leaving kirkwall for St Margaret

Kirkwall base Getting of the bus back in Kirkwall at the bus station, I had no set plan for anything! What to do for dinner? It wasn’t overly late I could go for a run or a walk? I wondered if there was anywhere In town that had a beer garden! I text mark? he said try the auld motor hoose and sure enough a beer garden with covering out the back and a system for social distancing loo use bar orders all that good stuff. I was delighted I could actually order a beer and get it put on my table in a GLASS! Draught local ale in a glass oh how I smiled! of course this was different to my previos two trips to kirkwall! on those occasions i had went to all the bars but hardly rememember any! i do remember a great afternoon in the st ola with sean and chris.though which will live with me forever

I ended up in company a girl who I had seen close and lock up the real food café door earlier had recognized me, she asked me to join her and her husbands table, three blokes me making four and her, they were good company loads of interesting chat, one of the group Dave told me he recently contracted whooping cough! Holy shit I thought that was gone, apparently so did his doctor he related the story to me as I was mega interested, he found it so hard to get a breath he was lying on his front lawn thinking he was gonna die as his partner spoke to NHS 24, in the end his GP apologized for not believing he had whooping cough, I told him I had lost an aunt and uncle to whooping cough but that was in the 1940`s! he was the first person I had ever met that had it, he asked for my number he would take me touring when I made it down south to st Margaret’s Hope( I never heard from him again)

They didn’t do food in the auld motor hoose though, so I had 3-4 pints then went to the chippy, which was eaten in time for me going to tesco on the walk back to camp, the tent was all set up I had been fed I had a bag of beer, I went into the seating area with the lap top and got speaking to a couple in there, the usual stuff where are you from what’s your plans sort of stuff,? it turns out he was a naturalist and he let me rabbit on about stuff he must have already knew, meanwhile his girlfriend Lauren sat and completed a jigsaw puzzle once she had done that they went to bed. I had some food and left my stuff there before bed they were leaving at 05:30 and hoping to make the borders that day as they lived all the way down in Poole! the borders stay was only to break the journey, nice people though I was glad to have met them

this is what I have missed during the pandemic meeting people with similar interests, we follow each other now on Instagram, Sheila had checked the weather and predicted a storm coming the Saturday Sunday! While we were in st Margaret’s hope I asked at the Murray arms how much for a room Saturday and Sunday to sit out the storm? a single room with breakfast, was a good price I booked it, this tied me to having two nights at Kirkwall before heading south, this wasn’t my original plan but that’s what happens

over the next two days my routine was, make coffee and shower in the great camp site amenities do some writing, cycle somewhere by midday back to auld motor house tea time for some beers, dinner from some takeaway place back to campsite for wifi in the communal room,

there’s lots to see and do around Kirkwall even with the pubs being shut, there is two distilleries (large ones) scapa and highland park, scapa beach is awesome, the royal oak memorial along with many other memorials the cathedral and palace ruins, I could go on and on

I bought books from the book shop and posted postcards the distilleries required bookings, I cycled to the gates and took pics I wish I had another week, I wish it wasn’t the pandemic I wish a storm wasn’t coming, but there is no control over these things you are better to be gratefull for what you get, I was extremely grateful to be there then I had a great time in Kirkwall and the surrounding areas, its very cycle friendly there’s great cycle paths around Kirkwall, I had become used to none on Shetland, it was a pleasant surprise to see proper cycle paths and bike stands everywhere, it made Shetland seem anti-cycling there’s also way more flowers and trees on Orkney,

I was packing to leave for st Margaret’s Hope and got chatting to a young couple who had gave up work for the van life, ollie had not long since left the navy he was a snowboarder and surfer they were heading to Shetland; I was giving them tips of where to go what to see, carol the campsite warden said to me its gonna rain at four today! She knew where I was cycling to and it was approaching midday, I said oh your right carol that couple kept me talking she rolled her eyes and said aye right! As if it was me that was the chatterbox?

The cycle to the Murray arms was really good it felt good to cycle over the Churchill barriers almost like I had achieved something strangely another box I could tick or some such psychological thing, I stopped and had a beer at a totem pole which also had a big wooden bench all the way from NZ, which I smiled and sat on to drink my beer I would have been a bit sadder had I known the bench was actually from the people of an area were an orcadian young girl backpacker was murdered,

I arrived at the Murray arms before the rains came, the rains started as I sat in the very pleasant beer garden under a tarp beside a heater