Orcadian for a day!

We got the ferry at 9am  from John O'Groats to South Ronaldsay Island, Orkney.   We went across with only our bikes.  What a gorgeous day, best yet.  It actually got pleasantly warm (I wouldn't say hot).  The sky was blue and the sea was a deep blue that you rarely see.  At every point on our cycling trip we could see the sea, the harbours,Íslands and especially the beaches, they were magical.  I'm not normally this gushing with language but I think we saw it all at it's best, especially in the best weather.  The photos will never do this justice.

There is a 'Churchill Barrier' in the background.  These barriers were constructed in the Second World War to protect the Navy that was based in Scapa Flow from a German attack from the East.  They linked three of the islands to the main island.

On the way to Kirkwall we stopped at the Italian Chapel that was built by Italian Prisoners of War from any items that were available.  See the photo below.

Kirkwall itself had a lovely narrow pedestrian shopping street.  We ate our sandwiches in the square outside the Cathedral and had a scone at a cafe that was a contender for Janice's scone of the year award.  The Cathedral was large, very old and interesting.  Normally my blogs are full of photos of churches, I haven't put many in so far this year, so to put matters right here is Kirkwall St Magnus Cathedral.

We also went for a tour of Scapa Whisky Distillery, of course the best bit is the tasting.  The other whisky made on the island is Highland Park which I think is a bit too peaty.  The Scapa was nice but not particularly distinctive.

Janice can't wait to get into the distillery!

Rain was forecast for later in the afternoon and clouds had started to gather, so we started our ride back towards the ferry even though we were a bit early.  We broke our journey just as it started to rain at a village called St Margaret's Hope.  We went into the Murray Arms for a drink (soft drink, in case you were thinking we had a problem!) whilst the worst of the rain passed.

We completed our ride totalling 50 miles of very undulating roads.  On our return we had a chippy tea from the van at John O'Groats and then took the van back to Duncansby Head which is our favourite position so far for wild camping.

What a great day it's been.  I couldn't have expected a better day of weather and cycling.  This is what it's all about.

Top of the world.

Whilst writing this episode we are parked up at a car park at Duncansby Head, near John O'Groats.  We have made it to the top of this fair isle.  The weather has been lovely and sunny and at 9pm it is still bright.  We are looking over the sea and across to the Orkney Íslands, the body of water is the Pentland Firth and beyond is Scapa Flow.  It is a fantastic view and we have just got in from walking on the beach, watching five seals bobbing around in the water nearby.

View from Duncansby Head at 9.15pm

Slightly earlier.

Stacks of Duncansby.  Just a short walk from our van.

My day was started with a 4 mile run, followed by haggis for breakfast.  What do you think if this...

This is my food art of the week.  I call it my Groucho Marx Masterpiece!

Our journey was different from all our other journeys!  Janice drove for the first time!  Well actually, she has driven once before on a motorway and once in a field but never on a normal A road.  She coped extremely well and gave me no grounds to tease her in the blog.

We called in at Wick, which is a bit of a dump.  We walked into the centre and entered the only establishment that looked suitable for us....it just happened to be the local Wetherspoons pub.  When we came out I managed to twist my ankle on the kerb and fell over into the road as a taxi was driving past.  I must have looked like a real drunkard and the taxi actually stopped, thinking he may have clipped me.  Don't worry, I was up straight away with nothing more than a grazed knee.

I was back in the driving seat for the next few miles up to John O'Groats, still sunny too!

We had decided to Wild Camp again so off we went to the car park a couple of miles away at Duncansby Head. We are waiting to see the Northern Lights.

Tomorrow we have got ferry tickets to go with our bikes to South Ronaldsay, which is the nearest of the Orkneys.  It's very exciting!

From Here to Nowhere!

We are struggling to remember the lead actors in the film 'From here to Eternity' because I wanted to make some kind of witty comparisons with our day today.

From the title you may anticipate a quiet day staying put at Dornoch.....and you would be correct.  We had a nice gentle get up.  The people in the van next to us, doing the John O'Groats to Lands End cycle ride, were up and about.  We did wave them off but both riders looked a bit worse for wear from their first day's cycling and one already had an Achilles' tendon bandaged up!

We did some general chores, Janice did some clothes washing and I washed the van exterior.  Good jobs.  We had a little exercise session (arms and tums) and an early sandwich before going for a bike ride.

Our ride also suits the title because it was a circular route to nowhere at all.  It was more of a wilderness ride because we turned off the main road and didn't see another car or cycle for the next 20 miles.  We went uphill onto the hillsides and past Loch Buidhe.  It was very blowy but otherwise a wonderful cycle ride.  Perfect timing again because we got back mid afternoon and it started to rain but fined up again later.

The sneezing competition is evenly matched at 4 wins each with a couple of draws.  The highlight so far was a 5-3 win for Janice on Wednesday, overhauling a 1-3 lead by me at lunchtime.  She has a tendency to surge forward with multiple sneezes that sound no more than an exaggerated cough, whilst I grind it out with individual sneezes of great power and volume.

Janice's childhood holiday nostalgia.

Our wild camping experience was good.  Although we did hear a couple of cars pull up about 10.30pm and the occupants must have had a chat with windows down because we could hear them mention the camper van.  Janice was a little bit concerned and I had to get up and check they had gone.  The morning was beautiful sunshine, so we had a nice breakfast and we set off on our travels again.

Our first destination was to Culloden battlefield.

It was a good museum and explained all the context of the Jacobite uprising.  Apparently the Murray clan fought on the right flank of the Jacobite army.  We recreated the battle in the camper van later, Janice made a bloodcurdling highland charge, I shouted boo and she ran away!!

