Our 'Off Grid' PVC Tour Of Shetland - Info Heavy (1 Viewer)

[Blue Knight]

G. General Points:

1. Ferry Access: It's fair to say that I saw a few long & low motorhomes enter and exit the various ferries and none of them struggled with their low bodywork etc. The Shetland ferry system is well set up for any rig so that is one point that you won't need to worry about.

2. Road Conditions: Simply put "they are fantatsic". There's no potholes and the surfaces are modern and grippy in all but the most out of the way tracks.

3. Size of the roads: This is where the PVC-thing really comes into its own as I would not want to transit some of the outlying tracks in anything bigger than our Globecar. Our previous 7.5m long Pilote P740GJ with its huge rear end and wide body would have been a dangerous liability on some of the roads we travelled, namely the roads that take you to the coastline from the main connecting arterial routes. The Globecar @ 2.05m wide filled the single track roads completely (on most occassions) and with the majority being edged by 3ft deep water gullies then coming off the road was just not an option. Here's a few pics of what to expect.

Note: The system of passing places in Shetland is second to none (very well thought out) but they are well needed when the Lewis Hamilton's of the Shetland community come at you from around the corner; everyone waves BTW which is a very nice experience:

4. Larger motorhomes: We saw a few motorhomes on Shetland but the majority were German, Dutch or Italian as, IMO, it appears that Brits can't be bothered to be adventurous anymore. I appreciate the fact that Shetland is not for everyone but it's a sad reflection when it looks as if the British have lost their zest for proper adventuring. That said, I didn't see any of the conventional motorhomes 'wildcamp' in our selected areas so at least the PVC owners will achieve a degree of peace, quiet and privacy on their travels.

5. Official Campsites and CL-style locations: We came across a few of them on our travels but I think the total number is between 12-14 between the 4 main islands (Mainland, Unst, Yell and Bressay). The prices vary between £10 and £18 and all come with toilets, EHU, water, tidy pitches and often stunning views. Example: The site at West Collafirth has showers, washing machines and a small cooking bench with microwaves and kettles etc - and all for £10 plus 2-quid for the washing machine and the tumbledryer. This is a pic of West Collafirth albeit we didn't use EHU and stayed off-grid for our 1-Night stay:

6. Vegetation: Shetland has two or three trees, possibly four, and no brambles or hedges so the only thing which you really need to focus on while driving is the sheep in the road; the cattle grids and the roadside ditches. We reached almost every part of the four main islands and never once did we have to worry about scratching the van while driving.

7. Road Lighting: I can't really call it street lighting as there is no streets but be sure to bed-down by the time it gets dark as the road layout can be unforgiving at night and for the most there is a total absence of road illumination. I am as sharp as the next motorhome driver but there are a number of roads which I just wouldn't wish to transit at night - enough said.

8. People: It's important to the locals that you see them as Shetlanders with their own unique history and not as Scottish. They are immensely proud of their identities and if you engage with them positively then you'll soon make new mates for life. They will help you with anything and everything but you have to ask!

9. Weather: We arrived on Shetland to find that our BBC weather app was displaying 12-days of solid rain to come. Great eh!!

As it transpired the weather app was utter twonk and over the next 12-days of predicted bad weather we only had two days of on-off rain; a couple of windy days and three windy-wet nights. The rest of the time was fantatsic with solid sunshine and blue skies.

I spoke with half a dozen Shetlanders who told me that in their opinion the weather guys don't give two hoots about the accuracy of the weather in Shetland since there's only 23,000 people. It was a funny comment but by the end of the trip I started to believe them.

Time for a coffee I think

 

[Just smiffy]

Excellent thread.... probably inspired me to do the one and only uk trip I’ll likely want to do....

thanks for your detailed posts....

Looking forward to more..??

 

[Blue Knight]

We're now on our way to Shetland again guys.

We left Durham today and are now in Laggan for the night before our hop tomorrow to Scrabster and then onward to Orkney, arriving Shetland AM Monday.

I've just screen-shot the BBC weather forecast for the next 12-days so we'll really see how accurate the BBC app is for Shetland.

The sea conditions are not looking great though.

