Orkney 2009

Wednesday 6th May - The long and winding road

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We've around 170 mile to ride today, 15 miles back to St Margaret's Hope for the 12.00 ferry back to the mainland, then 160 miles to Ullapool on the West coast. It's certainly a long way in one afternoon on the single track roads we're likely to be on, but if the weather's good it would be a brilliant ride. Unfortunately the weather forecast today is not good with rain expected to be coming in from the West and due to hit us some time early afternoon :-(

09.52 After a leisurely breakfast we packed and set off for the ferry back to mainland, the only earlier ferry option was an 8.00 sailing, during planning that had seemed too early, but in hind sight it might have been worth skipping breakfast for that earlier boat...

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10.20 St Margaret's Hope. We'd had a steady run over the causeways and we still have lots of time to explore the harbour. 

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10.32 Pentland ferries' offices on St Margaret's Hope harbour front. We'd pre paid for the return trip so it was just a matter of telling them we're here.

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Tied up at the pier is the Pentalina-B, she's the old ferry from the St Margaret's Hope - Gills Bay run recently replaced by the Cat we came across on. She's a small bow loader and looks from another era altogether (Launched in 1970). Guys working on the jetty said she's going to America once work has been completed on her.

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10.53 The Pentalina's arrived and coming in stern first (and a touch too quickly judging by the amount of manoeuvring needed to settler her in to her berth, left hand down a bit... KERANG! LOL).

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11.30 Ride on and tie down, they remembered us of course, I got an extra piece of carpet for the air seat :-)

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12.01 And we're on our way. From this picture you can see just how small the port of St Margaret's Hope is, the town is further to the left and out of shot.

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12.17 Coming out of Scapa Flow in to Pentland Sound we spotted abandoned WW2 watch towers and gun emplacements. These aren't the only ones we saw but I'm pretty sure of the location of these, Looks like we really need another day on the island to explore further.  

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Here's a map showing where I estimate they are, according to Google maps there are roads or track down to them but whether you can get access I don't know.

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13.18 We landed back at Gills Bay and set off westward on the A836. The ferry crossing had been really kind of weird, the cat seemed to get caught up in some strong currents and bobbed about quite a bit, things did settle down but it must be quite an exciting ride when the weather gets rough.

14.34  I've stopped to take this picture because it looks like I may not get another chance for a while, immediately after taking it my camera packed up, it may be just rain on the lens stopping the auto focus so I've put it in the top box on a hand towel hoping it will dry itself out.105 miles to Ullapool from here, it's a fair old way.

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14.52 Kyle of Tongue, and the rain has eased enough for me to risk getting the camera out for a shot, it's working again!

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15.44 We pull in to the Smoo Cave Hotel, Durness for exactly the same reason Bill and I did a few years back, we're cold and soaking wet.

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No problem in the Smoo Cave, they must see wet people just about every other day. Mugs of hot coffee and hot apple crumble with custard are ordered while we huddle around the stove getting warmed up.

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Gee tries to entice the unwary traveller outside to keep him company - Gee you must be joking mate!

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16.40 After nearly an hours rest and recuperation we're off again, time's really getting on and we still have 68 miles to go. Anyone needing fuel fills up at the little filling station then we set off to finish this ride - no stopping. What follows is probably the worst weather I've ever ridden in. The rain lashed down driven by strong winds ripped apart by the terrain. My gloves and boots were sodden through, the disposable filling station gloves I was wearing underneath my gloves helped keep my hands warm, but this is no fun at all. Riding along knowing I'd left a perfectly usable electric vest at home was somewhat annoying, especially after the number of times I wish I'd brought it with me on this trip, dear me :-(

18.38 With great relief we rode in to Ullapool, rode up to the waypoint I'd made for the guest house only to discover it was the wrong guest house! This is no time for blunders, we're all pretty exhausted :-( Search parties went out and fortunately the Riverside Guest House was found close by.

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With huge relief we all got booked in, I can't think of a better reason to plan ahead and book all the accommodation than this, it's really worth the effort. The proprietor showed us the drying hut around the back where we later hung our riding gear overnight.

Here's a picture of the Riverside lounge, tea and coffee was available at any time from a table on the right under the brown lamp and was very much appreciated.

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20.25 The proprietor recommended the Broom Bar as somewhere to eat tonight and If my calculations are right its only a 600yd walk from the Riverside. Actually, its a pity the Riverside doesn't do evening meals or have a bar because after today's ride I'd have been quite happy to stay in the warm!

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A little map to show you where the Broom Bar is in relation to the Riverside.

20.27 Ordering food at the Broom Bar, the landlady was very friendly but the bar/dinning room was quiet, midweek and a little out of season I guess.

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20.57 Half an hour later we were tucking in, and just look at the size of those onion rings! Only one person had cause to complain about the meal saying the lamb he'd ordered was a bit tough, other than that I thought it was great.

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Dave and I got lost again walking back to the Riverside, how useless is that :-( It was freezing cold and we had to ask a guy out walking his dog where the guest house was, must get a grip!

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Today's tracklog and waypoints in Garmin .gdb format

Today's rain and wind blown route in yellow - 192 miles

Today's temperature graph, the hole in the graph was the ferry crossing, soon after that the sensor packed up in the rain cutting the graph short so lets just say it today was wet and cold.

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