Storytelling | Shetland | Jurassic Coast

Hello,

“Imagine you’re on a small, wooden fishing boat, pitching and rolling in the biting wind and foul weather of the North Sea. It’s the dead of winter, in the depths of World War II. You can’t see any lights and you have only a compass to guide the way…”

That was the reality for those involved in the Shetland Bus, a secret wartime lifeline between Norway and the Shetland Isles. Weapons, resistance agents, refugees – all moved across perilous seas under the cover of darkness.

It’s a tale of grit, ingenuity and quiet heroism – and just one of the stories waiting to be uncovered on our 6-day Shetland tour.

This summer, we’re offering £150pp off our 2025 Shetland tours with code NL22JUNE150, valid until 22 June.

On the tour, you could meet Bill Moore, a trustee and volunteer at Scalloway Museum, whose father played a key role in the Shetland Bus. We spoke to him for our blog about the Shetland Bus, and let me tell you, his firsthand insight brings history thrillingly close.

I hope to see you on one of our tours soon. Come for the wildlife and geology, stay for the stories!

Yours,

Rob

Rob Knipe
Chairman, Emeritus Professor and Tour Guide

Featured tours

Stories to inspire your next journey

The Shetland Bus: a tale of wartime courage, two communities and enduring connections

The Shetland Bus was a small but vital secret wartime operation that ran between Norway and the Shetland Isles of Scotland. 

Bill Moore, born and bred in Shetland, is a volunteer and trustee at the Scalloway Museum. It’s his job to help keep the Shetland Bus memory alive. But for Bill, the bus is more than history; it's part of his family’s living history. His father, Jack Moore, was part of the Shetland Bus, working hard behind the scenes to keep it going.

“The first thing to understand is that the Shetland Bus is nothing to do with buses,” says Bill. “It’s all about boats.” 

3 curious things for inquisitive travellers

🔨 What does it feel like to find a fossil?

Ever wondered what it's like to crack open a rock and discover a fossil? Our latest blog, A walk in time: what it’s like to hunt fossils on England’s Jurassic Coast, covers the first-hand accounts of amateur fossil hunters, through our own conversations with Steve Etches and a BBC podcast that brings the sounds of the coast right to your eardrums. It's the perfect prep for our Jurassic Coast tours.

👣 Footprints spark debate

Ancient footprints discovered in Greece could be some of the earliest bipedal prints yet discovered – by a considerable margin. The incredible find is causing researchers to rethink the timeline of hominin presence outside of Africa - and all of human history

🪢 Reading Incan knots

Khipus are knotted cords used for record keeping by the Inca Empire. But we've lost the ability to read them - until now. A first-year Harvard student spent his spring break decoding the data hidden in six khipus and his findings could give us the key to better understanding Inca history from the indigenous point of view.

Why travel with GeoCultura?

We take you beyond the landscape. Uncover the stories behind the view on our expert-led, small-group tours. We do private and bespoke tours, too.

💬 Ready to chat? Get in touch.