Footnote: I'll write a few more notes on our first trip to Shetland in the next post.

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[Blue Knight]

H. The Big Test - How did our PVC and its various modifications hold up?

To set the scene: We've done well to choose this particular 6.36m long Globecar with its fresh interior and versatile modern layout but, in all honesty, it would have been fairly useless in Shetland as an 'off-grid' vehicle if it was still in its original dealer-supplied guise, i.e. 1 x Varta LA95 AGM and a single calor 6kg bottle.

Modifications: I've added 2 x Varta L36EFB's to the main hab system and have subsequently moved the original LA95 to the rear of the van to work as a seperate standalone battery to help support the TV, puddle lights and secondary 12v charging points. I can interchange the 120W solar-charge between the two hab circuits which in real terms means that I have the LA95 AGM charging while driving (direct from the CBE Reg) and the two L36's connected while stationary.

Our 12v-only compressor fridge is a fantatsic bit of kit but it's happy to zap the juice so IMO the new battery set-up was deemed vital to help support our off-grid needs - for now! That being said, our first Shetland trip (late August and September) consisted of lots of driving and many nice sunny days so it'll be interesting to see how our October trip compares with much less driving and a lot less sun. I think we'll need to top up on a site every few days but that's TBC.

Insulation: I've also stripped back our new van to add YBS thermal wrap insulation to just about every nook and cranny possible. A few people initially criticised my 'over-the-top' insulation upgrades but as it transpired it has worked wonders in keeping the heat in, and the cold out in a place like Shetland and the Highlands.

We've also added a 2 x 11kg Gaslow system which as we've discovered uses very little gas now that the van is 'super insulated'.

The front windscreen has both an external and internal thermal screen fitted while the double glazed pod windows in the rear doors and the ceiling lights all have bespoke thermal screens which I designed from the YBS thermal wrap. They work exceedingly well in the cold and windy places but they do take 5-minutes to fit every night; what's 5-minutes eh ;-)

Van length @ 6.36m: The width (2.05m) is perfect for adventuring in places like Shetland (and the outer parts of the Highlands and Islands), but I almost came a cropper twice when I ventured down tracks that seemed to vanish into thin air. If the truth be known I got a wee bit cocky with my adventuring style and after one incident involving a 16-point turn, 12-inches between two 4-foot deep water ditches and a cattle grid, and in the arse-end of nowhere; then this enticed me to be a bit more careful. The 6.36m long PVC is great for our logistic needs but IMO the true optimum size would be 6m for places like this.

I ran the tyres at 80PSI (tyrepal monitored) and the VB-Air at 2-bar which proved to be a rock solid platform on the small roads; even the high crosswinds were dissipated quickly as the van was so well balanced. Nicky and I both mentioned it a few times on our travels that our previous 7.5m long Pilote, with its huge unstable rear overhang would have been the end of us in such heavy winds.

I saw one 18-plate Elddis 255 trying to access some of the smaller tracks but in the end the driver gave up as I reckon he knew full well that a lightweight long-chubby Elddis was not going to win the battle in those winds and down those types of tracks. He then withdrew to his campsite with its EHU, fresh water supply and shower block

Water: It's safe to say that we were really disciplined with our water consumption levels but even so the standard 80-litre fresh tank was just about fine for our needs and lasted 5-6 days. We did add 12-litres of containered water as an emergency plan but we've now added a further 30-litres for this second trip so we're now running with 122-litres in total. I am much happier with this size of reserve over the standard set-up.

PVC Payload Points: Our van is registered at 4.5T but I haven't got a clue how the smaller 3.5T vans run safely and legally with such small payload and axle tolerances. I saw a huge number of light chassis PVCs running around Scotland and most of them looked severely overloaded.

The big items for us were:

a. Water: 122kg.
b. Fat Rottweiler and his gear: 65kg.
c. My second-in-command: 55kg.
d. All other stuff: 200kg.
e. Hab batteries: 75kg.
f. Awning, solar, VB Air: 65kg
g. Gaslow system: 50kg
h. Me being over the 75kg allowance: 25kg.
i. Waste Water: 35kg.

