Day 10 - Dinner Head (70 kms) - " Following the Sun"!

It might have taken nearly 2 weeks but we finally got a glimpse of what spring might look like as the sun finally  appeared on our journey to the Scottish mainland.

We left our late night partying pub to wind our way southwards through the main Orkney Island enjoying a beaut series of downhills

Our route took us along the historic Churchill barriers a series of rock fill and sunken ship debris used to block small channels on the Orkneys to protect the British Fleet during WW1 & WW2.. These barriers were enhanced under Churchills orders in 1939 after a Uboat snuck through defences torpedoing the British battleship HMS Royal Oak causing a staggering loss of 843 men most still entombed.

The military history enroute also included the amazingly POW painted Italian Chapel. On the outside just 2 simple Nissan huts joined together but on the inside elaborately painted walls recreating the design of a chapel - incredible given its affect.

We pushed on to St Margaret's Hope for our catamaran like ferry to the Scottish mainland in breezy but now sunny conditions . I thought Monika had somehow planned her escape when I heard a chopper buzzing directly above us but apparently the huge Coast Guard helicopter was conducting a simulation drill attempting to winch one of its support crew onto the ferry while both were in motion !

Having to shed one of our 14 clothing layers upon docking on the Scottish mainland at Gills Bay, we headed the 7 kms to John O'Groats the celebrated UK end to end finishing point of cyclists  of walkers including ourselves in 2011.

We took time to have lunch in one of the more modern of the many gaudy buildings and sat back to watch some back slapping cyclists open champagne to celebrate the completion of their journey.

Retracing our 2011 steps we headed inland back past our ferry's landing point now into a headwind which Monika thanked me for. Finally we reached our beautifully positioned and designed b&b on Dunnet Head 4 kms shy of the real most northerly land point on mainland UK

After taking a quick culpa and scones, as you do in the UK, we completed the final 4 kms without panniers to take in the magical ocean views looking back to the Orkneys from the top of the head.

Another day on the bikes completed and near to 400 kms cycled so far with a tough day forecast for tomorrow of 100 kms in the rain !

Day 9 - Skara Brae (60 km's) - " A history lesson on the Orkneys " !

Buildings with furniture and shelves to show off family collectables, an  organized family commune that contained not only providers but also craftsman who fashioned jewellery and fashion items and all of this over 500 years before the pyramids were built - this was Skara Brae over 5,000 years ago !

I knew Monika was back into the "rhythm" after our days rest as the "mutter meter" was in the red zone quickly into our days cycle. She had a good reason i guess as her seat post kept sliding down making her look like she was auditioning for the role of a circus clown on a bike !

We made our way across country in the cold breezy conditions with rain showers ever threatening. The first noticeable difference about cycling the Orkneys was a) the scenery was much greener and b) the hills were no where near as severe as on Shetland.

Cutting inland we arrived at the amazing Stones of Stenness with its 6 meter high monolith's and the nearby Ring of Brodgar a beautiful circle of standing stones both UNESCO listed and over 5,000 years old, hundreds of years older than Stonehenge and a few years older than my good mate Kev !

A further 10kms on through lovely farm scenery though was the amazing highlight of Skara Brae one of the Neolithic gems of Europe and only discovered in 1850 after a storm exposed its stone buildings.

Situated perched overlooking windswept Skaill bay this village of 10 stone houses is not only famous for its age (again some 5,000 years) but also for its amazingly preserved evidence of a structured society with orderly buildings that provided for comfort as well as day to day living.

With Monika taking a breather I quickly also took on the nearby Estate building of Skaill House built in 1620 and like the all UK estates with its own fascinating history this one even containing a dining set straight from Captain Cooks fleet after they returned to the UK after Cooks death stopping first in Stromness in the Orkneys.

Overdosed on history we returned to Kirkwall blessed with sun and for the first time on trip some beautiful tail winds !

