LEJOG Day 28
Only 12 miles to go.
The weather looked very ordinary at 6 a.m. Breakfast was served by what appeared to be the younger brother of the waitress from the night before. What are the child labour laws in Scotland?
The weather was not much better when I left the hotel around 9.30 a.m. The ferry from John o Groats to the Orkneys was leaving in an hour. I had put myself under pressure. There were a number of cyclists, in pairs and groups, heading south. The ‘ E to E’ season has started.
I kept up a reasonable pace that would see me with 10 mins for the obligatory photos before the ferry was to depart. As it turned out, when I arrived in John o Groats and bought my ticket to Berwick, the ferry was late. That gave me time for the photos and a bit more. The book I am reading tells that the “average time spent in John o Groats is 15 mins”. I suspect that is 10 mins too long. Apart from the signs, both Lands End and John o Groats do not have a huge amount to offer.
I have been to the most southerly point (Cape Otway) and Easterly point (Cape Byron) of mainland Australia. Neither of these places make a big thing of these facts. I guess they are not on the way to anywhere. Also, not many people do the west to east or north to south trips.
The ferry across the Berwick takes only 40 mins. The tide travels fast. You can see it in the water and it swirling around.
I asked a driver of a bus, the directions to Kirkall. He laughed -” there is only one way, take the road and head north. The weather was wet and misty. I am not sure what the countryside is like behind the mist. I encountered a case of ‘road rage’. What the driver was in a rush about is anyone’s guess. Maybe they wanted to see if the mist was as thick further north.
I stopped for a pie and ale in a hotel. The waitress was from Nottingham and had very interesting ascent – a mixture of Nottinghamshire and Orkney. She told me she likes the winter here. She said that when “it gets dark and 2.00 p.m. people get very social”.
After lunch I rode across Scarpa Flow. This was the main naval base for the Royal Navy in both WW1 and WW2. A German torpedoed a British ship in the first two weeks of WW2. Winston Churchill ordered that construction of concrete barriers to protect the fleet. These were complete in August 1945. They do serve some purpose though, they causeways linking small island to the main island. Much of the work building the barriers was performed by Italian POWs. A chapel they built has been preserved. It is worth a visit.
When I arrived in Kirkwall, I happened across a bike shop – time for a tyre check. The Rohloff was again the topic of discussion.
I was still wet. I decided to check into a hostel. It turned out to be good – rare in the UK.
I walked into Kirkwall. Like all places this far north, the buildings are very austere. They would not look out of place in Soviet Russia.
I had a curry in a Hotel washed down by Scarpa Special Ale.
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