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Saturday
Got up early and had a decent cooked breakfast before heading off to John O’Groats (about 30 min trip) to catch the ferry to Orkney Islands. It was really foggy all the way to the ferry and I didn’t think for one minute that we would be leaving in time, but sure enough off we went on schedule. We sat out on the deck all the way and were quite warm, but couldn’t see a blooming thing. The sea was calm mercifully (although a little bit of a swell) and nobody was sick.
On arriving at Orkney the Maxi tour bus was waiting for us and off we went for a fantastic day. The history of the Orkney islands is fantastic, dating back 5000 years to prehistoric times The trip covered so many miles and so many highlights, so here are just a few.
First of all we travelled over 4 x Churchill barricades. These are in effect long causeways man made (by Italian prisoners of war) on the instruction of Winstone Churchill, to cut off 4 of the entrances to Scarpa Flow. During the first world war many ships were scuttled in these entrances to keep the enemy out. In time these wrecks broke up and drifted apart, leaving a few gaps here and there. Just weeks into the second world war a German U boat came through one of the gaps with the intention of blowing up the entire British fleet – some hundreds of boats. However, most of them were out at sea and the U boat only managed to sink one ship – probably the biggest one, complete with 850 men on board the aircraft carrier HMS Royal Oak. The wreck is now a protected war grave.
We spent some time in both of the main towns of Stromness and Kirkwall for a bit of retail therapy and sustenance, and also a fascinating 1.5 hrs at the historic site of Skara Brae, an almost complete village dating back to about 4000 BC. A huge storm uncovered sand dunes and the perfectly preserved pre-historic village emerged with the help of Archaeologists. Then on the near perfect stone circles very reminiscent of Stonehenge, many World war 2 sites and an Italian church built and decorated by the Italian POW’s.
The ferry left Orkney back to Scotland at 7 pm and we made it back to our B & B by 9 pm after trying to find a money machine (no luck) and something to eat (average fish and chips – we could teach them a thing or two!!)
A fabulous day.
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