Mechanics of travel--the milk run

Blocked by restrictions during "the Covid Zone" just 8 days prior to boarding a transatlantic flight to start our Easter 2020 trip to Orkney and then blocked again for Easter 2021, our 2022 Easter sojourn this year seemed slightly anti-climatic.  That was not, mind you, on account of Orkney's spectacular scenery or her incredible ancient sites.  No.  Those were every bit as awe inspiring as we had hoped. 

Our Hyundai car hire aboard MV Varagan--April 14, 2022

It was just that while stuck in the Covid Zone, we had viewed and reviewed Ordnance Survey maps and travel guides to the point that they were dog eared with use.  Every possible place of interest in Orkney--its Mainland and Isles--was checked on the "see list".  We had a veritable encyclopedia of things to do.  Once there, however, a reality of scope and time set in.  

Perhaps we deceive ourselves in one sense becoming geographically chauvinistic.  Here in the Inland Northwest, Idaho County is over 8,500 square miles, the largest county in Idaho and 18th largest county in the United States.  Land as far as the eye can see.  

Whereas Orkney Island Council is comprised of some 380 square miles, all its islands taken together.  Mainland Orkney, where we elected to center our stay, may "only" be 202 square miles.  But that is land area.  There is also the North Atlantic, which cannot be dismissed in Orkney's life.  For it is omnipresent...as far as the eye can see.  And still further, beyond the evident circumference of the planet that bends the horizon line where the ocean meets the sky.

Commuters MV Shapinsay hoving into Rousay--April 15, 2022

Even at "only" 202 square miles, Mainland Orkney is remarkably dense with archeological sites and settlements that easily span over 5,000 years.  We thought in our previous sojourn at Easter 2019 to Scotland's  Kintyre Peninsula and Knapdale that Kilmartin Glen (which like Orkney has protected World Heritage sites) was dense with Neolithic sites.  Comparatively, it is not.

The Inner Isle of Rousay, for example, is called the "Egypt of the North" for its incredibly numerous historical sites that range from multiple and quite startling Neolithic cairns to Iron Age brochs, to Viking settlements and Medieval churches...and just plain interesting shoreline geography, even if one could ignore the seals.

In addition to Mainland Orkney, we visited five other islands--three Inner Isles and two North Isles.  We intended to make full use of the "poor man's ocean cruises"--which is to say the Orkney Ferries that operate inter-island from Kirkwall pier (to the North Isles) or from Tingwall pier (to the Inner Isles).

Construction crew bound for Egilsay--April 15, 2022

A small passenger only ferry does operate from Stromness (Mainland Orkney's "second port city") to Moaness (on north Hoy).  And from Houton pier on Mainland Orkney's south coast is the ferry terminal for Flotta and Lyness (on south Hoy).  We did not visit Hoy during our tour (even though it had several check marks!) We lacked time.  

Excluding Orkney Mainland, five islands on our itinerary were respectively--Rousay (we brought the car hire over), Egilsay and Wyre (both done on foot),  Eday and Sanday (both with the car hire).  

We incurred extra ferry fees for the privilege of bringing the car (+/- £25 for the vehicle round trip).  Normally, we would not have considered taking a car hire onboard, it being something of a hassle to do, with an extra fee.  But again, the scale of the islands for the foot bound is somewhat deceptive.  Plus the ocean between them, and the time required to sail over it, required that we economize our time on the larger isles.  

Royal Mail van waiting at Rousay--April 15, 2022

Had we not done so, we could not have toured the larger islands in any meaningful way.  Bus service is basically non-existent on them (at least over Easter tide)...despite what online travel guides may say.  

Even with a car, we still had to foot from parking places to most sites we visited...so the premium was time.  We opted to economize our time by bringing the car hire to the larger outer islands.  Bringing the car hire over for Egilsay and Wyre, however, made little sense since both are quite small.  So we footed those.

The pace is greatly muted in these islands.  That said, these islands are not exempt from modern currents like amazon prime...though it may arrive over water by ferry.  The isles remain very much connected to the modern world, just at a slower pace.  

Royal Mail

The transfer of mail and parcel packages from the MV Shapinsay was interesting.  We boarded MV Shapinsay as foot passengers Friday, April 15th, having no need to bring the car hire given the small size of the islands we were set to explore.  We were bound for a half-day walk on Egilsay the first half of the day.  Egilsay is a small island of 2.5 square miles. Then, just after noon, we reboarded the MV Shapinsay from Egilsay and sailed to Wyre, an even smaller island of 1.2 square miles, for the remaining half-day walk.  

Both Inner Isles can be done easily enough and with time to spare...if one takes the earliest Mainland ferry out from Tingwall.  

