Friday 15 04, Kirkwall to Papa Westray.
and ferry to Papa Westray (Papay) is all we can think of......... soooo excited by the thought of staying for a whole month!
Very strong winds overnight had Alastair outside and comforting Hamish, who was just fine as usual.
Lisa spent half the night awake and convincing herself that the ferry would be cancelled due to high winds. So she awoke late (8 am) and continued to mither throughout the morning, whilst we were finishing our packing.
Alastair unloaded our bikes, which we'd brought on the bike rack, just to help us with moving our two huge bags and baby daysacks. He did this in the diverse weather of hail, sleet, rain, sun and wind. Though the term wind does no justice to this ever present, physically robust, and what is to become our constant companion for the next four weeks, forcing us into a menage a trois with a presence that is often difficult, sometimes dangerous and impossible to ignore.
We tried balancing the bags on our bikes to move them up the harbour to the Papay waiting room. Waste of time. Luckily A's new 'granny shopping bike', Penelope the Pashley, has a very large and robust basket on a rear fitted bikerack. So we rammed the red bag into it, nearly causing disaster as Penelope reared alarmingly with most of the weight too far to the rear. Adjustments resulted in slow forward progress, but progress nevertheless. Once in the waiting room we double checked everything, which increased Lisa's paranoia. The 'next ferry' sign said Sanday. The man she chatted to thought that Papay ferries went on Thursdays. Disaster.
At 10.30 sharp we were ushered down the RoRo platform, our bikes tied up and our bags stowed in the baggage compartment. We made our way up to the passenger lounge (no dogs or dirty boots) and we were off. HOORAY.
There was one other passenger. Alastair deduced that he was probably the man Lisa most wanted to spend her time with on Papay and introduced them: "Hi. You must be Papay's new RSPB warden. Lisa really wants to meet you." No clues; just the big wellies and expensive, though we'll worn, Leica binoculars around the neck. David, the new resident RSPB warden, was indeed on the ferry to start his brand new job. Lucky he was there, or we'd have missed the very familiar sight of black - tailed godwit speeding past and puffins swimming about in the distance.
A ferryman, very helpfully, told us about the two Orca spotted this morning, swimming alongside the ferry into Westray. So we spent the voyage outside on deck, in sunshine to be fair, in the attempt to spot the Orca with the floppy fin and his companion that were probably part of the Shetland pod. I'd like to say we were successful.
Candy King was there to welcome us. Just the couple of emails from John, who had rented Peatwell to us, assured us she would be, but it seemed too tenuous to be sure. Bikes were craned off the ferry. Bags deposited for us to collect. No RoRo because the pier is too small. Anything large, including cars, have to be craned off and Hamish had refused the indignation. Candy transported us and our bags to Peatwell. Whilst we were looking around a van pulled up and Jim, someone we'd never met, dropped our bikes off. Result.
Now officially knackered we slumped onto the bed and listened to BBC Radio 4. The uplifting tale of the men Shackleton left behind on Elephant Island for nine months unfolded as the wind howled outside. They lived under rowing boats, eating penguins surviving freezing temperatures and howling winds. Hmmmmm, hopefully unlike us then. Though we still had to find provisions.
Papay Community shop on Friday afternoon is an intimidating experience for the freshly marooned. Fresh food and vegetables can only arrive with the ferry to then sell in the shop on Wednesdays and Friday afternoons. So everyone needs to stock up, but supplies are limited. We arrived, with most of the island shoppers, foraged enough veg to keep us going and retreated to Peatwell. We tried digging for coal, but the effort proved fruitless.
Feeling very tired, Alastair realised that the pesky wind had run off with his waterproof saddle cover. Penelope sports a very fine brown leather Brooks saddle, which is seriously incompatible with the frequent rain showers. Cycling back to the shop against a force 7 wind was a struggle but worth it as the cover was in the field in front of the shop. Now the shoppers had their supplies and gone home, coal was a far less risky proposition, so a massive bag was purchased. Penelope reared in protest. Once the weight was redistributed the journey home was Ok, with a following wind.
We feasted with beans on toast. Shackleton would have been proud.
The sun room attached to Peatwell is awesome, with windows on three sides and views to the horizon, it became our entertainment. So we sat and stared for the rest of our evening. Before us lay a rough meadow with common gulls fighting for partners and eyeing up possible nesting spots, with rabbits dodging the flack. Beyond them Papay Sound crowded with white horses forms the barrier with Westray, constantly changing colours from deep blue through grey to silver. Then above Westray airport the huge sky hosts driving clouds changing shapes and colour every second.
A relaxing glass of Viognier is nearly spilt across the sofa when a bird of prey land on a post to our right. Lisa bouncing and pointing and shouting may have scared it off- Kestrel or possibly Merlin? Cracked our unique bottle of Hazelburn 18 year. Just awesome.
Off to sleep at 9.00 is postponed by a very strange sound: scraping of a credit card across the teeth of a comb? Classic Corncrake calls!! Magical.
