June 30 - Finstown to Wick

The day started off beautiful, with a slight breeze and sunny skies. Ms. McGregor even remarked that it would be nice for me to finish my tour with nice weather for a change. Little did I know...

For me, this final day on the road would be marked by a series of poor decisions. I guess I was getting close to the end of the trip, and I was getting to the point where I just wanted to finish.

Anyway, my first decision was to take the main road between Finstown and Kirkwall. Not really a terrible decision, since the main road was OK. I'm just wondering what was down the other road....

Poor decision #2 actually came a few days earlier, when I didn't get the broken spoke fixed when I was at the Bike Bothy. Maybe the wheel wouldn't have fallen apart, as it started to do on this day. I was concerned for the rest of the day that it wouldn't last until Wick.

Decision #3 came when I was passing through Kirkwall. Somehow it seemed like I could get to the St. Margaret's Hope ferry in time for its 11:30 sailing, get over to the Scotland mainland, and get to Wick by afternoon. So, I skipped an opportunity to check out St. Magnus' Cathedral, which wasbuilt by the Vikings during their occupation of the Orkneys.

Decision #4 was more or less the same as #3, except that I skipped an opportunity to visit the Highland Park Distillery. Tours started at 12:00, and I was passing through at 10:30. Couldn't wait that extra hour and a half....

Anyway, after climbing out of Kirkwall and passing on the Highland Park distillery tour, I misread the map and headed out of town on the wrong road. Of course, I didn't discover this fact until I had already ridden about five miles.

Well, because I missed the turn, there was no possible way I could make the 11:30 ferry at St. Margaret's Hope. So I decided to stop at St. Margaret's Hope, find a pub, and pass the time until the next ferry, at 5:00 p.m. But as I got there, it was only another five miles to Burwick, and I (mistakenly) thought I could find at least a snack shop at Burwick. So my last poor decision: go on to Burwick, only to find nothing but a temporary shack at the ferry terminal. D'oh!

Oh well... so I had a few hours to kill. Knowing that the Tomb of the Eagles was nearby, I checked it out. It's actually two prehistoric attractions in one. There is a stone house, which was discovered when looking for gravel to repave his driveway. Nearby is a tomb that contains eagle talons and bones (thus the nickname), which was used around 5000 years ago. Both are administered by the family who owned the farm where they were discovered. They also have a nifty hiking trail along the seacliff edge, where I saw some birds nesting.

I did make some good decisions too, such as stopping to visit the Italian Chapel. It was built byItalian prisoners of war during World War II. The British gave them two Nissen huts to join together, plus all the metal and masonry scraps they could use. The result was a loving tribute totheir religion.

Italian Chapel (built by prisoners of war)

After my side trip to the Tomb of the Eagles, and an uneventful ferry ride back to the Scottish mainland, I alit from the ferry only to find that the cloudy skies had yielded up a basketful of
rain. Cold, driving rain. Bummer. So much for having a beautiful final day... But I have to admit that the riding wasn't too bad. I was too worried about the rear wheel failing to worry about rain.I passed a couple attractions that I would have liked to check out, such as a castle or two, and the Viking Heritage Center.

Found the B&B without too much trouble, which was great considering I lost the address. The proprietress told me about a decent pub, called Carter's Bar. I got some good food, a pint of Tennant's, and had a slug of Highland Park Scotch. I overheard an interesting conversation while at Carter's. One fellow was apparently fed up with his friend, and said, "Who's the driver in this f***ing conversation, anyway?" I also met a nice couple chaps up in Scotland on a sailing trip. A nice ending to a screwed up day.

Hearty Brits in the pub