own yearly theme as decided by the Shetland council. We'd cycled past it late yesterday afternoon in our rush to the local shop and took time out on our return to sign its very own visitors book !

A small climb and descent following brought us to the impressive viking lpboat replica just outside Haroldswick. Shetland is renowned for having more remains of Viking Long Houses than in the whole of Scandinavia.

From there we climbed steeply before eventually descending to Skaw, one house, a beach and a land mass that is recognized as the UK's most northerly inhabited outpost - for us it signified the starting point of our Scottish end to end which we commemorated by tge ceremonial dipping of our rear wheels into the frigid looking Nth Sea !

Tradition done (described by Monika as ridiculous) we climbed back from Skaw stopping for luch at the former RAF base of Saxa Vord a radar dome listening post for over 50 years that played its part during the cold war and now serves as a holiday resort destination (maybe for penguins) complete with its own chocolate making cafe !

The shortish return to Baltasound was an absolute delight in the sunny conditions even though the wind chill factor was still cold enough for both of us to be wearing 3 layers of upper clothing !

Not much to do in the evening other than to catch up on emails, tell Monika how great she's doing and plan our return tomorrow to Voe where hopefully we can payback Simon & Judith for their hospitality 2 nights back.