As luck would have it though we crossed Orkneys only hill on our return just to get Monika's "muttering" going once more before a terrific 5 km descent into Kirkwall to finish a great cycling day and our time in Shetland and the Orkneys

Tomorrow, with more sun on its way, it's time to jump to the Sottish mainland as we cycle our way over to the West coast of Scotland.

Day 8 - Kirkwall - "Caught by the tourist hordes"!

After our late night cycle from our Shetland ferry into Kirkwall we decided to take a well deserved rest day and take in the local sights

Following our first full English breakfast on tour we walked the narrow streets of Kirkwall surprisingly caught right in the middle of a tourist invasion not because of any startling overnight weather improvement but coincidentally because of the arrival of the 19 storey 3,500 passenger ship the Royal Princess complete with a wide mixture of nationalities.

Kirkwall's quiet streets were turned into bustling tourist hubs as the hordes attempted to get full value for their short stop over period

We went with the flow briefly visiting the beautiful 12th century St Magnus Cathedral with its towering cloisters and stained glass windows

With the icy winds most though took to indoor activities such as the gift shops and the many street cafes limiting our ability to take in the quaint towns normal ambience.

For the rest of the day it was some welcome r&r time and an opportunity to plan tomorrows Orkney ride

Day 7 - Lerwick (30 kms) - " Hitting the Cycling Jackpot" !

If you surveyed a group of cyclists about their pet hates you'd find that high on their top ten would be - cycling in teeming rain, cycling against strong headwinds and cycling on high speed traffic roads with no road verge ! Today we amazingly scooped the lot on our difficult 30 km ride to Lerwick to catch our Orkneys bound ferry.

After a good rest following yesterdays heroics we said goodbye to our talkative & genial b&b host Robert who not only has built boats, house extensions and set "taties", but is also a bit of a Shetland Country & Western music identity with his own cd and claim to fame of being a member of Billy Connelly's first ever band !

As it was we timed our exit beautifully to ride straight into a teeming downpour and after only 5 minutes we were not only wet but also having our first road rage event for the day when a following truck demonstrated to us that he knew how to use his horn ! We signalled to him politely that we were impressed by his knowledge by raising our middle fingers in praise !

The wind on the exposed high speed main road was incredible. Some corners required you to lean your bike into the wind while some uphill sections were just too dangerous to ride as the wind at our slow speed caused our bikes to lift and veer towards traffic - not an ideal situation with quite a few drivers doing their own Lewis Hamilton F1 impersonations in the wet conditions.

While we had only 30 kms to cover and 5 hours to reach Lerwick and our ferry, an early assessment indicated that at the pace we were going we weren't going to cover the distance in time!

Thankfully the wind gusts became less frequent although the rain downpours did not with the significant wind chill causing our end bits to really start to feel the cold !

With our heads down and some good ol Aussie persistence we eventually covered the 30 kms in 3 hours with the final few hills into Lerwick being real testers !

In town we headed straight to the Co-op supermarket partly because we were famished and partly because it was heated allowing us to shop and eat our lunch inside while restoring some badly needed body heat.

Joining the ferry's embarkation a kindly NZ company officer allowed us to board our bikes early so we could secure our seats, dry out and relax after a really tough short days ride

On board we met a fellow cyclist who we'd bumped into near Voe who had decided that after 10 days of battling headwinds and rain in Shetland he was heading home to enjoy (tongue in cheek) the sunny Newcastle UK weather !

The 5 hour ferry trip to Kirkwall on Orkney passed pretty quickly for me although it was a tad too long for Monika who spent most of it trying to avoid throwing up because of the heaving swells that caused the ship to steeply pitch. Getting a seat for Dinner was easy as it appears that drinking is the number 1 past time for Scots with food only an after thought !

We disembarked at 10.30 p.m. and yes there was just enough light to cycle our way into town some 3 kms away to be well received by the St Ola pub !

Tomorrow is a rest day with a wander around Kirkwall on the agenda and some time to allow those Shetland wind related nightmares to disappear !

Day 6 - Voe (75 kms) - " Battling the Shetland wind" !

