Day 11 (30th June 2022)

 During our chat with campsite neighbour Jeremy, he wisely pointed out to Guy that the walk to today's Germinal CCXXIV destination might prove too difficult for Morgan, given the fact that he is twelve and a half and showing signs of arthritis, bless him. So we made a plan to split up, with me taking the ferry to another one of the Orkney Islands, hiring a bicycle there and then doing the 3 hour round trip hike to get to where I needed to be.

Half an hour before the ferry left, I thought I'd have a look to see how much the bikes cost, only to discover there weren't any and that I'd have to hire one on the mainland (I'm still not sure if the Orkney Mainland island actually has a name other than Mainland). This involved a mad rush through the tiny streets of Stromness, a "quick, need a bike, anyone will do" meeting with Mr. Cycle Hire, then a dash to the quayside to catch the ferry.

To cut a long story short, once I arrived I cycled for 6 odd kilometres to the nearest pathway, dumped bike at a hostel there, and did one of the most treacherous walks of my life (because I missed one of the paths) and ended up on a very high cliff top so I could see stop #29

OLD MAN OF HOY 

What a majestic and awesome sight this 449 foot stack is. I was overcome with shocking vertigo at first, as it is a very long way down. But once I'd taken of my sopping wet sweaty t-shirt, dried off in the wind and changed into Germinal T, all the time crawling around on my knees which by this point had already used up about 6 months worth of cartilage getting here, I finally felt able to stand up and take the pic.

By the time I'd got back to the ferry quay, amongst the many Old Man tourists, there were two guys who had actually climbed the Old Man, surrounded quite rightly by admirers. Having seen up close what they had achieved, I too was full of admiration but they didn't need to know that from me!

No more places to find from Germinal CCXXIV on Orkney and it's another  couple of days before we sail out but of course I'll keep you updated with any further interesting places on our trip.

Allons-y

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out