arrival on Orkney

how i wish that somewhere existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill Albert einstien eleven PM is a shit time to arrive on an island even with a car or a hotel and transport booked! but on a bicycle loaded for a camping trip? what would be the point of even booking a hotel, at £60-£80 for the night not getting there untill midnight staight to bed alone is just not worth the expense

i had shoved the tent up in the dark and awoke early tesco was walking distance from the impromtu camp site i loaded the daunder with all i had, going for a tesco sandwich breakfast, leaving the bike fully laden and unlocked! i went for a snack breakfast, the meal deal IN THE SHOP is awesome but three is a huge amount of waste packaging along with limited meat free dairy free options! there was egg and cress sandwiches that were reduced braw i had that, as much as the meal deals always looked so great there was just nothing for me any longer meat free dairy free! and i also am now getting more concerned about all the single use plasic waste of those meal deals. having a guid walking rake around town kirkwall was/is awsome what a fantastic town i had a wee daunder around the cathedral earls and bishops palaces, then went to the tourist info to see if ther was somewher in town i could lock and leave my bike a few days?

Sheila was coming to meet me she has had some bad news recently, that along with being sick of social distancing and no travel except for work she needed a break, she was getting the ferry to st margarets hope, i was in kirkwall but we both wanted to be in stromness, i considered leaving the daunder in kirkwall just getting sheila to pick me up there,but after making some enquirees at the tourist info? who were really helpfull but bike storage would be an issue! in the end i opted to cycle toward stromness fully laden as sheila had booked a campsite there for her wee caddy campervan,

i made a big mistake on the route choice, the option was the east or west coast or along the middle between kirkwall and finstown, the NCN national cycle network route one that i am now following, leaves kirkwall going up the west coast to stromness then loops around the north to finstown and drops back into kirkwall the middle road, i took the middle road out missing the west coast route that i had planned to cycle out, this got me into stromness at lunch time, i had a wee saunter around town its a fantastic town with great little local shops, shame the pubs were shut but that night the ferry inn down at the harbour was opening back up for beers outside, i opted to cycle out to the campsite stupidly following the road signs which skirted up a hill and around the outskirts of town i would have been much quicker and easier cycling along the narrow streets along the shore, sheila would be another couple of hours i introduced myself to the warden at the campsite she gave me a tour of the facilities and chatted, super friendly fun woman she loved to chat i was glad when sheila arrived to take up the share of the chat while i sorted my stuff,

its a great camp site with good facilities we liked it that much we ended up going back for a second night, theres a nice walk along the shore to ness battery museum which was sadly shut, we had a walk into town along the great town center with all its little alleys taking a walk up the khyber pass,we had booked a table at the ferry inn for dinner and outside beers, woo hoo draught ale in an actual glass! welcome back to the happy world of beer for me, the food choice wasnt good for non meat noon dairy sheila is vegetarian so still does dairy i had the option of roast cauliflower which was more expensive than the fish and chips and probably less filling, i opted for fish and chips

the ferry from stromness goes to scrabster on the mainland which is the way most people get to orkney. I have previously been on that ferry into stromness (i was mega drunk ended up naked i blame the skull crusher) then took transport from there to kirkwall to go to the rugby sevens tournament, i have absolutely no recolection of that journey or previously being in stromness! myself and the lads had been drinking non stop on tour it was carnage! the absolute ironic thing is that the weekend i was on orkney as a cycle tourist, would have been the orkney sevens rugby tournament weeekend had it not been for the pandemic! it would have made for an interesting dilema to meet up with all my old rugby pals in lerwick that weekend? not so great to be in a tent though with the volumes of beer and alcohol the lads would have had me on

we were on a different ferry and a different agenda stromness is the place to stay if your a tourist who is heading on to the island of Hoy, we had a night in stromness before and after the Hoy tour,