29.09.2011 – 29.09.2011  14 °C

Last day on the Shetland’s today with us flying back to the mainland in the arvo. We spent the morning still trying to glimpse our elusive otters! We went for another drive up to the top of the main island to the ferry terminal, (at the urging of the owner of our house), as apparently the otters who live near the terminals are more used to humans and therefore are easier to spot.

We spent a good half an hour sitting quietly on rocks scanning the surrounding rocks and crevices for any signs of life…. We saw more sea birds, plenty of floating sea weed (which got us excited every time as we thought they might have been otters) and of course a seal but still no otters….. Damn… We finally gave up the chase and drove back down to Lerwick to see the Shetland’s Museum.

The museum had some interesting artefacts and some interesting legends. Apparently there are small creatures living on the islands called Trowes. These elusive creatures live in small caves (called Trowie Knowes) and come out at night to kidnap wary musicians as the Trowes love music and are unable to make their own. The other interesting legend is about the Nuggle. It is a water horse and lives underneath water wheels. Unfortunately sightings of the Nuggle have faded on the Shetlands due to the fact that the last working water wheel was decommissioned over 40 years ago.. It is likely that the Nuggle has left the Shetland Islands for ever….

We finally left the museum with the plan of trying one more likely otter spot before we needed to head to the airport to catch our 4.30pm plane. We arrived at the most likely spot (we had been to so far) as it was low tide (easier to spot the little critters when they are walking around the sea weed beds) and the bay had a small fresh water stream feeding into it. (Sea otters need fresh water to clean themselves in to keep their coats clean.) Our bay had all of the hall marks for definite otter spotting and again we were bitterly disappointed… We saw plenty of seals, sea birds and even a stray water rat but no otters!!!!!! By now, we had really run out of otter spotting time and had to make our way to the airport for our 1 hr trip back to the mainland. So with that, we left the Shetlands without seeing an otter or a puffin…………….. (I guess that means that I’ll just have to come back… what a shame!  )