The broch on the isle of Mousa is among the best preserved of this early DEW line system, which communicated possible attacks through smoke signals. On a balmy, windless afternoon this landmark invited a visit, and a nice, leisurely walk across the undulating, grassy hills took us to the haul-out of about two dozens of docile gray seals, piled up like so many blocks of sandstone in a shallow bay. We were offered a perfect moment to share their relaxed mode, while the air was resounding of the shrill calls of oystercatchers and nesting gulls.
An even greater symphony of birdcalls met us on a late afternoon Zodiac cruise under the sheer, 600-foot bird cliffs at Noss Island, ranked among the most spectacular in the Atlantic. A telltale sign of the bounty of the Shetland waters, these cliffs house thousands of guillemots, gannets, razorbills and kittiwakes, blended in with the mandatory predators of every such seabird metropolis: the brown skuas and the black -backed and herring gulls. Clouds of them were whirling in the air, even larger numbers crowded the narrow ledges. Downy chicks' heads popped up between the guarding parents, telling us that we were well into the breeding season. All in all it was an overwhelming experience of the richness of nature.
The evening saw us docking at the capital of Lerwick, a neat town of sandstone houses climbing the hills inside the fishing harbor.