2&1/2 days just to get to our Scottish end to end starting point but there we were yesterday standing with our bikes on the beach at Skaw contemplating the beautiful scenery, the 1500 km southwards journey ahead and how the hell the Vikings accessed Google Maps for their journey to this out of the way place !

One of the great "unknowns" heading south is trying to gauge the effect of the infamous Shetlands wind which  can reach ferocious levels without too much effort ! A news article yesterday in the cafe at Saxa Vord confirmed this highlighting one event in the late 1990's where winds from a storm picked up a hut and its two sleeping tourist inhabitants depositing them sadly deceased some 400 metres away !

As it turned out our glorious spell of sunny weather (12 hours) had in fact disappeared to be replaced with chilly overcast conditions and an energy sapping headwind that plagued us for nearly all of today's distance.

The first 15 kms back to our ferry at Belmont was doable but the 40 kms on the Island of Yell (aptly named because that was exactly what Monika was doing !) was slow torture against the unrelenting headwinds. We stopped at Mid Yell for lunch and a wind respite finding shelter on the beach standing directly behind a sea shipping container !  The rest did though give us a wildlife "gem" when an otter calmly exited from the Sea heading across the beach to his burrow - apparently it was too cold and windy even for him !

Replenished by our somewhat nauseous microwaved pie we headed along a series of wild never ending undulating single track roads to our next ferry port.

An international incident was narrowly avoided en route  when an 8 foot wide truck attempted to pass Monika on an 8 foot wide section of single track rather than wait 10 seconds in a passing bay to allow Monika to cycle by - with the truck inching forward Monika used her knowledge of the Australian vernacular to stun the truck driver into halting to allow her to safely pass - it's not often that you hear someone out swear a truckie so full marks to Monika !

Finally off the island of Yell we made our way to Voe along beautiful loch side scenery albeit now competing with high speed traffic on the main road to Lerwick.

With aching leg muscles we eventually arrived back at our scenically positioned accommodation in Lower Voe. A quick shower and it was out to dinner to the nearby pier pub with fellow B&Bers Judith & Simon to thank them for looking after us 2 days previous when we were stuck without food. The pub was was cleared of the drunken bodies and refuse that had been evident during the Viking festival and served up a good array of food with the fisherman's basket and Valhalla brewed beers clear winners.

Back at our B&B there was time to discuss the world's issues while watching the lovely sunset - if you can call it that given it seems to be still light at midnight !

Tomorrow sees us leaving Shetland as we cycle to Lerwick to catch our ferry to the historic Orkneys.

Day 5 - Baltasound (35km's) - "As far north as you can go"

I knew that when i'd heard Monika pleading to get back on the bike that I'd overslept and been dreaming but hey with only 35 kms to cover today was an easy one and time to relax !

Our morning observations confirmed amongst other things the maddening habit of home builders / designers in the UK to build every damned shower control differently ! It took us 20 minutes to finally work out that we were not going to get any hot water no matter what we tried !

Our other observation was the prolonged spell of good weather we were currently experiencing ... the sun was out at 6.00a.m and amazingly 3 hours later it was actually still there !

Finally under way we cycled past one of Shetlands most unique  tourist destinations, Bobby's Bus shelter, a furnished bus shelter that comes complete with its own yearly theme as decided by the Shetland council. We'd cycled past it late yesterday afternoon in our rush to the local shop and took time out on our return to sign its very own visitors book !

A small climb and descent following brought us to the impressive viking lpboat replica just outside Haroldswick. Shetland is renowned for having more remains of Viking Long Houses than in the whole of Scandinavia.

From there we climbed steeply before eventually descending to Skaw, one house, a beach and a land mass that is recognized as the UK's most northerly inhabited outpost - for us it signified the starting point of our Scottish end to end which we commemorated by tge ceremonial dipping of our rear wheels into the frigid looking Nth Sea !

Tradition done (described by Monika as ridiculous) we climbed back from Skaw stopping for luch at the former RAF base of Saxa Vord a radar dome listening post for over 50 years that played its part during the cold war and now serves as a holiday resort destination (maybe for penguins) complete with its own chocolate making cafe !

