It's time I dipped a toe back in the water of do organisation!
I am pleased to announce that the venue for Island Do IV will be the
Shetland Isles which are the most northerly islands in the British Isles.
The dates are the 25-27th June 2010.
A bit about the islands
The Shetland islands are a group of approximately 100 islands, of which 15 of them are inhabited. For a long time owned by Norway, their culture and language is a lot more Norse than Scottish - Lerwick is closer to Oslo than to Edinburgh, and the Shetlanders are very aware of that.
They are somewhat barren - but have a substantial oil industry, which the council has wisely invested in infrastructure for the islands where possible. Main attractions are the wildlife, the archaeology, and just the way of life and remoteness....
Getting there
One carrier flies there - Loganair. If travelling from London, you'll have to come via EDI/GLA/ABZ. Loganair is currently a franchisee of Flybe, and there is a codeshare on BA if booking through from an international flight or from London. Sadly, for those of us based in Scotland, we can't
Please note that although the main town is Lerwick, the airport is at Sumburgh (LSI), which is about 30-40 mins from Lerwick.
There is also a flight between Sumburgh and Bergen.
The other option involves an overnight ferry from Aberdeen. Cabins can be booked.
One thing to note - Flybe/Loganair have not yet released their timetable for next summer, so the flights can not be booked yet
Cheapest base fare currently is £246 ai.
Accommodation
As those of you who have attended previous Island Dos know, Scottish provincial hotels can be well interesting. Don't be expecting anything too palatial, and certainly nothing that will get you points. We seem to have three options for accomodation:
- staying in the main town of Lerwick. There's one hotel which stands out, but obviously staying in the town does allow a bit more freedom for hotels.
- staying at one of rural hotels - one is really standing out for me, but we are obviously more remote for Lerwick night life. Those of you who saw Kirkwall night life might think this is a good thing.. and the bar does have a good reputation for malts.
- trying to find self-catering accommodation. This would be ultimate freedom and would give us the opportunity to have a BBQ, weather permitting. It should be noted that my first ever gale force 9 occurred on June on one of the these islands
Activities
I'm planning on trying to organise a boat tour for some scenery/wildlife watching. We could either go on as a group on a scheduled trip, or, if we have enough interest, try to get our own tour. Shetland has some of the biggest seabird colonies in the UK, tonnes of seals, otters are reasonably common -and there are always the ubiquitous ponies! Whales and other cetaceans are also a possibility.
We'll probably try and visit some of the other islands - and there's some great historic monuments as well. And as always, there will be plenty of opportunity for you guys to tell me what you want to do.
Look forward to seeing you there! And of course this thread will be updated as and when more arrangements are confirmed - and watch out for a forthcoming poll on accommodation options.