The Inner Isles ferry runs something of a triangular route.  Rather than mooring overnight at Tingwall on Mainland, curiously, the ferry moors at Rousay.  It makes its early morning run to Egilsay and then to Wyre and back to Rousay.  Apparently it is collecting up the commuters and probably the school kids.  It then departs Rousay for Tingwall, and there begins the six daily runs from Mainland Orkney to the Inner Isles.        

Milk crate and amazon bound for Wyre--April 15, 2022

We remained onboard at Rousay in any case, since we were traveling through.  We had no need to touch foot on Rousay as it were.  We would be back on Rousay the very next day...with our car hire to tour it.  Rousay is some 19 square miles.  

As we waited for the deliveries to be transferred, we watched the mail with some fascination.  It was a mix of modern (evidenced by the amazon prime boxes) and quaint (evidenced by the milk crate).  

It seemed an anachronism, but literally the ferry was making the milk run.   

The U.K.'s Royal Mail is one of those legacy types of establishments.  While it would be familiar to us in some respects, at the same time it is different.  Royal post offices, for example, are generally privately owned businesses or franchises in the U.K.'s small isolated communities.  Royal Mail provides service, in itself a long lost tradition that has all but disappeared in hyper-modern and indifferent America.

That milk, incidentally, was bound for the isle of Wyre, just across the channel from Rousay.  The ferryman set the milk crate on the pier ramp at Wyre.  We watched three young boys (residents of Wyre are called "Whelks") vie for who got to carry the milk home...apparently a privilege.  It looked like the middle boy succeeded in claiming it.   

On our return to Tingwall that evening from Wyre after our final half day walk, a gentleman debarked from MV Shpainsay with youngsters who filled his station wagon.  He stopped to pick up the remaining milk in the crate before apparently heading home to one of the homesteads on Wyre.  

MV Shapinsay ferry delivery--April 15, 2022

For all intents and purposes, our planned island excursions (by keeping our base at Kirkwall) each consumed a full day.  Egilsay and Wyre, because they are diminutive, constituted between them a single day trip.  But that was possible only because the relatively busy Inner Isles ferry schedule permitted it.  In general, touring the larger isles means setting off from the Kirkwall pier in the morning and returning in early evening.  

If anything, we overestimated our physical resilience.  While we got back to Mainland Orkney with daylight to spare after our day hikes, we were ready for dinner and an Orkney Brewery beer.  So short trips to catch other sites on Mainland after those day hikes on other islands were...overly ambitious.  Bottom line, a number of places we had eagerly checked off while stuck in the Covid Zone as "possible" when we returned to Mainland Orkney from our day trips...remained unvisited.  We will say simply we had a poverty of riches.  That is to say more sites to see than time to see them.  Limitations.  

In any case, without dispute our tour in Orkney was spectacular, often quite spiritual.

MS Spitzbergen at Kirkwall--liner season begins April 14, 2022

Another word on those Orkney Ferries.  Besides their surprisingly inexpensive passenger fares (you need not take a car over--we did for the reasons stated above), these daily ferries ply between Orkney's islands and have a certain life to them, a vibrancy, a flavor.  That is a principal reason we travel, after all.  

MV Varagan pulling out of Kirkwall for Eday--April 14, 2022

The Orkney Ferries are about every day islanders, their culture, their world.  Locals mostly, workers or tradesmen with perhaps a few off-season tourists like us aboard at Easter tide.  We absolutely enjoy this "off season" time of year in Scotland. 

The Orkney Ferries are entirely unlike the massive "warehouses" called cruise ships, the "industrial scale" tourism.  I would argue the Orkney Ferries are every bit as fun.  Certainly more authentic and far less spendy.  views of the islands are every bit as blue hued from them as from a porthole on a cruise liner.  More so even, since one can experience the salt and brisk air on them.  

The whole of our Scotland 2022 Easter sojourn was 15 days, start to finish.  Several of those days necessarily were allotted to long distance transportation.  This year, we relied upon Scotrail--its spectacular Highland Main Line and the Far North Line. 

Of our 15 day excursion, we had 10 days to spend in Orkney, choosing to "station" the majority of our trip in Kirkwall with the exception of a couple overnights on Sanday at the end of our Orkney visit.  Honestly, it is difficult to imagine attempting this trip and spending any less time than we did to take it.  There is so much there.  

Those sidling up to Hatston pier aboard packed passenger liners only to be herded into a quick dash of shore time in an aimless amble on Kirkwall's quasi-pedestrian Albert Street to St. Magnus Cathedral and back to the pier hardly see Orkney.  They don't experience it.  That is true even if one throws in a premium full tourist bus from their warehouse moored at Hatson pier to herd through the chutes in the "Neolithic Heart of Orkney" and be prodded through a queue of Skara Brae.  Again, there is so much to Orkney.  So much more.

Tresness on Sanday--April 19, 2022

Sands of Cata, Sanday--April 19, 2022