That's c.700kg extra on the base vehicle weight and we don't even have towbars, racks, scooters, bikes, satelite domes, etc - as what you frequently see on some of the light PVCs

Overall it performed admirably but this next trip will test it to its limits, for sure!

Regards to all,

Andrew

 

[Just smiffy]

I’m now seriously looking on google maps, not a lot on Shetland but the isolation and scenery does it for me....

I’m investigating more....?

 

[Kingham]

Thanks for the continued updates Blue Knight and don’t forget to check out the LPG please.

Your travels have inspired us to look at a couple of weeks on Shetland in May 2020 and depending on whether or not we wild camp or use some of the many official sites, we may need a refill whilst out there.

I’ll be having a closer look at sites that are close to beaches and/or give easy access to some of the best sea kayaking.

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[Blue Knight]

16 Centimetres!

We turned up at Scrabster at the office opening time of 5pm to book our 7pm sailing to Orkney, plus the 2345hrs onward sailing to Shetland, to find that Northlink Ferries only had space for a 6.2m long vehicle remaining on the Orkney ferry tonight - and ours is 6.36m.

There has apparently been a huge influx today of people returning from a horse show, with said horses and horse boxes, so our plans are now on hold until this time Tuesday.

Now in Thurso until Tuesday.

 

[tjay]

Loved this, been on most of the other islands around Scotland with moho but never to the Shetlands, so info and photo's are great.
have been there when working offshore and on the Islands, stayed in Lerwick, worked in Sumburgh and in Unst ! traveled the length of the island by car but, that was in the late 70's no doubt changed a good bit since lol !!

 

[Blue Knight]

Loved this, been on most of the other islands around Scotland with moho but never to the Shetlands, so info and photo's are great.
have been there when working offshore and on the Islands, stayed in Lerwick, worked in Sumburgh and in Unst ! traveled the length of the island by car but, that was in the late 70's no doubt changed a good bit since lol !!

You'll love travelling around this place in the MoHo if you already have fond memories from past days.

We arrived in Lerwick today (7:30am) and are now resting in Vidlin, accompanied with the sun, as we have a couple of house purchases to check out tomorrow. The ferry trip was OK but I took a couple of sickness tablets to be sure. Yep, I'm now officially a wuss!

Some Local News: The Shetland O&G scene is definelty on the decline with some of the oil (and oil money) now being rediverted from its original onshore processing locations in Sullom Voe and is now being pumped via the new BP FPSOs to the north. The Enquest service provider laid off 25% of its staff compliment this year, with more to come across the industry, while the Shetland small business community is suffering because lots of the business owners have old fashioned business models which drastically need updating. We've already investigated a number of business opportunities and have found them to be in a terrible financial state and not even worth a lowball offer.

House prices have levelled-off and are now in decline following on from the recent 2011-18 boom - so now is not the right time to buy.

To make matters worse the local council is clearly struggling to balance its future spend predictions for the next 5-10 years so there may be a few more financial hardships ahead for the island group.

There has been a lot of hype of a Space Center being created in Unst but that to me is a load of waffle and is not going to happen. Westminster has sent all the money and support to Sutherland, Wales and Cornwall so Shetland hasn't got a chance IMO.

Other than that; all is good and 2020 could be a good year to buy a wee house up here.


All the best,

Andrew

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[Blue Knight]

A quick update with a few pics.

This is day-12 of our B2B trip of Shetland and things are going really well albeit we're hooked-up in West Collafirth for £10/night with 16A EHU to give our three hab batteries aa good charge before moving back to Unst for 3-4 days tomorrow.

The weather is much better here than at home in Durham but we've had a couple of damp days to accompany the otherwise tip-top weather.

Here's our pitch today/tonight @ West Collafirth:

This was yesterday's pic from the Island of Whalsay, East of North Mainland, looking North:

......and spot the Globecar overlooking the mainland from the old WWII RAF observer post. It's a hike to the top but the views on a good day are incredible:

Here's a pic of my new off-grid spot but I'll keep it a secret unless someone can guess the position. As you can see it was a bit tight for space:

Here's a new off-grid location we found in Norwick, North Unst and great for kayaking Kingham. This place will get busy with bird watchers in the warmer weather:

.......and here's one more of Norwick beach, how fantatsic eh:

........and a further 300m up the Norwick coastline:

One more post with pics to come......

