cycling
Busy, but relaxing day! The liners had arrived! How exciting
– Rebecca and I went through the town via the bakery, three buttered croissants
and coffees, plus the free samples of malt fruitcake, coconut fudge and
chocolate fudge…. Sitting down on the edge of the pier watching the tiny boats
taking passengers to and from the beasty ships. Unbelievably huge. Finally the
time had come to collect this beautiful racer bike for Sunday… oh wait…. In the
excitement of the liners arriving he’s forgotten… yes I would really have liked
to test it out... (& we’d planned a bike ride picnic this afternoon!) – I just
hope he brings it on Sunday!! Not wanting to spoil our bike ride plans I hired
a bike... quick pit stop to make the picnic and off we set! Climbing up a huge
steep hill straight away was not great – Rebecca pushed her bike up (believe me
that is a tough bike to ride – I tried) – past the whiskey distillery and a
crazy view of the liners docked in the bay – they are just enormous. Few hills
later and Rebecca almost has an asthma attack – we again remembered the lack of
signal & just what we could do if she took bad! Quiet sit, after peering at
my first highland cow and making plans to get a bus back to safety (if we made
it to St Marys) we set off again. Absolutely stunning views over south and a
much flatter route. I keep stopping to take photographs of scenic views,
Rebecca keeps stopping for photos of machinery and tractors… often calling them
by name – I haven’t got a clue about farming at all… Rebecca stopped during our
cycling, exclaiming “what a good cow.” So here’s me thinking, well it’s not the
prettiest, not my favourite… but I asked why it was a good cow… Straight back
and no sag in her udder! Learn something new every day… Cycled down off the
Mainland to a tiny island, home to the fantastic Italian chapel. We met a
strange, elderly guy from the liners who told us “I love ladies” – hmm possibly
a little rudely said bye as I wanted to take a photo of the chapel before the
next liner tour blocked the view… not quite in time but we joined ‘Aqua 5’ and
had a fabulous brief history of the chapel – really very awe-inspiring. Cycling
on down to the next small island – across our second of the Churchill barriers,
these were constructed in the war to secure Scapa Flow, ensuring our ships
would be safe and not infiltrated by enemy ships. I need to read some more
about Scapa Flow but I do know that after the war the ships were deliberately
sunken… many still remain there today – big diving place…. Across our third
Churchill Barrier and onto the island ‘Burray’, quick trip and back to the
previous island for a beachy picnic. We cycled on four islands – how incredible.
Ate lunch overlooking a few ship wrecked parts and watching a guy skimming
stones – he was getting 25/30 skims! Has Tom met his match? Much nicer cycle
home, went straight through the town to see the liners close up, returned my
bike and again went to tesco! I still can’t deal with people, got really hot
and flustered after tesco and walking home with all the people about – maybe I
need to take up island living! Vegetable pies for tea and then we went to
explore the nightlife… meeting Rebecca’s friend and her boyfriend for her
birthday, good night – two margaritas, a not so nice raspberry something, got
called a monkey-hanger, saw the docs working all weekend and some chips later hopped
into the taxi, making it into the common room in time to watch the deciding penalties!
Oh yes and all of the above will I’m sure help with tomorrow’s triathlon… I’ve
tried to sort out my outfit… might be parading around Stromness in my cossie
and shorts!
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