It's surprising how little of our own country we have visited. This year, our year at home, we decided to make a start rectifying this.


Our first trip was to the Shetland Isles at the end of January to see the Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, which sits about as far north as St Petersburg, Helsinki or Anchorage. Now you might be thinking 'the Shetland Isles in January are they mad'? Well, I had exactly the same thought but Peter assured me it's not that cold although a bit windy.

We decided to take Bailey (our campervan) and get the ferry across. I contacted a campsite and booked us in and just casually asked about the ferry trip. All I got in reply was 'its January and it’s the North Sea’. This did rather worry me as it’s a 12-hour trip from Aberdeen so I chickened out and booked myself on the 1 hour flight. I think Peter was quite pleased as I am not the best of company when sea sick.

Up Helly Aa roughly means end of all holy days, referring to the Christmas festivities and although not the oldest fire festival it is considered the most spectacular anywhere in the world with a flaming long ship and a horde of latter-day Vikings.

The celebration is overseen by Guizer Jarl (the King for the day, with a different one chosen each year). His fifty or so heavily armed Norsemen drag a Long ship through the streets to the burning site. Up to 800 "guizers"(men in fancy dress) carrying a flaming torch to accompany the Jarl and his Norsemen. At the burning site the Jarl says a few rallying words and the 800 or so torches are thrown aboard the long ship and months of work goes up in smoke. With the burning over the revelry begins, with 12 halls around the town hosting Up-Helly-Aa parties. Squads made up of 24 or so guizers, visit the halls in rotation and entertain the audiences by singing, dancing, parodying local events or some topical satire. The highlight is the arrival of the Jarl and his squad. This partying continues all night until 8.00 the next morning.

You must apply to the Shetland Tourist Information Office to get tickets to one of the halls. The halls committee decide how many tickets are available to ‘outsiders’ and if lucky a hall contacts you directly and you can buy a ticket. We managed to get tickets to the Sound Primary School Hall on the edge of Lerwick.

Although the Lerwick festival has a rather Dark Ages flavour, it owes its origins to more recent history than the arrival of the Vikings some 1000 years ago. The festival is probably only around two-hundred years old, beginning after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, with the return of soldiers and sailors who, to relieve the boredom of dark winter days, celebrated rather boisterously with gun fire and even flaming tar barrels. These celebrations grew and got a bit out of hand and finally around 1870 civic control put a stop to the tar-barrelling and the event became more organised. Interest in Nordic and Icelandic sagas in the late 19th century resulted in the introduction of the Viking element including the long boat in the 1880s, the first Guizer Jarl in 1906 and after the First World War the squads of guisers.

We set of with Bailey packed with everything except the kitchen sink. At least that’s what it felt like. My excuse is that having never been so far north I was a little concerned about weather conditions and food availability. We had allowed ourselves a day and a half to drive to Aberdeen. Just south of Edinburgh we camped wild in a pub car park on the understanding with the manager that we would have a couple of drinks. Two beers and gin and orange later we retired with duvet and sleeping bags for a chilly night.

We awoke early and drove to Aberdeen through rain, sleet, snow and thick mist. Everything Scotland could throw at us. At Aberdeen Peter dropped me of for my cosy night at an airport hotel before he headed to the port and settled on board the ferry. His ferry ride was quite calm but he did end up sleeping on the floor as the seats and ‘pod’ (posh seat) he had bought were rather uncomfortable. My flight was in a small plane and quite noisy but happily very smooth. Taking off we passed over a beautiful patchwork Scottish landscape of bright green, brown ploughed and glistening frost covered fields. Peter was waiting for me outside the small Sumburgh airport in the very south of Shetland. The wind, as I left the airport, nearly blew me over. We drove down to the southernmost point and had a look around the Sumburgh lighthouse before retiring to Bailey for a very welcome hot tomato soup

Next day we popped into Lerwick and picked up a programme of the celebrations and our tickets for the overnight party. It was sunny so we decided to take advantage of this and drove over to the far west of the main island to have a look around. The island has a somewhat bleak appearance not helped by the lack of trees and its covering of blanket bog and tufted grass. A scattering of sheep manage to survive with the small cute looking Shetland ponies. The wind seems relentless but does apparently drop a little in the summer. So, a local informed us. The islands had been shaped by the glaciers that covered them leaving impressive valleys that run almost the length of the island.

Besides Lerwick, which is the main town, there are a surprising number of small villages. We were actually quite surprised at how populated the islands were with houses around every corner. They all have a community hall and a couple had a community shop. There was a leisure centre in the west side and we heard another of the islands also had a centre.

Next day we got up early and drove into Lerwick and found a place to park Bailey before roads were closed for the start of the celebrations. It was very windy and raining. It began at 9.00 with the Jarl and his Viking squad dragging the long ship through town to the harbour. They stopped on the way at the shopping centre and sung a couple of songs and had a quick dram. I grabbed one for a photo.

After another stop at the British Legion hall for breakfast they arrived at the town square at around 10.30 and inspected a large proclamation placed there. All this time they were accompanied by a band and lots of spectators. They then headed off to the Town Hall to receive the key to the town and then spent the time till early evening visiting schools, care homes and the hospital. That could have been a bit of a shock for the oldies! We headed back to Bailey and had a kip getting our strength up for the evening’s entertainment.

At 6.30, after a warming dinner, we dressed up in everything we had, as it was still raining and blowing a gale, and headed to the burning site. We only just managed to get a spot up against the wall surrounding the small park which holds the burning site.

After a good 30 minutes the black sky over the Town Hall turned red as the 800 or so torches were lit. It was quite a sight. The street lights were turned off and a firework with a loud bang announced the start of the procession. At its head was the Norse men dragging the long boat with the Jarl on board waving his shield and axe, followed by the 800-torch waving guisers. The light from the torches was blinding despite the wind make a good attempt at extinguishing the torches. Flying sparks from the torches were equally dazzling. The procession took a good 30 minutes to pass us and an hour before they all crowded into the small park and circled the long boat. The torches were thrown on the boat, the Jarl had jumped of by then, and the war cries of the guisers were almost drowned out by the roar of the fire engulfing the boat.

As the boat blazed the crowds drifted away, including ourselves, to retire to one of the 12 halls to await the squad’s visits. We drove out to the Sound primary school and changed from wet clothes to our most smart attire before heading in. The hall was packed. We were lucky that the Jarls squad arrived within an hour and entertained us with a couple of songs. They were very impressive if not a little sexy in their Viking attire. We managed to stay for a few other squads but finally gave in and retired to sleep in Bailey in the school car park. We awoke at around 7 as revelers were leaving. Obviously not light weights like us.

Next day we drove to the very north of the main island and set eyes on yet more blanket bog and tufted grass with the occasional Shetland pony and a number of sheep. At a small abandoned lighthouse, we enjoyed a walk along an imposing cliff which was being battered by fierce waves.

That evening Peter got an email advising of the earlier departure, the next day, of his ferry due to expected bad weather. Phew glad I had a plane ticket especially when Peter texted me from the ferry to say he was glad I wasn’t with him!