ORKNEY ADVENTURES :: DAY FIVE
ISLE OF SANDAY
Todays plan was to visit the Isle of Sanday, but before that I had arranged to meet a fellow 365er who lives in Orkney. I met the lovely Ingrid Budge
@ingrid2101 in the cafe opposite the cathedral, over coffees we had a very interesting chat about 365 and the lovely islands where Ingrid lives. All too soon it was time to go for the ferry over to Sanday.
On the ferry I met two charming sisters, Catriona and Alison, and a Dutchman ( more of him later). Catriona and Alison also planned to cycle round Sanday so we joined up and planned a route. It was a lovely sunny day, but at times there was a coolish breeze. Sanday is a lovely island and well named, there are some wonderful long sandy beaches on there, and no one on them. We cycled north, past Stove, and Ayre's Rock ( not the Australian one). Sanday is very quiet and we had a very pleasant ride, if slightly hilly, it is a very green island, and like a lot of the other Orkney islands rather treeless, and finally reached Start Point, photo and story in my other album.
We retraced our tracks back to the village of Lady, looking for some dinner at the small shop. They did not do sandwiches, so we asked about the cafe which we had heard about on the road up to Whitemill Bay, we knew that there was a cafe and craft shop and museum up there, however it turned out they are all closed on a Monday. Outside, we did a bit of re-planning. The girls had been told that in Kettletoft there was two hotels and a shop where we could get food from, so we did around about route to get to the village, dreaming of a lovely lunch and maybe a cold beer sat out in the sunshine. There is a nice long drop down into Kettletoft, and Catriona and I rushed down to find the village looked like a ghost town. There was not one person around any where and both the pubs were closed,circling around the deserted square we discussed our options. Then Alison said "lets try the shop." " What shop ?" was our reply.
Turns out it was easy to miss, it looked like a white fisherman's cottage with nothing outside to suggest it was a shop. I got off Bumble and tried the door handle with no real hope that it would open, and was very surprised when it did. Inside there was a lady stood behind some tables with stock piled up on them, and there was another room with more tables and piles of stock.It must be hard work to make a living from this shop, but the islanders do need somewhere to get their stuff. We searched and found some stuff for a basic picnic, got some bottles of beer and had to borrow a bottle opener. We went outside, sat on the grass and had lunch, good fun but not quite the feast we had been looking forward to.
After dinner, ( if I can use the word for what we had) it was time to begin heading slowly back for the ferry. At the ferry terminal, the Dutchman was waiting with his mother, for the ferry also. He was showing her around the islands, he was working on one of the many schemes up here to generate electricity from the tides. He was the third person I had met, whilst up here, working on similar things. It was very interesting talking to them.
On the ferry back we met another interesting person, Anthony, he had seemed to have lived a very varied and diverse life and was now traveling around. He had cycled around Europe and was also the first person to hand rear a Flamingo chick.
It was a lovely journey sat in the sun on the journey back, and in Kirkwall we all decided we needed some tea, so headed to Helgi's ( the little pink building in my shot of the harbour the other day ) for a lovely meal and a few drinks. All in all a fabulous day.
Things I have learned today, travelling around you meet some wonderful and interesting people. Sanday is a beautiful and stunning island and I will visit it again but I will remember that not to go on a Monday as it is closed.
Only joking, it is well worth going anytime.
http://365project.org/markp/Alternatively/12-05-2014
A beautiful capture of this bird -- doesn't he blend well with his surrounds --!! Hope to hear the next installment !!