 

[Blue Knight]

The Mainland-to-Whalsay ferry return costs £19.70 for a large PVC and it was an interesting experience as the pics will show. Unlike the rest of the Ro-Ro fleet for the Shetland Islands, the ferry to Whalsay can only accommodate high-sided vehicles in the middle of the three deck lanes.The staff will guide you accordingly but if you approach it at the wrong angle then you'll rip your roof off from the 2.4m point, upwards:

This is us sitting behind a truck on the Whalsay ferry. The huge white structures over the left and right lanes are part of the ferry itself:

This is the Whalsay ferry from the rear of our wagon. Note: Check the overhangs with the black n' yellow warning stickers. You'll be sad if you hit them - and they've been hit many times according to the crew:

Here's one for the Kayakers who want to visit Ueyasound, South Unst. The first pic shows the wee campsite right next to the water (an Eriba can be seen on one of the five pitches):

.......and here's a pic of the waterside in Ueyasound (next to the CL):

We stayed off-grid in the neighbouring Whalsay golf club in Skaw (location via the blue dot below) but this was just about the only decent pitch we could find on the whole island.

Note: The ferry journey is 30-minutes each way and can be a bit choppy - we had Force-5 gales today!

Whalsay was OK but after spending three hour on the island we were keen to move on. It's a lovely place but IMO Whalsay is not configured well for tourists; the only public toilets on the Island (ferry terminal) were horrible and while it is a beautiful place to visit we won't be going back:

Note-2: Whalsay is the home of the 8-ship Palegic Fleet and, like me, you'll probably be impressed to see one of those gigantic trawlers in harbour at close quarters.

Here's Skaw and the Whalsay Gold Club location (aka as the most northerly golf course in the UK).

That's it for now guys

 

[Blue Knight]

Evening guys,

Day -16 in the Big Brother PVC and the first LPG cylinder has just died on us. This means that we've burned off a full 11kg bottle approximately ten days quicker than our previous tour in Aug and Sep. The temperatures in the North of Unst have dropped to 7-8C but the day temps are 10-12C so the small temperature differential between day and night means that you never really feel the cold, unlike the NE of England. The weather has been great BTW with very little rain and good periods of sun.

Here are a few pics from today; we visited the northern most dwelling house in the UK (North Skaw, Unst) and in all honesty this particular route is more suited to a quad bike or small car, never mind a 6.36m PVC. We were the only ones to be seen on the roads

......so this is Skaw in Unst (no relation to Skaw on the island of Whalsay):

This is what greets you at the end of the track:

.......and 40-meters further by foot and you reach the beach:

.......and this is the start of the 3-mile return journey which is very tight in a PVC:

Trip-2 today was to the old WWII RAF Skaw Station which is located at the far eastern tip of Skaw. This trip was much harder than the first to access and I have to admit that it took me 20-minutes to navigate the last mile of the route followed by a couple of minutes on foot. I'm not sure if any camper has accessed this place before but IMO there has to be a first time for everything; a few pics:

Here's one showing the good bits of the track. The full track goes back to the hill in the foreground and then left (south) over a 3-mile hill range before dropping down to the beach which you can see in the far left of the pic:

.......and a pic from the top of the hardened concrete bunker that overlooks the Atlantic:

.......and a pic from one of the gun positions to the southern sea inlet. Note: The concrete plinth has a sudden drop to the sea behind it while the white stuff on the ground is actually sea foam which is coming from the 200ft sea surge behind the van:

Final Note: The preferred choice would be to dump the van a few miles back and then to hike to the site but, if you're mad enough then go for it

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[Blue Knight]

Hi Funsters,

Here's the bit about LPG resupply in Shetland:

Firstly, there are two locations that advertise 'LPG resupply' but please discount the Lerwick site as the equipment there has a flow rate of 150-litres per minute and is therefore not suitable for motorhomes. They won't serve you so don't bother trying.

