Orkney 2009

Monday 4th May - Its a midlife crisis toy

Sat - Sun - Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri

07.38 An early morning picture looking down the driveway of the Blar Mhor and out to sea. It's cool and the forecast is as usual... heavy showers.

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8.20 But we had a fine start to the day with an excellent breakfast enjoyed in the cosy kitchen of the Blar Mhor, top marks to our friendly hosts. Apparently, nearly all her customers are ether going to or coming from Orkney, I don't know why that surprised me at the time, because that's exactly why I'd booked it!

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Neil and his brother Patto up to lord knows what mischief as we're getting ready to go.

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09.24 And we're heading for John O'Groats for our first stop. It was dull and prone to showers all the way up the coast so only a couple of rather damp shots were taken enroute. I was riding without earplugs due to increasing pain in my right ear, It felt like someone was poking me in the ear with a stick! It really didn't look good for the rest of the trip.

11.07 Seventy miles later we rode in to John O'Groats. This is the place normally accepted as being the most northerly settlement in mainland Great Britain, hence the tourist sign post in the picture below. Riding down the road to the harbour we saw the famous sign post straight away, the deal is you walk, pedal, ride or drive whatever you have on to the the raised green where the signpost is and the guy takes your photo for £9 (minimum deal). The deal I struck with him was we'd pile all our bikes on, he'd take his picture then we'd take loads more, which is pretty much what everyone was doing anyway.

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11.15 The whole gang at the sign post taken by the official photographer with my digital camera. We're trying to get it done fairly quickly because it's raining. But what's this? The official photographer's using an old 35mm Nikon and film, amazing! He says the quality is better, but I can't see it myself.

(And around a fortnight later when the picture arrived, it wasn't as good as my digital pictures)

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The sign post kiosk, official photographer and Patto taking our picture.

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Close by, the rather cute harbour used by the John O'Groats ferry services

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11.30 Time to vacate the sign post,  but we're not going far, just 200yds to the cafe to escape the rain. We have a hour or so to kill before going for the ferry, so this will do nicely.

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For some reason I rather liked this cafe, not just because it was warm and dry (and it was), but because it was much nicer inside than I expected, clean, modern, cheerful, cosy even. We spread out and used up about four tables with no objections from the staff at all, top marks!

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12.30 And time we went to meet the ferry, it departs Gills Bay for Orkney at 13.45, its only 4 miles to the West so there's no mad rush.

Our route is in magenta, the dotted black line is the route of the ferry to Orkney.

12.37 Seven minutes later we're in Gills Bay, and it's not raining! But Its certainly not glamorous here, the Potacabin next to the blue lorry is Pentland Ferries office. We were greeted cheerfully outside the cabin and told to ride up by the old lorry chassis then I walked back to do the paperwork and pay up. I'd pre booked the ferry over the phone some weeks earlier, the guy in the office said we'd probably have got on anyway but once it gets in to June you really need to book or you might be disappointed. Oh, and its was £25 each way when we went.

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12.47 Back with the bikes again it started to rain quite heavily, the ferry can't come fast enough now :-(

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13.07 Our boat's coming in, she's called Pentalina and new on the route having taken over from the old bow loader quite recently. The fuel tanker had just missed my bike as it reversed on to the pier, now that would have been fun wouldn't it, a second bike of mine run over by a reversing lorry...

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13.25 The cars are all off and we're waved on, the crew had fixed a chain tight against the deck and the bikes were fastened down to it with ratchet straps and rope. I made loads of fuss about looking after my air cushion seat and the crew took it all in very good humour, well done guys.

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With the bikes secured we went up on deck to get out of our wet jackets and get a coffee from the onboard shop. It's nothing posh, but then it's not expensive ether.

Now it just happens Neil is a Marine Engineer by trade (a good one too I should add) and fancied a look in the engine rooms, knowing my interest Neil arranged for me to go too!

The ships engineer showed us down to the Starboard engine room, each hull has three engines, the two big ones in the picture below drive the props, Cummings engines I believe they are and running at 90% rated power when she's moving, that's the most economical speed to run them at and according to my track log were doing about 18 mph or 16 knots. The noise is unbelievable, I had ear defenders on and I kept them on!

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Neil and the engineer had lots to talk about, but it's no use me trying to get involved, I can talk fluent motorbike and railway signaling, but that's about it.

