the orkney ferrry doesnt leave lerwick untill 17:30, the good thing about that is i didnt have to jump out of bed early after the previous days beers, it also gave me time to do my final packing at leisure, i was planning some time to squeeze in one last wee tourist thing to do, this did not happen as i got up to late and had no transport i wanted to visit a geological site down near sumburgh this will now be just something else to add to my next visit list!
I met dunc for breakfast at the peerie cafe then went with him to drop of some beers and a book for hamish, in some small way of saying thanks, duncan then helped me get the daunder all loaded up with the panniers at the ferry terminal, i got him to take a photo of me with my flight free for 2021 pledge sheet, we said our see you laters not goodbyes and promised to keep in touch, somewhere from where we said goodbye and loading the bike up once i got on the ferry i had lost a glove, i never take the blame for anything? it must have been duncs fault! thankfully i have a spare set
the pledging to go flight free for 2021 has been although difficult at times ive enjoyed it, i had been looking forward to the ferry journey, i have never look forward to a flight, as we sailed past sumburgh airport i had a quick count in my head! i reckon i have taken about seven hundred flights in my life, the ones from sumburgh where i was now sailing past for the first time ever were for work and ive done roughly? about 200 flights in and out of there, it was much more relaxing and enjoyable on the ferry,yes it was a shame the bars on the boat were closed due to covid but the bars at airports are also shut, i sat down for dinner and pulled a can of beer out my bag, then I got told of no alcohol to be consumed indoors! i apologised to the jobsworth that i had seen no sign, we cant put signs up for everything was his response, it didnt spoil my ferry journey, i loved sailing out of lerwick between bressay and noss places that i now know so well, then we sailed past fair isle as the sun was setting it was braw, i smiled smelled the sea air and felt free
it was cold out on deck i went inside for a while and watched a bloke while he got his drone up and running, he flew it out the back of the ferry then back in towards the window i was sitting at, then it went out again it went really far; so far in fact that i lost sight of it, I was wondering if he had lost it? but no! it came back to us at speed and he crashed it right above my window, the propellors all broke and the camera lense at the front was hanging, in short it was knackered we spoke briefly, i was much more concerned than him at the damage, he just said it was insured and that he would get it fixed, it turned out he was from the ukraine he was over doing some work on shetland, he then offered to transfer the flight footage of the broken drone to my phone which i gladly accepted,
i love that footage and enjoyed my ferry journey, of course it woulda been better with the bar open and nobody wearing masks the dinner que was huge i waited untill the kitchen WAS nearely shut so i didnt have to que which of course meant some options were out! with my already limited options i was glad to still be eating fish and eggs, there was some fish left so i had a plate of fish and chips
arriving in kirkwall at eleven pm, i spoke woth paul the other cyclist as we disembarked, he is on a different but similar mission to me, he is doing the NCN1 also but he is battering it he done sumburgh to skaw in a couple of days. now on orkney he is only doing kirkwall to st margarets hope! fair enough thinks i horses for courses his objectives are different from mine, he doesnt do social media either no facebook instagram twitter or wassap no blog not even a physical diary! and by the way he talked no photos either! i prefer to share my adventures, it makes it all worthwhile in the end and i would be gutted to lose my photos never mind my diaries
we camped up in the dark near the main road into kirkwall
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