The second place is located in North Sullom and this is the only site in Shetland where you can resupply your MoHo or camper with LPG.

POC and address:

POC: Andrea or Paul of the Magnus Hotel.
Tel: 01806 503372 (Magnus Hotel).
Shetland Gas Supplies UK Ltd
Red Pit Quarry,
North Sullom,
ZE2 9RF

Notes:

1. Please do not use the post code in your satnav as it will take you several miles south of the quarry. The 'EU My LPG site' also takes you several miles south so just use my maps below.

2. This is a pre-book system and you need to phone Andrea or Paul in the Magnus Hotel to arrange a refill time. You may need to plan your LPG refill several days in advance due to the lack of availability of staff. Andrea is a lovely lady who knows everything about Shetland so if you have any other questions about your visit then be sure to tap her brains. The Magnus Hotel is a good place to visit if you fancy a beer or meal etc.

3. The quarry site is not staffed so someone will need to travel to fill your LPG tank. Please ensure that you require a full tank of LPG as the staff don't really want to travel miles to the site only for the motorhomer to require three or four litres; it needs to be worth their while.

4. The actual location of the pump in the quarry is highlighted below. The following three maps show the exact site location of the pump so forget the satnav:

.......more to come

 

[JustifiedAncient]

Thank you Andrew for taking the time to document this in such detail. It's one to really file away for the future travels. Maybe you could package up all your posts into a PDF document and post into the resource files area?
Howard.

 

[Blue Knight]

Guys, we returned on Wednesday evening and after a bit of faffing tonight I've done a small comparison in figures between the first and second trips.

The 2nd trip figures are in brackets:


1. Trip Duration: 25-days (26-days).
2. Total Miles: 2,150 (1,860).
3. Extra islands visited: Whalsay, Fetlar.
4. Total Cost of Trip: £1,090 (£1,056).
5. # of Ferrries used: 14 (18).
6. Total Diesel Fuel Cost: £343 (360).
7. Cost of 4 main ferries: £426.90 (£365.44).
8. Cost of 14 internal ferries: £78.80.
9. Total LPG used: 23.6 litres (39.7 litres).
10. Lowest external evening temperature: 5C (5C).
11. Average daytime external temps: 9C-11C (6-10C).
12. Average daily internal gas heating: 9-hours set @ 18C, (14-hours @ 18C).
13. # of nights requiring heating: 22, (26).
14. Average daily solar input: 13.3v (12.8v).
15. Days without any driving being involved: 2, (3).
16. Days on EHU: 0, (3-Days @ 10-hours charge per day).

........so we did one more day away, 290 less miles, 4 more ferries and yet the final fuel bill went up by £17 while the overall cost of the trip remained almost identicle to the first!

As it transpired we did so much more adventuring down the various small roads and up the large hills that our MPG figures were zapped.

LPG: The weather and temperatures were almost identicle to the previous trip but the big difference being that the nights started so much earlier and lasted so much longer, hence the huge increase in LPG usage. That being said, a 2 x 11kg Gaslow setup equates to c.44-litres of LPG @ 80% capacity and yet we used 40 of them; this equates to only 2-days of LPG remaining by the time we returned home.

Solar and power: For the most time we just about managed to get by on hab power alone but on three occasions I had to hook-up to a pals house and his 240v socket to help out with the juice stats. The solar energy had dropped way-off the curve since our last trip in August and September so that left our 120W panel thoroughly wanting help.

The one thing that amazed both Nicky and I was the total absence of frost and cold weather in Shetland. We certainly could not say the same about the return journey via the Highlands (Laggan) and Durham where the temperature at night hovered around the -2C mark.

Ferry Costs: You chaps will note that our main ferry costs went down by c.£61 and that's due to our utilisation of the 'land bridge' route on the way back to Scotland which, incidentally, gives a 25% reduction to the cost of the return journey. (The land bridge route is where you travel from Shetland to Orkney to Scotland using consecutive ferries).

I'll write a few notes tomorrow on our trip to Fetlar but it's a night-night from me

All the best,

Andrew

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[Grianan]

Can you add in a measure of ‘enjoyment had’ ... ?