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Last picture from the engine room, this is the third engine on the starboard side, made by Cat, it's a big one and used purely to generate electrical power. Neil said the engines and plant here are tiny compared with the stuff on his ship, now that I'd like to see! But to be honest I was glad to get back up on deck in the end, the heat, noise and odd rolling of the catamaran was making me feel rather queasy. But I would like to thank the engineer for giving us the tour, it certainly made the trip for me, and thanks to Neil for setting it up, cheers to you both.

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14.55 We're pulling in to St Margarets Hope on Orkney now and it's time to unstrap the bikes. I don't have any pics taken from the deck as it was pouring with rain most of the way over and I didn't fancy sacrificing my camera to get pictures.

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15.16 We've left St Margarets Hope behind us and heading for Kirkwall and our B&B, but we've stopped here because of the wreck you can see in the picture below. The wreck is all that's left of one of the block ships which were deliberately sunk to stop enemy forces coming in to Scapa Flow during the war.

During WW1 and 2 the British used Scapa Flow as their Northern Navel Base as it's a natural harbour and reasonably secure except for the gaps that used to exist between the islands on the Eastern side. To block the gaps, ships were deliberately sunk ie Block Ships. Early in WW2 a German U-boat still managed to squeeze between the block ships and in to Scapa Flow where it sank HMS Royal Oak with the loss of 833 lives. It was a disaster and Churchill came to see what could be done. He called for barricades to be built between the islands to make them completely secure. The roadway you see on the left was built on top. Today the wind howling over the barriers was truly amazing, our bikes were healed over like sailing ships at times, it must be a terrible place during winter storms.

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Here's a map showing our route from the ferry at St Margaret's Hope to Kirkwall and the locations of the barriers. The ride's only 15 miles long.

15.29 We've moved on a little further to Lamb Holm now, originally an island, but now permanently connected by the barriers. During WW2 about 1200 Italian POW's were brought in to build the barriers and were held in camps near the works. During their stay they converted two nissen huts in to a Chapel, it's still cared for here and considering what it's made from its quite remarkable. The facade is made from concrete, while the bell was 'borrowed' from one of  the block ships after the first one rusted away.

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Inside it's just beautiful and a real credit to the Italians who built it. See the wrought iron work, its just made from whatever bits and pieces that could be found at the time.

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A close up of the alter, the attention to detail is remarkable, the lights were made from discarded bully beef tins and the alter itself made of more concrete.

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15.58 Leaving the chapel we've ridden on to our B&B  in Kirkwall, the Polrudden Guest House. In the car park is a Can-Am Spyder, what a beast, someone's having fun around here!

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We were meet by Linda at the door and shown our rooms, modern comfortable, roomy ensuite rooms where the bathroom hasn't been added on at a later date. very nice thank you. She said the Spyder is a midlife crisis toy of her husbands, lucky chap, me, I've had my crisis, but I didn't get a toy LOL!

18.30 Later we took a stroll in to town looking for our evening meal. Down Bridge Street we spotted an Indian restaurant, the Dill Se, I don't usually try to influence where we eat too much, but I was gagging for a curry and a notice in the window suggested Gordon Ramsey had been in and hadn't died as a consequence.

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The notice in the window, well, it doesn't say it's the best curry house he's ever been to does it! :-)

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We ordered plenty of food, after all, we'd had a long day. I have to say it was a very good meal and very enjoyable, first rate I'd say!

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From the Indian we visited a couple of nearby pubs where the youngsters were making the most of the Bank Holliday Monday by getting well and truly drunk. Dave and I left early to walk back, just as we were passing a bar near the Kirkwall Hotel we saw a taxi waiting (we hadn't got far LOL), I asked the driver if he could give us a ride back to the Polrudden, he said he certainly could as he was waiting for the owner who was inside finishing his pint! We got in the back of the car and two minutes later out he came and we drove back to the Polrudden together. His wife had told him of our interest in his midlife Spyder, so we had a good laugh about it on the way back.

Tomorrow we're exploring the delights of Orkney, I really hope it doesn't rain.

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Today's tracklog and waypoints in Garmin .gdb format

Today's route in yellow, I left the GPS on while on the ferry so the track is accurate. 110 miles.

Today's temperature graph, the break in the data was when the bike was turned off on the ferry, certainly not the warmest of days!

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