Just spent a few days at the northern most part of Britain without an internet connection or mobile coverage.
So far in the Shetlands I’ve hung out with a Kiwi guy who tracked down the bay his family rowed out of when they set of for NZ in 1840. Chewed the fat with some chaps who spend five weeks every summer living like Vikings. And seen more puffins than I could poke a stick at.
Two observations – they’re smaller than I thought they’d be. And every time they try to fly it looks like something you’d see on Australia’s Funniest Home Videos.
The puffins, that is. Not the Vikings.
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Apparently, puffins’ beaks naturally fall off every now and then and they grow new ones. You never see that on postcards!
Glad you’re having a good time up there, hope the weather is holding out.
This meeting with puffins has given me an idea for your quest to find out how the English tick. You then must find an English twitcher and hang out with them for at least 24 hours and write about bird watching in the UK. That hobby is quintessentially English (although I admit to birdwatching here in Canberra).
Puffins eh, strange birds actually related to flamingoes, We had a nest of them on our Rig last year. Well on ur way home from Shetland pop in past Aberdeen and I shall buy you a pint and show you some real birds
You need to come south. It’s the only sensible thing to do. Manchester is a good place to be, if only it would stop raining, still it’s warmed up recently. E
There’s loads to do here. You can drink a beer that’s brewed in and only sold in Manchester. There’s the John Ryelands Library that has hundreds of old books, we have our own version of the London Eye, loads of architecture, the largest public park in Europe and loads of friendly people. We have an airbed to stay on as long as you arrive before we leave for the winter in the middle October
Bryan – left Aberdeen the day you posted the column. Bugger! Maybe up that way again so I’ll drop you a line. I never say no to a free beer!
Debs – Manchester is on my list. I’ll email you closer to my arrival to see if that airbed is still available – and that you haven’t fled the country earlier!