Day 15 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2023 The Third – British Isles Edition: The Shetlands

Where I Get To Scratch A Pony’s Head. That Is All.

The weather forecast for today was not good – on and off rain and wind. Our lucky streak of fantastic weather bit the dust.

We were scheduled for the noonish slot for the included schedule, because our originally booked schedule was canceled due to the aforementioned predicted weather. Another excursion involving a boat was also canceled.

Knowing all this, I fully intended to bring a mask to help deal with the wind. I’ve always had an issue with gusty wind – I tend to involuntarily flip into hyperventilation in the midst of all that air coming at me. Many years ago I read somewhere this is an artifact of asthma, which I have. So I really, really intended to bring a mask.

Which apparently did not happen, as it was not in my purse. The walk from the gangplank to the bus was agony. One of the port workers came over to walk with me (I think she was concerned I was about to drop, and she wasn’t wrong). I managed to choke out, “It’s a bit windy!”. She replied, “This isn’t WIND! This is just wash drying wind!”, which mad me laugh, which was actually not a good idea, since I didn’t have enough air to both laugh and walk.

Once on the bus, I was not keen to get off the bus again.

The countryside here is as beautiful as everywhere else we’ve been so far. There was one quick photo op stop – Andy did the honors.

We arrived at the main event about 15 minutes later – a Shetland Pony breeder, Carol (no idea her last name), has a few ponies in a pen by the side of the road. We got to touch them – they like head and butt scratches just like dogs do. We were explicitly told NOT to feed them, but of course I watched as one woman pulled some grass and fed it to a pony who also did not listen to the instructions. Fortunately, the pony was after the grass and not her fingers.

Carol made sure to mention that they are NOT FAT nor are they PREGNANT. The round bellies are all muscle. These are work horses, bred to pull more than twice their weight. Though they are not work horses any more. They spend their time roaming the fields and every once in a while get stuck in a pen so these strangers can scratch their heads and butts.

A few more bucolic scenes:

Once back at the ship, I made a beeline for the gangplank. Andy took the shuttle into the town of Lerwick (the size of a postage stamp), and walked around a bit.

He visited Fort Charlotte, which was built 350 years ago. I think that’s the Viking Venus in the background. My guess is that ship is on the same itinerary, but in the opposite direction (i.e. the ship just came from Bergen, Norway yesterday).