The mileages are quite scary

 

[Brains]

What an amazing and informative thread of posts!
Thnks for the time and effort Andrew
I never even considered Sheltland as a place to look at, now it's just been added to the bucket list!

 

[Blue Knight]

Here's a wee post on Fetlar so let me start with a picture of the beach of Tresta.

......and a pic of the Tresta sea inlet from the beach:

Background Info: Fetlar has a current population of 61 inhabitants and is easily accessible by taking a ferry from the Shetland Mainland, to Yell, and then onward to Fetlar. The standard cost for a 6.36m PVC with two occupants is £19.70 for the four ferry trip combo; 2-out, 2-back. The ferry trip which is daily, but infrequent, takes 30-minutes each way from Yell to Fetlar while the ferry itself is the smallest of the northern fleet so expect a bit of movement on deck when the winds reach Force-6:

Fetlar on the map:

There's one 7-year old girl at the local school and this will close in three years when she reaches ten and has to move to the big school on Yell. There is one island resident in his twenties, none in their thrities, two in their forties and the rest in the 50+ range so it's widely expected that Fetlar will become largely uninhabitable and uneconomical to support by the Shetland Council in 10 or 15 years from now. There's one small shop, a small cafe with very basic wares and a post office just east of Houbie (4.5-miles from the ferry terminal), and this opens for four hours per day between 11am and 3pm. There is no fuel station on Fetlar but if you do drive 25-30 miles in any 3-day visit then that will take you up and down the whole island twice. It's a very small place!

That being said, this is one of the true jewels in the crown of the whole Shetland Island Group. It comes second in my book with only Unst topping the league table for its beautiful scenery and places to visit.

Here's a pic of the main road (AKA a wee track) towards Houbie. We spent three days in Fetlar and on two of them we had some amazing weather:

There's a 4-van campsite with EHU due to open in Q2,20 and this will be located at the village hall. I've already examined the pitches and they are all level and gravelled with a very accessible approach route. The new campsite will be located on the pin below and the views are tip-top:

Otherwise, there's no campsite on Fetlar but don't worry as you can park at the ferry terminal; the loch of Fonzie (far East of the island) or just just around the corner from the ferry terminal at the old ruin:

Here's a pic of the terminal from our off-grid location in the ferry terminal car park; note the fleet of oil & gas supply vessels in the distance. These are moored in Fetlar because they are 'off contract':

........and here's a pic of the very congested Fetlar car park which turned out to be our billet for two nights:

........and a pic of the sea-view camping spot which is only 500-meters from the ferry terminal. We would have used this spot if it hadn't been for the extremely high winds during our stay:

.......and a pic of what greets you when you first disembark from the ferry. Note: The road moves immediately into a single track with passing places just as soon as you arrive:

That's it for Fetlar chaps. All I can say is "get booked up" and enjoy your visit.

All the best,

Andrew

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[Blue Knight]

As some of you know we have been actively seeking to purchase a house and a business in Shetland but things have been conspiring against us at just about every turn possible (enough said).

If we do become full time island residents then we'll be able to offer a few Funsters a friend's and family discount for the landbridge route.

1. Standard crossing: £487.
2. Landbridge option with no F&F: £370.
3. F&F option: £257.

That's a good discount but I'll keep you all posted.

 

[Blue Knight]

Motorhomers with Pets:

This is the current list of vets, kennels and dog groomers on Shetland. We kept it in our travel pack for emergencies:

 

[Blue Knight]

I saw this picture the other day in the Shetland Times and just had to post it here.

My own interpretation of things is just be careful when the locals tell you "ah, it'll be fine, you can get a bus down there".

The picture depicts the road to Cullivoe which from our recent experience is far better and wider than some.

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[Gellyneck]

I saw this picture the other day in the Shetland Times and just had to post it here.

My own interpretation of things is just be careful when the locals tell you "ah, it'll be fine, you can get a bus down there".

The picture depicts the road to Cullivoe which from our recent experience is far better and wider than some.

View attachment 351949

Yip. If I was on that tour bus I'd be suing them for incorrect advertising. Road should read Ditch!