We crossed the Moray Firth and Into Ross & Cromarty which I prefer to call 'Wallace and Gromarty'!  We aimed for Portmahomack.  This is a place where Janice had several family holidays from the age of 5.  She seemed to remember a lot considering it was such a long time ago and she was so young.

As you can see, it is a beautiful beach and the village was just like the village used in the film 'Local Hero'.  It even had an old fashioned telephone box just like the village in the film.  We walked on to Tarbet Ness lighthouse.  Ît was a bit further than we thought but it was a pleasant walk with a great view.  Some Scottish people gave us a lift back to the village, very kind because it actually rained with the only shower of the day.

We had booked at a CL at Dornoch for the night and arrived around teatime.  We pitched up next to some men who had done the first day of their John O'Groats to Lands End bike ride.  They looked a bit saddle weary already and were sleeping in a tent, not sure if they will survive!

We cycled down to Dornoch village.  They have a lovely beach and we had a beer and another nip in the Dornoch Castle Hotel.  This time we had Glenmorangie.  It is the local distillery about 6 miles back up the road at Tain.

Dornoch beach.

We are staying one more night here and aiming for the very north after that!  The sneezing competition is still ongoing and I will bring you up to speed in the next day or two.  Wifi is a bit limited now so blogs will be posted as and when we go to the pub!

By the way, no midge problems so far!

Wild camping!

We set off from St Andrews with the intention of travelling North but no idea where we would stay.  I had the yearning to do some wild camping (that's camping in a wild area, not camping in the nude)!

We crossed the Tay Bridge and turned left along the coast.  Arbroath was our first stop.  The town looked a bit run down but the harbour area was pretty and we had our lunch overlooking the boats being watched closely by a large seagull.

We carried on to Montrose and Stonehaven without stopping.  Stonehaven looked really quite quaint, a lot better than I expected but there wasn't a parking space for the van.  We turned inland to Banchory and had some wine gums and a coffee.  On the spur of the moment we called at Balmoral Castle in the late afternoon but the Queen had beaten us to it and it wasn't open to the public and we had a chat to the policeman on the gate   However, we admired the majestic River Dee instead.

And the sun was shining, wow!

We continued North starting to think about where we might wild camp.  We found just the place at Cock Bridge on the road to Tomintoul.  No smutty comments about the bridge please!  It is one of those places that is constantly being mentions by travel Lynn Bowles on BBC Radio 2 for it being closed by snow.  Terry Wogan used to say that there was a lady who tried to clear the snow single handedly, I can't remember what he called her?  Anyway, it is quite remote and beautiful.  

To complete the day we had haggis for tea and after a walk we had a nip of Old Pulteney to get us nice and relaxed.

We have great plans already for tomorrow but you will have to wait and see.  Watch this space.

What happened in 1832?

I know many of you will have been racking your brain and googling events of 1832 to find out exactly what happened in Scottish history.  Well here is the definitive answer.....

Hope that wasn't too much of a let down!

Anyway, today we were planning to meet up with Laura, her fiancé Oliver and Oliver's family who were having a weeks holiday in St Andrews and renting a town house in the centre.

We cycled down and then went out for a beach and woodland walk at Tentsmuir, north of St Andrews. Most importantly it was dry and warm but it was also a beautiful area of sandy beach and dunes.  We had our picnic in the dunes.

Yes, I am permanently attached to my yellow cycling jacket, I think it can be removed by an operation available on the NHS!  Next to me is Stephen, and continuing towards the right are Oliver, Laura, Janice, Ros and Matt.  Cathie, Oliver's mum took the photo.

We returned to The Central pub, which surprisingly is in the town centre and had a few beverages.  It features very well in the Good Beer Guide and did not disappoint.  I tried a beer that had a Gaelic name and proudly announced that I was fluent in 'Garlic', silly me!  We tried to make sense of English terminology for meals and still couldn't definitively say what is meant by 'dinner' and 'tea'.  Dinner could be a lunch or any other meal at any time in the evening, whilst 'tea' could be an early evening meal or a light afternoon meal of cakes and cup of tea but it could in some circumstances be called 'dinner' or if it is late it could be called 'supper'.  I hope that makes it all clear.

Ros and Matt made a lovely Thai Green Curry for tea (or was it dinner or supper!) and we cycled back before the rain set in.  

We have no plan about where we are staying tomorrow.  We had considered whether to turn southwards for better weather.  But we are made of sterner stuff and we are continuing North - not sure where?

Janice needs to wear two pairs of pants - just in case she gets a hole in one!

Despite the dodgy weather forecast we set off to St Andrews on our bikes.  I was thinking of a longer ride to Dundee but chickened out.

We went down to the Himalaya's putting green, next to the Old Course.  It is a testing putting challenge on a very undulating green.  Guess what....Janice got a hole-in-one on the first hole! Would you Adam and Eve it!  She was certainly very nifty with the putter and it a tight competition we finished equal on 1 under par.  Are you starting to see a competitive theme between us?

Can you see the likeness with Nick Faldo??

We had our statutory scone at the cafe over the Golf Museum.  We had a lovely view over the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse.

Then on to a lovely, blowy walk along the beach on West Shore.  Surprisingly the sun shone and I recreated the Chariots Of Fire run along the beach.

Whilst Janice did cart wheels.....just because she can!

We popped into the Kinburn House museum of St Andrews to see displays on the history of the city.  Kinburn House was named after the Crimean battle of 1855.  Being very interested on key dates of history I am setting a test for everyone to find out the significance of 1832 in Scottish History!

We cycled back in the mid afternoon before it rained and Janice managed a shower in the camper van for the first time.  She announced it was a great success, which is a relief because we hope to do a bit of wild camping with no electricity and no facilities at all.