The shortish return to Baltasound was an absolute delight in the sunny conditions even though the wind chill factor was still cold enough for both of us to be wearing 3 layers of upper clothing !

Not much to do in the evening other than to catch up on emails, tell Monika how great she's doing and plan our return tomorrow to Voe where hopefully we can payback Simon & Judith for their hospitality 2 nights back.

Day 4 - Baltasound (80 kms) - "As good as it gets" !

With an amount of trepidation we checked outside our accommodation thankfully noting that the dreaded Shetland winds had died down to a calm 100 knots or so.

Replenished by a huge sleep and some good food courtesy of our newly found friends, we left Voe in chilly conditions (but the sun was out!) following a scenic loch road where climbing was made difficult into the strong headwinds.

We covered the 25 kms in good time to our short 20 minute ferry trip to the island of Yell. Shetland has an array of quaint named towns with Norse origin names e.b. Tingwall - place or Parliament, Aith - site of Isthmus and the rather unfortunately named village of Twatt just proving that the Vikings did indeed have a sense of humour !

The well spaced Shetland bus shelters came in handy on Yell as we took shelter and some lunch to escape the icy conditions. Monika had improved on her first days effort but with not much recent cycling under her belt was finding the long gradual climbs hard work

We arrived in Gutcher just in time for our next ferry to the Island of Unst the furthest northerly inhabited island in the UK with a latitude that matches Norway and boy did it feel like it with wind chill seemingly dropping temperatures by another 5 degrees !

Despite the conditions there was still time to take in the beautifully stark scenery that marks Shetland as one of the  most isolated areas in the world. Even car traffic was minimal although the roads provided hazards of another sort with skittish sheep likely to bring down an unwary cyclist !

After nearly 7 hours on the go we reached Baltasound and our accommodation after first embarrassingly ringing our host to tell her we were lost only to find out that we were standing directly outside her property !

We had just enough time to unpack before doing a 3km  sprint to the towns about to close only shop arriving breathless with only minutes to spare !

On our way back, having been worded up, we took dinner at the local community hall, venue for a once a week fish and chips night complete with bar that attracts most of the towns locals to gather and discuss the weeks events - we were ravenous after the days effort and  the food and ambience was fantastic !

Back to our beautifully located self contained accommodation we were delighted to find out that Rona the 12 year old daughter of the owner had baked us a cake leaving us a delightful welcome message - what a great feeling adding to the hugely welcoming spirit that we have found from the Shetland Islanders we've met so far.

So well fed and sitting back in our well heated accommodation with only a short ride tomorrow we could only think about the Shetlanders saying for their weather " this is as good as it gets" !

Day 4 - Voe (65 km's) - On the Bikes at last !

Our overnight ferry from Aberdeen would normally have tested our gag reflexes with its Nth Sea pitching effect if we weren't feeling so buggered ! 

On arrival at Lerwick we took our time departing the ferry with the captain being a little unimpressed as by the time we presented on the car deck our bikes were the only remaining vehicles on board.

Finally on land and after an hours worth of bike adjustments and a few pre trip arguments we finally hit the road on our 65 km journey to Voe.

The weather at 10 c was apparently about 10c warmer than what it had been in the last week but the winds on this pretty much treeless island were equally fierce !

The good roads and wild and remote scenery provided for some enjoyable cycling (according to me !) with Monika's early feedback indicating that she hadn't had so much fun since childbirth !

After considerable climbing through the wild landscapes we finally descended into Lower Voe right into the middle a Viking celebration of the local bakeries 100th year of operation - what the Vikings have to do with Bakeries is beyond me but i sure as hell wasn't going to risk asking someone carrying a huge sword !

Climbing out of lower Voe into Voe itself by way of a steep hill we set about trying to find our accommodation. Helped by some internet searching owners at the local shop we headed back down the same steep hill once again into Lowe Voe and after asking 2-3 friendly locals we were directed to our unmarked and unattended accommodation - the owner was down with the Vikings !

