Orkney 2009

Friday 8th May - Home Sweet Home

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

07.59 Dave checks out his Gilera's chain, it's still there, I said it would be. Nothing can rust away in just one week, not even up here...

N56 24 34.7 W5 28 41.9 (map)

08:15 Gee saying good-by to the Maridon's resident cat after breakfast. friendly beast.

N56 24 34.7 W5 28 41.9 (map)

09.19 And while loading we came up with a solution to Dave's jacket leaking down the front, a 100% waterproof bin liner underneath his coat, that will do nicely.

N56 24 34.7 W5 28 41.9 (map)

09.27 We finally get away, for me it's 300 miles to home from Oban, I've ordered tea at home and it had better be good I can tell you... :-) We'll stop a few times on the way but as usual the forecast is rain, I guess it doesn't matter too much now.

10.07 Riding along the North side of Lock Awe I spotted Kilchurn Castle, rather than stopping and going back we rode on around the head of the Loch hoping to find a good view from the South side. We were lucky and found a layby and as if by some freak of nature it stopped raining so we could take a few pictures and enjoy the view.

N56 24 00.6 W5 01 24.7 (map)

It's difficult to get a good shot when the sheep are in the wrong spot. We tried to get them to shift back a bit, but they just wouldn't move, Scottish sheep yer know, very obstinate.

N56 24 00.6 W5 01 24.7 (map)

10.37 Time to stop and refuel in Inveraray, by some miracle it wasn't raining here.

N56 13 54.2 W5 04 27.5 (map)

10.39 While the others were filling up and paying I stole the opportunity to take a look at the harbour, that nice old ship looks to be a maritime museum and coffee shop, maybe next time we'll call in.

N56 13 53.2 W5 04 19.9 (map)

12.06 We pressed on for a while then stopped at the Ducks Bay Hotel on the side of Loch Lomond for a coffee. Normally we'd have sat outside and enjoyed the view from the terrace but it felt more like mid winter today so we went inside. That was probably a mistake, it's a bit posh inside and the staff didn't quite know what to do with us. We did get some odd looks, but seeing as the place was deserted we sat down unmolested and warmed our selves by the impressively huge gas fire set in to the back wall and dripped ungraciously on the floor . 

N56 00 57.2 W4 36 37.5 (map)

13.55 Having left Glasgow far behind us we finally stopped for a quick refuel and a machine coffee at Annandale Water services on the A74 South, an aptly named place because all I can remember was water dripping off the end of my nose.

N55 13 08.7 W3 24 39.2 (map)

It was a fairly uneventful ride home from Annandale services, except my rear finally gave up on the air seat, no matter how I shuffled around on it it made no difference, I then realised being air filled it didn't matter how you sat on it it would still feel pretty much the same to my rear, I would just have to put up with it.

17.15 Finally got home without rushing. 'Home Sweet Home!' I collapsed on the settee with a large mug of tea and contemplated next years big trip and how different it might be from this one! 

So that's the end of this trip, thanks everyone for coming along and thanks to everyone for being 'mostly' patient with the delayed production of this write up.

Cheers, Martin.

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Today's tracklog and waypoints in Garmin .gdb format

The last days route home in yellow - 306 miles for me.

Today's temperature graph with the now traditional holes in the beginning, the middle and the end fell of the graph too :-(

Trivia

Miles travelled           1329 miles

Avg moving speed    44.5 mph 

Total moving time     29h54m

Average MPG           56.4mpg (R1200RT)

Best B&B                  The Polrudden, Orkney but the Riverside, Ullapool was very close.

Best meal                  The Dill Se Indian restaurant in Kirkwall, Orkney        

Best day                    Tuesday on Orkney, also the best weather day of the whole trip despite the wind!

Vehicular ferry links to Orkney

Northlink ferries on the west side or Pentland ferries on the east side.

Northlink ferries currently run an overnight ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall in Orkney (and Lerwick in the Shetland Isles), so its quite possible if you live in the north of England to get to Orkney or Shetland in one day and night. 

And lastly, how not to berth a ferry...

This is the old Pentalina being berthed at Gills Bay in 2006,  left hand down a bit... KERANG! LOL. Must be the same captain we had :-)

Thanks for the link Turraloon :-)

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