Spectacular breakfast by Theresa at the Hawthorns B&B in Mey, then a quick roll down the hill to catch the ferry at Gill’s Bay. It’s an hour’s crossing to St Margaret Hope on South Ronaldsay, a southerly island among the Orkney archipelago. As forecast, it was a wet and windy ride to Kirkwall, where we had lunch at The Reel, Jennifer and Hazel Wrigley”s cafe / music school / recording studio.
Then another wind-beaten crawl westward to Stromness, Journey’s end. Stromness still as lovely as ever. The same “how do they keep a business like that going here?” shops. An African clothes shop in a remote Scottish island community, anyone? But big news: the Co-op has a gigantic shiny new store!
Mrs Brown of Brown’s Hostel showed us to room in cheerfully zany and hyperactive way. It’s a great one; en suite and spacious (hostels are a lottery).
Opening concert last night was terrific: Tim Edey, the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc (good humour from Sweden/Norway/Shetland) and finally Sharon Shannon.
This morning enjoying the pleasant change of a lie-in! Oh and rail strike cancelled on Monday… despite the obvious logistical nightmare of rescheduling sleepers and bike bookings, there was a small part of me that was longing to call in to work and say “sorry, can’t make it, stuck in the far north of Scotland.”