All " hilled " out and with the local pub standing swill room only, we had to rely on the goodwill of 2 fellow b&bers Simon & Judith who set about providing us a wonderful home made dinner of Shetland Salmon, Asparagus Risotto and a desert of whiskey laced cold porridge mixed with honey - even i found it delicious even though I hate whiskey !

Some local material provided an interesting backdrop to Voe's history which included locals weaving the jumpers that were worn by Hillary and Tensing Norgay on their Everest expedition !

With the hills , the whiskey and a drop or two of jet lag we crashed into bed early trying and failing to theavoid the sun which was still in the sky at 10 p.m. !

For a first day with its relevant trials we felt stuffed but pretty good !

Day 2 - Aberdeen - Disaster narrowly avoided !

We awoke to the land of the barely conscious after yesterday's marathon journey took a "full English" breakfast (the lot with the lot !) and then set about trying to put our disassembled bikes back together.

It didn't take long before we realized that something wasn't right  - Monika's derailleur bolt wouldn't screw back into the derailleur hanger which also looked suspiciously off kilter. This was a serious problem unless Monika intended to carry her bike around Scotland  !

Plan B was quickly developed where we discussed getting Monika into a cab and to a bike shop before I realized that my bike also needed repair a flat rear tire and my handlebar spacers not seating correctly - again not a problem providing i didn't intend on steering !

Plan C was calmly developed after I first headbutted the wall, kicked the bike and swore in a language even hardened Scots would have been proud of !

Luckily our ferry wasn't due to depart Aberdeen till near 7 p.m  so Monika set about ringing and pleading with various bike shops before one agreed to see us straight away.

With stuff just thrown into bags we headed into town barely fitting into the quickly arranged taxi. Our bike shop mechanic promised to do the best he could in the time available while we were given 4 hours to visit sunny downtown Aberdeen and come up with a back up plan D just in case (... heading back home was high on the list!)

There was little for us to do other than scout this afternoons route to the ferry across a busy central area complete with trucks and lorries busily engaged with the various Nth Sea oil companies.

There were few obvious aesthetic highlights of downtown Aberdeen and in fact the garb and demeanour of the locals suggested that the city had taken a fair hammering with low oil prices apparently causing numerous lay offs.

About 42 cups of tea later we wandered nervously back to the bike shop to be told that our bikes had in fact been fixed ( Monika's derailleur hanger had been bent and  attempts to reseat the screw had in fact stripped the thread) allowing us to quickly load them and head towards the Shetland ferry terminal.

Finally the days dramas seemed behind us as we boarded our ferry and then departed Aberdeen for our Nth Sea journey to Lerwick some 12 hours away ! Hopefully our troubles are behind us !

Day 2 - Aberdeen - Disaster narrowly avoided !

We awoke to the land of the barely conscious after yesterday's marathon journey took a "full English" breakfast (the lot with the lot !) and then set about trying to put our disassembled bikes back together.

It didn't take long before we realized that something wasn't right  - Monika's derailleur bolt wouldn't screw back into the derailleur hanger which also looked suspiciously off kilter. This was a serious problem unless Monika intended to carry her bike around Scotland  !

Plan B was quickly developed where we discussed getting Monika into a cab and to a bike shop before I realized that my bike also needed repair a flat rear tire and my handlebar spacers not seating correctly - again not a problem providing i didn't intend on steering !

Plan C was calmly developed after I first headbutted the wall, kicked the bike and swore in a language even hardened Scots would have been proud of !

Luckily our ferry wasn't due to depart Aberdeen till near 7 p.m  so Monika set about ringing and pleading with various bike shops before one agreed to see us straight away.

With stuff just thrown into bags we headed into town barely fitting into the quickly arranged taxi. Our bike shop mechanic promised to do the best he could in the time available while we were given 4 hours to visit sunny downtown Aberdeen and come up with a back up plan D just in case (... heading back home was high on the list!)

