Scottish ferry news

[Tinnishill]

An update on restrictions on Scottish ferries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland- ... ting-story

Students of nominative determinism might note the name of the responsible Govt Minister

[Paulatic]

Good News but note there’s no Heb cycle tour just yet

Travelling to and from islands to visit family is acceptable under Phase 2, but the minister said journeys for leisure and recreation were not being encouraged..

[Cyril Haearn]

Good News but note there’s no Heb cycle tour just yet

Travelling to and from islands to visit family is acceptable under Phase 2, but the minister said journeys for leisure and recreation were not being encouraged..

'Not being encouraged', what does that mean, are they permitted or not, or are they being discouraged?

[matt2matt2002]

Good News but note there’s no Heb cycle tour just yet

Travelling to and from islands to visit family is acceptable under Phase 2, but the minister said journeys for leisure and recreation were not being encouraged..

'Not being encouraged', what does that mean, are they permitted or not, or are they being discouraged?

Typical fudge to get around not making it a law. Which would be very difficult and take too long.

I look upon it as a step in the right direction.
I don't get mad at these weird 'rules'. There have been so many already. And will probably be more.
Fingers crossed I can soon jump on the ferry from Aberdeen to Lerwick and then start my second end2end of Scotland.

[Paulatic]

Good News but note there’s no Heb cycle tour just yet

Travelling to and from islands to visit family is acceptable under Phase 2, but the minister said journeys for leisure and recreation were not being encouraged..

'Not being encouraged', what does that mean, are they permitted or not, or are they being discouraged?

I would read that as while there are more sailings capacity due to social distancing is still limited. Not being encouraged is asking you to be considerate and perhaps leave your space for another’s possibly more acceptable need.

[gloomyandy]

Yes my interpretation would be it isn't law but please don't travel to the islands for recreation etc. A bit like the 5 mile travel limit (which I don't think ever made it into law in Scotland). I follow a number of island facebook group/pages and there is definitely still a certain amount of anxiety about opening things up. There is also the issue of capacity and I get the impression that for a lot of the islanders tourists are a long way down their list of good use of that capacity. I suspect that things will settle down over the next few weeks as folks that live on the islands get to make journeys and people get a better feel for if there is a problem or not. I don't think I'll be rushing up there just yet though (I should have been on my way there this weekend having booked cottages on S. Uist and Lewis, but I've postponed that trip for a year).

On a sort of related topic, I have a feeling that campervan and caravan holidays will be very popular as the lockdown begins to ease. I wonder if there will be a lot of folks thinking of heading out to the islands (and to Scotland in general) and how welcome they will be? I've never really figured out exactly how islanders relate to campervan visitors. My own visits have always been either staying in accommodation or cycle camping (and have always been made very welcome) so I've no direct experience (other than noticing what seems to be a large increase in the number of campervans you see in the Hebrides these days). I had a couple of weeks up there in November last year and it struck me how much quieter the roads were at that time of year!

[Elizabeth_S]

On a practical level, if you fall ill with covid on one of the Scottish islands and need ICU, that's a helicopter trip to the mainland, so I think they will really not want an influx of visitors. They don't have the hospital provision to cope with a large number of very sick people.