J&J's European Adventure

9 August

Orkney Islands

A light mist was falling as we walked downtown for today's activities. First, we tried to get a cabin for tonight on the ferry back to the mainland. We thought we would spend the night on the boat (it sails at 0600) and arrive bright-eyed and rested back in Scrabster at 0730 the next day. Sadly, all cabins were already booked. That means we either spend another night in Orkney, or take the 1645 boat. We opted for the boat.

We spent the day riding a tour bus around the island. It took us to Skara Brae, the best-preserved stone age village in Europe, which is over 5000 yrs old. It is on the coast, and was covered by sand dunes for a few thousand years until a big storm exposed a bit of it in the 1800s. We also got to visit a big ring of standing stones, the Ring of Brodgar, and a chapel built by Italian POWs during WW2. We drove across part of the Churchill barrier, a series of causeways constructed to keep u-boats out of Scapa Flow.

The bus driver was a native of the Island, and he gave us a lot of history about Scapa Flow, the scuttling of the German fleet after WW1, flora, fauna, island history, etc. Since he was a native Orkadian, we could only understand about 50% of the narrative, but it was a good day. I would have liked more time in the islands, but the ferry schedule had us in a bit of a bind, so we took the bus back to Stromness and rode the last afternoon ferry back to mainland Scotland.

When we landed in Scrabster, we were greeted by a cold, steady light rain. There was no bus service into town and no taxis about, so we suited up and walked. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. As we came into the outskirts of Thurso, we passed a caravan park that had small trailers for rent. Inquiring at the park café, we were connected with the trailers' owner, who rented one to us for the night for ₤45. The fellow running the RV park, who served us a much appreciated bowl of soup, is a transplanted Texan from Amarillo. His daughter runs the café and attended UNT in Denton. What are the odds?!

Daily miles: 7.95

Expenses: £113.91 (bus tour, sites, ferry, food, RV park)