ISLAND HOPPING Day - Nine
For some reason I thought that the ferry I wanted today, sailed early afternoon, so it was a bit of a shock to discover it was leaving Kirkwall at 10.30 am. So a very quick breakfast, packed the car as I was leaving the B&B I had used all week and went and found somewhere in the Long Stay Car Parks.
I then walked back through town to collect my bike from the B&B, that was loaded with panniers, to enable me to tour around the islands for a couple of days. It was quite interesting walking through Kirkwall, as there was another cruise ship in, and Kirkwall was very busy, with lots of different languages and accents being over heard.
As I boarded the ferry I was hoping for a bit more luck than I had last year. I used this same ferry, only they managed to run it aground, and we got stuck for several hours, which made a real mess of the rest of my plans. I have put a link down below if you wish to read the full story.
This years plan was a ferry out to North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney's. Get there and you are further North than the southern tip of Norway. Jump ship for a couple of minutes, few photographs and then rejoin the ship and continue to Papa Westray, where I was booked into the wonderful hostel there.
Got on board ship, watched them put a load of frieght on and apart from someone who drove a van onboard and promptly vanished, I think he spent the trip buried down in the cafe, right in the bottom of the ship, I thought I was going to be the only passenger. However just before we sailed two old ladies turned up.
It takes over 2 1/2 hours to get to North Ronaldsay, and the entire round trip back to Kirkwall is over 7 hours, but is a lovely cruise through the other islands.
This is what the ladies, from Glasgow, planned to do.
They used to hill walk, but were now a bit more limited in how far they could walk so were rather limited as to which islands they could visit due to lack of public transport. I told them my plans, and they said they wondered if the crew would let them off the boat too. I went off and found the young ticket collector, explained the story to her. She came back after a few minutes, and said as there was a lot of freight to crane off, we could have 20 minutes ashore. The ladies were really happy with this.
After a stop at North Ronaldsay, in beautiful sunshine, which was more like 40 minutes, than the planned 20, we boarded the boat with a few more passengers. There was a bird watcher and his Bulgarian friend, who were going to camp at the hostel, and Jean, an American also staying at the hostel.
Just after we left, we were also joined by a very tired Racing Pigeon, that crash landed on deck. Where it was supposed to be, I am not sure but it hitched a lift over to Papa. The ladies were delighted at being allowed off the boat, and wondered if the same could happen at Papa, I went off to see the ticket collector again and asked her. The result was yes, and the ladies were really happy, the day turning much, much better than anything they had imagined when they had got their tickets.
Arriving in Papa Westray, I took the panniers off my bike to make it easier to get down the landing gangway. The crew took it off me, saying they would sort it, and as I walked off the boat, looked up just in time to see it fly through the air. No they had not thrown it off, they had used the crane to lift it off.
I said good bye the the old ladies and set off to cycle all the way to the hostel.
Actually it's not that far, Papa is only 4 miles long, nearly a mile wide, and the hostel is probably just over a mile from the ferry. Found my room, got some supplies for tea from the community shop, in the hostel, and then set off to go and enjoy the island.
The photo above is a North Ronaldsay Sheep, an old and rare breed, it is kept off most of the grassland on the island by a long high wall, and has to eat the seaweed. It seems to thrive on this diet. Another odd fact about this breed is they don't act like normal sheep, and are impossible to round up using sheep dogs. When the islanders want to gather them for shearing, it is done by groups of humans instead.
Islands Visited; Two
Total Visited; Twenty
Ferries Used; Two
Total Used; Twenty Seven
Ports Used; Three
Total Different; Nineteen
If you wish to see the rest of todays shots just click on the link below..........
http://365project.org/markp/Alternatively/30-06-2015
Thank you very much for taking the time to view and for leaving your lovely comments and Favs. They are all very much appreciated.
If you wish to read last years story about my mishap at North Ronaldsay, click on the link below......
http://365project.org/markp/365/13-05-2014
