And I have just return from my 2 day Orkney Island trip which is an 8 hour ferry ride from Aberdeen Harbour.
Went there with a bicycle and left without one. Adventure of Epicness.
Day 1
We arrive at 1130pm and initially wanted to sleep at the harbour but the terminal does not operate 24 hours so we got kicked out. With nowhere to go and the sky never getting dark throughout the night, we decide to start out 40 miles cycling journey. At Midnight! And it was one of the best scenery in Scotland so far thanks to the wonderful weather!
We took almost 17 hours to reach our destination at Stromness because our bicycles were not the best for climbing and we had to dismount to walk up the numerous slopes and hills in Orkney. I must have dismounted 100 times on Day 1 LOL! We also stopped to eat some food to refuel ourselves, to see the archaelogical sites and to say HELLO to the cows, horse and sheep. Orkney is good for raising farm animals... its like New Zealand!
Maybe its because I get to breathe in the fresh air or we are in control of our destiny (or maybe just movement) that I feel so in touch with nature! Compared to the bus trips like to Isle of Skye or Cliffs of Moher, I felt so much more alive this trip!!!
Could I still cycle on day 2 after the huge journey of Day 1? Of course!
But as fate would strike on me to have a freak incident where my rusty and old gear of my bicycle to slip a notch and my leg to fly into the front wheel and break the spokes of wheel, rendering it useless. I had to dump my trusty old bike and Edwin's too as no bus wanted to send us to town with our bikes and we couldn't get a hitchhike too.
We went to a distillery instead and went for a whisky tour and bought some nice whisky for friends and families back home. We also met a friend who coincidentally was in Orkney and was going back the same night also, so we had some dinner together. The ferry was delayed by 3 hours but we got some free chips, chocolates and drinks in return. It was really nice of the terminal crew!
Injury counts: Scraped 4 fingers and a right knee, loss a bicycle and a pair of gloves and bicycle lock...but it was one hell of a trip!
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