There was little for us to do other than scout this afternoons route to the ferry across a busy central area complete with trucks and lorries busily engaged with the various Nth Sea oil companies.

There were few obvious aesthetic highlights of downtown Aberdeen and in fact the garb and demeanour of the locals suggested that the city had taken a fair hammering with low oil prices apparently causing numerous lay offs.

About 42 cups of tea later we wandered nervously back to the bike shop to be told that our bikes had in fact been fixed ( Monika's derailleur hanger had been bent and  attempts to reseat the screw had in fact stripped the thread) allowing us to quickly load them and head towards the Shetland ferry terminal.

Finally the days dramas seemed behind us as we boarded our ferry and then departed Aberdeen for our Nth Sea journey to Lerwick some 12 hours away ! Hopefully our troubles are behind us !

Day 1 - Aberdeen - ,42 Hours on the go !

The thought of commissioning a referendum to position Australia some 10,000 kms closer to the Nthn Hemisphere must i admit cross my mind once or twice as we endured 42 hours on the go & 4 flight legs on our way from Melbourne to Aberdeen Scotland to commence our trip.

The day had not started overly well when security had accused me of planning to disassemble our Royal Brunei plane mid flight thus forcing me to surrender all but one (hopefully the one I'll need to put the bike back together with) of the set of Allen keys I was carrying.

Never the less RB staff worked hard on the state of the art 777 Dreamliner to keep us well fed as we journeyed to Brunei and Dubai on our way to London.

The stop over at Brunei showed that this wealthy country's airport still has a way to go to meet even 3rd world standards with its one small duty free shop and an even smaller cafe somehow meant to entertain hundreds of transiting passengers !

The endurance test picked up a notch on the remaining two 7 hour legs but all seemed to be forgotten as we crossed the British Channel at first light to track down the Thames for a great early morning view of central London while doing 2 lazy 360's awaiting clearance to land.

On the ground and with our bike boxes looking largely intact, we worked our way to Terminal 5 on a double decker bus successfully trapping all passengers on board with our boxes blocking all exits !

After being on the go for 30+ hours we still had another 6 hours prior to our Aberdeen flight so decided to entertain ourselves and nearby passengers by repacking our bike boxes to meet the strict British Airways 23 kg policy only to realize that we'd left all our packing tape back at customs in terminal 4 !

After frantically searching we eventually resealed our boxes with newly purchased tape and proceeded through security trying hard not to look suspicious despite sweating from wearing 3 layers of clothing to reduce our box weights - normally not a bad idea in the UK but as luck would have it todays sunny London day was not helping !

A short 1 & 1/2 hour flight, and 400 metres of bike box dragging later we finally reached our accommodation with just enough energy left to take dinner before crashing to bed dreaming of all the fun we'll have tomorrow reassembling our bikes with our one remaining allen key before we ride into town to catch our evening ferry to the Shetlands !

On the Road Again !

It's nearly 4 years since we crossed the line at Lands End to signal the end to our "epic" 2,000 km + UK end to end ride. Epic in terms of scenery & Monika's achievement having till then cycled no more than 40 km's in one day ! With the pain filled memories committed to the scrapbook album and Monika's "chunder" stained shoes committed to the bin, it's time to do it all over again although if you ask Monika why she struggles to come up with an answer that makes any sense. This time we take on the hills and terrain that famously define Scotland as well as the exposed areas of the Shetlands , Orkneys and the Outer Hebrides which promise a battle or two with expected strong winds ! On the plus side the scenery abounds with every corner providing a taste of why Scotland has some of the most wild and spectacular scenery in the world. With 1500 fun and occasional pain filled km's to cover we look forward to making over way from the Northern most point in Scotland to the Southern most point to complete a Scottish end to end ride. The expected rain, cold weather and strong winds will be balanced by the day ending B&B's that are famous for their hospitality, food and soothing baths. We look forward to sharing our journey and maybe in some small way hopefully inspire others to go in search of their dream adventure !

Mike Litchfield 

May 2015