STRAIGHT TALKING: Are there many Shetlanders with similar tales to those told by Hannah Bulloch in Overland to the Island?
Photo: Otago University Press
In the month of August, I will be whirling over clouds and waves while flying towards Dunedin in South Island, New Zealand, living and working there for two months. As many readers will be aware, there are many connections between that location and Shetland and - indeed - much of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. This can be seen in some of the placenames in the locality.
The likes of Stornoway, Shetland and St Kilda are, for instance, used to identify locations both within and nearby the city. There is a Glenorchy, a garden called Glenfalloch, a McLean Falls, an Oban and Fortrose scattered around the location. In their own way, each name will act as a reminder of places I have met or people to whom I have spoken over the past years of my life.
An early reminder of these links has recently been disclosed within the pages of a new book Overland to the Island written by Hannah Bulloch, who has Skye connections and, like many of her ancestors, grew up near the second largest city within the South Island of New Zealand. It is a large and fascinating book, one that bears a subtitle that describes its contents, how it features a journey from New Zealand to Skye with Six Kids in a Homemade House-Truck. A true story, it features her grandparents.
They include her grandfather Alan MacLeod and his wife Joan who took their six children from Dunedin all the way to Dunvegan in Skye on a ramshackle, self-made vehicle that had been cobbled together from an armoured car, a city bus and the engine of a tractor.
They make their way in 1963 through Singapore, Malaya, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and much of Europe - both East and West - with one destination in mind, the Clan Parliament meeting in Dunvegan, Isle of Skye. The story of the family journey is created in vivid detail with much to examine and explore. There is the occasion in Thailand which is, during this period, suffering an armed insurgency by the Patani people who are involved in a revolution to try and create their own independent state.
Their journey is not only affected by potential violence, but the fact that roads do not exist throughout much of this route. Quite often it is simply elephant trails on which their oddly created vehicle makes its way.
We are told of the explosion of the radiator as they drove through Pakistan, inspiring the prediction of a hitchhiker whom the local police had forced them to take on board. ("You reckon you'll get to Scotland? Not a hope!")
Worst of all, however, is an accident which takes place near Chitaldrug - now known as Chitradurga - in the south-west of India. A fuel-tank approaches them which Alan seeks to avoid, his vehicle veering to the right, driving over the edge of the nearby bank. His move has its consequences:
"They were airborne ... Everything was turning, tumbling, amid scream-drowning percussions of shattered glass, thudding earth, crunching metal." The accident has severe consequences, especially for 16 year-old Marilyn.
Her face is badly cut and wounded. Later, she obtains 46 stitches, all delivered without anaesthetic by a Methodist missionary who lives in the area. Despite these wounds, it is apparent that she as an individual does not lose either her talents or her love of the landscape they pass on their journey.
The book has a multitude of pictures, largely photographs which record the family's journey, but among the most impressive are the sketches Marilyn created of some of the scenes they witnessed during their time in Europe and Asia. One thought kept stirring as I read this book. Was the long and perilous journey of the MacLeod family to Skye unique?
Did others, say, leave the likes of Christchurch and Dunedin to travel north to, say, their family home in Shetland? How long and deep are the connections between those whose forbears have left Shetland to travel to the likes of the South Island in New Zealand? Clearly I hope to discover the answers to these questions when I live near Dunedin throughout August and September, hoping that information linked to these long-held ties will arise in conversations.
Undoubtedly, there will be few tales quite as dramatic as Hannah Bulloch's account of the return of her forbears to Skye, but there will be many that are - in their own way - just as interesting. In short, I would be grateful for any information that people residing in Shetland who had family members who travelled south possess, perhaps explaining the reason for their journey and the reality of their lives. Staying there throughout August and September, it will provide a little light and warmth for us within the location.
Overland to the Island by Hannah Bulloch in published by Otago University Press.
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