Hotel @nyware

 2020-What a year! Yellowstone National Park (WY not?), Fair Isle, Scotland , (Shetland)  Dover, England  (White Cliffs) via  Orlando (Disney) and South Florida. It started with Christmas and New Years sailaways on Disney Cruise Lines in The Eastern and Western Caribbean.  Then Covid hit, and travel changed forever...Yet we  managed to finish the year out on Britain's most remote inhabited island, population 45, taking physical distancing Uber seriously. Yellowstone National Park USA It was the best of vibes. It was the worst of vibes. We waited for 2020 to have that perfect vision.  Nobody could predict what they'd be seeing and doing this year- washing their hands, wearing a mask and social distancing because of the global pandemic. Normally, we would be sailing in the Norwegian Fjords, The Baltics or  through Alaska's wildlife super highway, Glacier Bay.Tis the season but all fleets have come to a grinding halt.   View th...

 

My Sheeple Set in the middle of the North Atlantic, 38km (23mi) from  Shetland  and 43km (27mi) from  Orkney , Fair Isle is as far away from civilization as it’s possible to get in the British Isles. Measuring barely five kilometers across and two kilometers wide, the island is home to a tiny permanent population of just 45 people. In fact, it’s the most remote inhabited place in the UK. Sarah at The South Lighthouse Malcom's Head One of the flock

 Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There’s a human story at every lighthouse; that’s the story Dave wants to tell. South Light on Fair Isle is a pharologist's*  delight - a superb  example of a 'Stevenson Lighthouse', one of many around the shores of mainland Scotland and the isles, built in1891 by this famous and prolific family of Scottish engineers. (*pharology - the study of lighthouses!).Designed and built in 1891 by David A. and Charles Stevenson (cousin of author Robert Louis Stevenson) it entered service in 1892. The lighthouse tower at 85 feet is the tallest one in Shetland and there are 106 steps to the top. In 1998 it became the last lighthouse in Scotland to be automated. Its foghorn - also Scotland's last - was dismantled in 2005. Its light is still operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board and the beam, consisting of 4 flashes every 30 seconds, can be seen from at least as far as Orkney - some 25 miles away across open sea.

Hiking Malcom's Head, taking in some of the best coastal scenery and features on Fair Isle.

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)

  Today is known as a Given Day on Fair Isle-storm over, sun is out and the wind  has dropped. The boat came in with fresh provisions. The whole island got excited. There was a traffic jam (4 cars) at the store.

  Ice  Bathing  give your skin and hair a healthy glow, and we were gonna go for it in the chilly North Atlantic. Even though we are on the same longitude as Cape Farewell, Greenland, and closer to Bergan, Norway than Edenborough, Scotland- we made our first attempt. We had to cancel because the currents were too strong. Will revisit when the weather cooperates. 

Shetland sheep are a solid and hardy breed of sheep from the Shetland Islands. The extreme weather conditions  today reminds me how amazingly adaptable they are to their environment.  The rough grazing on  Fair Isle has resulted in the breed being super resilient.  They can be kept outside year round, without the need for winter housing. The wool of Shetland sheep is highly prized. It is, perhaps most famously, used to make Fair Isle sweaters.