Cruise Day 24 - Stornaway, Scotland

Today we sailed into Stornaway, a town in the Lewis Isles, which is part of Scotland.

The initial view from our cabin was breathtaking in the morning sun. We had been blessed with yet another sunny day.

We were berthed in the "deep water terminal" about a 10 minute drive from the centre of Stornaway. Looking across, we could see the town and port, with Lews Castle in the background.

We had to get cleared by UK customs on the ship, a quick process, where all they did verify our passport photo looked like us. Then, we went ashore and caught a shuttle bus to town for our first excursion of the day.

We were booked for a ride on a RIB (Rubber Inflatable Boat. These are high spec, high speed boats. We were firstly kitted out in warm jackets, a bit like a giant sleeping bag with arms, and life jackets. Then it was all aboard! Helen and I were seated towards the back which was good as we could hear our guide clearly when he spoke.

Once we got moving, we pulled out of the port slowly, passing Lews Castle on the way.

Here's a view from our seats, and also a view of the second boat that contained the other half of our tour group. Of the two boats, ours was faster, with two motors instead of one, and our guide loved gunning it for fun!

We were taken out around many of the islands, where we were looking for various wildlife, mainly birds.

Out here there are many isolated hours, but what a beautiful setting to live in.

We saw many seals today, different to the grey seals we're used to seeing in New Zealand. Here is one rock with mum and pup.

And see how many seals you can count in this one photo!

We then went into deeper water looking for whales. There should have beeb whales about, as evidenced by the countless birds together in one spot. Sadly though the whales were shy today and didn't surface for us.

After a couple of hours, we headed back to port, this is where the extra speed of our boat was put to good use as the skipper weaved around the other boat and we had extra bumps in the water from their wake.

Coming back into port, we passed our own ship, along with a billionaire's yacht complete with helicopter.

We also got a nice view of the town from the water.

Once ashore, we had only one hour until an afternoon excursion we had booked. So we grabbed a quick bite of lunch from a nearly supermarket, and jumped a shuttle back to our ship. We had time to quickly takea toilet break change our clothes, then it was time to jump on a bus for a ride in the countryside..

We firstly visited Butt of Lewis lighthouse, at the most northern point if the Isle of Lewis. This is built of bricks, and very tall, out on rockly cliffs.

Next we visited the sleepy town of Ness, which has a small harbour where the tide had gone right out, leaving boats stranded dry. It also has a lovely white beach.

We then drove back to the ship, learning about local customs, most interestingly use of peet for keeping homes warm during winter by using it as fuel for inside fires.

Once back at the ship, we didn't wait long until sailing time. I caught a few last pictures as we sailed away.

I haven't visited Scotland since we live there in 2009. It was lovely to hear the Scottish accents again, and it all felt very familiar. Tomorrow we reach the UK mainland and visit Invergordon.

Cruise Day 23 - Runavik, Faroe Islands

After a full day at sea, today we stopped in at Faroe Islands.

The Faroe Islands are a self-governing archipelago of 18 volcanic islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, located roughly halfway between Iceland and Scotland. As an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, they feature a population of about 56,000 people.

We pulled into Runavik port to see mountainous shores, dotted with houses, surrounded by mist,

I noticed a road tunnel disappearing into the mountain side. More on that later!

Today we had an excursion booked to take a coach ride. We learned that 17 of 18 islands are connected with underwater tunnels. We made use of them, including an undersea roundabout!

I had not realised, but we were booked on a two hour boat ride. This was a comfortable boat, very modern with plenty.of seating inside and out. It was not raining, and although cold it was bearable outside where we could take the best photos.

The view of town from the water was quite picturesque. 

Soon we headed out the fjord toward open sea. 

The land has scars from its formation, and the cliffs are incredibly tall.

We went out in two boats. You can see the second boat in the photo below, to give the cliffs some scale. They are most impressive! We noticed sheep grazing up there on near-vertical sections. They must be some hardy sheep.

We went right inside some caves and caverns among the cliffs.

The rock formation below looks like an elephant and is incredibly high.

The ride continues out to see where we see logs of bird life amongst the cliffs. Surprisingly, we saw lots of puffins. Some were even catching fish. They are quite small birds, difficult to pbotograph.

Soon enough we were turned around and heading back to the wharf to find our bus waiting.

From here, we retraced out route to the ship, taking some different roads, which provided amazing views looking down on small settlements from road way up high on clifftops.

This photo shows the steep terrain, that is inhabited and farmed, with steep roads along the countryside.

We noticed some traditional houses which have a living grass roof.

After around 3.5 hours, we were back at the ship. Today is Sunday. We did a walk into town at Runavik but most shops were closed. I did purchase a locally made wool hat as a souvineer that I can actually use.

We returned to the ship where we had lunch, took part in some games on the ship, and had a small siesta.