Well, that's us back from a fabulous adventurising Easter break in the company of lovely Fay, MrFlowers and of course their faithful hounds. Well, hounds is pushing it a bit - neither of them have legs long enough to quite qualify for that. They are both utterly adorable though - perfect walking companions and masters of disguise to boot.
The easiest way to tell you all about the trip will be by breaking it down into chunks I think, so keep your eyes open for other blogs on the trip over the next couple of weeks....
For now though, here's the first bit - the journey up, and a bit of a wander around Thurso....
The sleeper pulled in to Aberdeen about 10 minutes early - not uncommon as all the stops from Preston on are to drop off passengers only, so there's no need for them to stick to a specific departure time, and generally, people are quite content being early, aren't they! We still didn't really have any spare time to do much wandering, so we popped outside the station for some air, and were taken aback by how much it had changed since our last visit, 10 years or so ago. After a short wait our Inverness train was called and we started heading North....
You can spot as soon as you get into the area for the distilleries - just look at all the whisky casks piled high! No idea which one this was I'm afraid - the trains goes past a number of them though. On we went passing through lovely cheery little stations, including this one which had a florist on the platform...
...and just LOOK at that weather - how glorious to be seeing some sunshine rather than the almost constant greyness we'd been suffering with in the South east for so long. A quick (very quick!) change at Inverness, and onwards - to the very top edge of Scotland and Thurso....
...where it was snowing. Hmmm. Thankfully it didn't last long - we pottered about at the station for a few minutes and by the time we walked down into the town itself the sun was shining again. First stop was a very welcome cuppa - although warmer than at home (yes, we were surprised too!) it was still a bit nippy so we found a nice cafe and sat for a bit, before heading off to explore as we had a few hours before our ferry. Right in the middle of town is this fascinating ruined church...
...sadly all locked up so we couldn't go in for a look around - a shame as it looked really interesting. A bit more wandering and we found ourselves by the water...by this time the weather was looking superb...
...and what else could we do but head for a wander along the beach?!
There you go - that's the Island of Hoy you can see, and if you look very, very carefully to the left of the main land-mass, you can just see the Old Man of Hoy sea stack. Ironically enough this was the only look at it we did get, as it was pitch black by the time we went past on the ferry! After a bit of a wander we ambled round to Scrabster to get the ferry...
...and another quick cuppa in the cafe there before MV Hamnavoe appeared and it was time to head aboard for the next mode of transport in our trip which had started on the sleeper some 22 hours earlier. By this stage the constant sense of movement had begun to play havoc with my balance and I was feeling like I was moving even when sitting perfectly still in the ferry terminal - a slightly freaky feeling and one which I was very glad went away once we'd been stationery on dry land for a while later on that evening! The ferry crossing started with delicious fish & chips, continued with this rather stunning sky...
...when we popped out on deck for a few minutes - it was too cold to stay out long - and ended with a sit on a beautiful comfy sofa in one of the passenger areas on board - we were extremely impressed with the high standard of the ferry and frankly, dear old MV Hebrides is going to feel like a bit of a come-down in a few weeks time!
Robyn
4 comments:
This sounds such an interesting journey; you must have felt as though you were travelling to the edge of the country. I'm glad the weather was good and so you could appreciate the scenery.
As you get further north is really does begin to feel that way Wendy! Doing it by train & ferry was definitely the right way for us too - it's always great to be able to appreciate the journey as much as the trip that you're making it for!
Ha ha, Thurso and Scrabster! I get so excited when I see my hometown mentioned anywhere! Glad you enjoyed Orkney, it really is lovely. The Hamnavoe is out of action at the moment though, which is causing no end of drama.
I've heard - they're bussing people along to Gills Bay to use the Pentland Service I gather? And Northlink are being fined an extortionate sum for every day their service is out!
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