Saint Peters and Saint Andrews Church taken from Sir Johns Square, Thurso. Today is the first day of my Orkney Adventures, the full story of a very long day is below the link to my other album.
http://365project.org/markp/Alternatively/08-05-2014
ORKNEY ADVENTURE :: DAY ONE
DERAILED
Bumble, my touring bike and I, were off again, this time the plan was to go island hopping around the Orkney Islands. I began to get the idea things might not go quite to plan, at 9.30 the previous night. I was due to catch the 6.15 am train from Warrington and I could have ridden the 8 miles to the station, but to save sitting in my cycling stuff all day I had asked a Taxi friend with a large cab to pick me up at 5.30. Then he rang up to say the office had given him a very good job due to be picked up at 5.30 and could he pick me up at 5.00 am instead. So I ended up in Warrington almost an hour before my train, just had a wander around as it was a nice morning.
The trains Warrington to Glasgow, and Glasgow to Inverness were fine. Arrived in Inverness at 1.30 pm, now I had a slight problem, the train North to Wick, is only small and is only supposed to take 4 bikes. But this is the main link to and from John O'Groats for all the cyclists doing the Lands End/John O'Groats ride and it is really hard to book your bike on it. I had not been able to book my bike onto the 2pm service, I would have to wait till the 6pm one. I decided to see if I could do anything about this. I found the 2 o'clock train and explained all this to the conductor, and said if necessary I would buy another ticket if I could get on the 2pm train. Finally she opened the platform, all the passengers, including the 4 cyclists got on, then she leaned out of the window and waved me up, she said there was room if I put my bike where she said. Hurrah ! Result.
Off we went, then we got to Tain, here there was a broken rail just ahead. So everybody got off the train and waited for a replacement coach, it turned up and I had to climb into the underneath to try and get the 5 bikes into the luggage area. Off we went to the next station north, Ardgay, here the south bound passengers were waitng and we got on their train and they got the coach. Okay, that was easy I thought and off we went. Now up here the track is mostly singe lane with a few passing places, we got to Helmsdale and the conductor announced that because the trains were now mis-timed we would have to wait at the station for 20 minutes till the south bound train passed. This turned into more than half an hour, then the conductor must have been trying to radio the driver on the train but pressed the wrong button. Her voice boomed out out of the intercom to all the passengers. " Hamish, Hamish, we are late, will you hurry up, Hamish, you need to come past us, we are late, Hamish, hurry up, Hamish, Hamish, can you hear me ?" She must then have realised that she pressed the wrong button and it all went quiet. Eventually Hamish brought his train into the station and we were able to get going again.
As you get near to the end of the journey you reach a place called Georgemas Junction Station, then the train heads west to Thurso, then reverses back though Georgemas and finally ends up in Wick.
They made the decision the driver had done too many hours so all passengers for Thurso would have to get off and another coach would be waiting for us at Georgemas. This coach turned into a mini bus, the driver looked at the 5 bikes and said he could not fit us all on and would come back for the bikes. I said I knew were I was, it was only 8 miles into Thurso and mostly down hill and as the other cyclists were all planning to ride the length of the country over the next few days, I suggested that we cycled into Thurso, which we did. A rather interesting day, to say the least.
Reached Thurso, late but earlier than I planned, found my B&B, went out, took a few shots, had a lovely meal and as I walked home spotted two otters in the river that flows through the middle of Thurso and stood watching them quite close for about 5 minutes.
As a postscript, the train staff were very good through all the troubles and handed out complaint forms and as I am so behind in actually posting my shots, I can report that today they have refunded my train fare. So a result, hope the rest of the trip is easier than today, but don't hold your breathe.
