The Sun was shining when we arrived at Inverness and as Martha rode shotgun on the washing in the laundromat whilst she read her book I headed up the street to take some photos. Sharon, I spied a huge kiltmaking company along the side of the river and thought maybe if you got a bit desperate for your Scotsman in a kilt you might consider taking a job in this establishment then you can check out the talent as they shop. I liked Inverness, it had a nice feel to it so I wandered up the street and headed for the tourist information place to find out about our passage to the Orkney Isles. Sadly the information there indicated that most of the tours ended at the end of August and we were already into September. I was not discouraged so I took what information I could get and we were going up to the top of Scotland anyway so we would find out more when we got there. We had a bit of trouble finding a Bed and Breakfast place in Inverness, seems there was a bagpipe competition so lots of people had come to stay. I saw one of the contestants hurrying up the street alongside the river with his kilt a swinging Sharon but he was too fast for me and he was young one too. Sorry. Anyway we found a B&B with a nice old lady called Nan whose husband had recently died and we were very comfortable, it was like staying with someone's nanna and within walking distance of the city. The next day was a bit drizzly but there was a farmers market in the mall and we wandered up and down admiring the architecture and the fine legs on two Scotsmen who were wearing kilts, sorry Sharon too old for you but I did meet some nice young men during the day who had Scottish accents, perhaps you could do a makeover on one of them. I like Inverness except that it is very cold today and most likely is often cold but it is an interesting and clean city and there are more touristy things than you would think. Everyone was nice and friendly so my impressions of Inverness were good. I also heard a few people speaking in Gaelic and I am interested in places where the native language is spoken. The main attraction for the region is Culloden, the famous highland battleground and so we headed off to have a look.

After Inverness city we headed out to the Culloden battlefield. I was thinking that the battlefield would just be an open field somewhere but was surprised to find a very modern and comprehensive information centre. One of the first leader boards read

"The course of European and British History was changed here on 16th April 1746. It was here that the Jacobite army fought to reclaim the throne of Britain from the Hanovarians for a Stewart King. The British Army were equally determined to stop this happening. The ferocious European war had come to Scotland - dividing families and setting clan against clan"

The British Army had many Scottish Highlanders in its ranks as they had joined the army rather than starve in their native villages, the kings shilling drew them away from their heritage towards food and security. Because of this the battle itself was largely between highlanders as one clan fought another and old scores were settled, the clan system being quite feudal there is always a score to settle. The lead up to Culloden is complicated so I wont go into it here, those who are interested can study it for themselves but Culloden changed the lifestyle of Scottish people and had a huge impact on England as well.

The first part of the information tour I found a bit boring, I did need to know some of the facts but I found there was too much to read and listen too and in the end it wasn’t all that necessary and most of it only people’s opinions. I walked on ahead and then came to the film room which consisted of three walls set at an angle, no seats, you just stood in the middle. As the show had not started the walls were blank and there was no sound so all the people sort of hopped from one foot to the other wondering what was going on and then - WOW. Projected onto one wall was a group of sweaty highlanders milling about, on the opposite wall the British Army grouping and someone giving orders and before you knew it the battle was on and there we were with heaps of wild highlanders charging at us, Sharon would have been in her element, they were wearing kilts and other traditional dress. On another wall the Brittish Army were bearing down on us, the sound and action was very real. Sadly 1500 Jacobite highlanders and 50 British Soldiers died on the field. The film was only about 4 minutes long but it really gave me a feel for what it would have been like.

The room that we entered after the film room was full of aretefacts and an animated table showing the battle strategies. After that I went out on to the battlefield itself, armed with a GPS operated audio guide which you just held and when you got to a point of interest it beeped and you stopped and listened. The two battle lines were marked with red and blue flags and there were various points of interest along the way including the markings where the dead soldiers and highlanders were buried. What a reet stushi (fight or commotion) it was and when I came in from the battlefield I was very hungry so Martha and I headed for the restaurant and demolished some hearty food. The Culloden experience was well worth it and gave me some insights into the struggles, I had an inkling of the involvement of the MacLeods from the history of Dunvegan, 120 Macleods supported Prince Charlie and many of them died at Culloden, it is amazing that the MacLeods held Dunvegan afterwards due to the retribution meted out to Jacobite supporters. The Sky Boat song is all about that as Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to Skye and then out to France.

Off we went after our hearty feed and my trudge around the battlefield, thankfully it was only visiting history and not living it. We headed north to Brora, a small town about 40 miles shy of John O Groats where a cousin I had never met lives. Her name is Anne and she was raised by her mother and grandmother and did not have contact with our side of the family. Martha had met her after the death of one of our aunts as we were all beneficiaries of her will. It was good to meet Anne and her husband Bill but we didn’t stay long as we were on a mission to get to the top and find a way to the Orkneys. We did promise to drop in on the way back down though.

The countryside from Inverness changed periodically, it is only about 110 miles from the top but I saw at least 4 different kinds of landscape, from pretty and English looking to coastal flat, to stony hills, boggy fields and then quite remote looking and windswept.

When we arrived at John O Groats I made Martha take my photo because you never know when you are going to get a rotten weather. It was freezing and overcast but at least not raining. Then we spotted a small day tour ferry trips office to the Orkneys so I was peering at the posters in the window and a woman came out from the building next door and asked if I wanted to book a trip. Yes I said, are they still running? All the gumph I had read seemed to say they ceased 30 August and here we are 6 september but the lady said they were still running. We did have options, Northlink Ferries running from Scabster were not an option, you needed photo ID to go and Martha had none and they were quite expensive anyway. I found another ferry company called Pentland Ferries that ran from Gills Bay and had telehoned them because I thought we were going to have to take the car over in a ferry but there was another option with John o'Groats Ferries to take a boat across and to be met by a tour bus which takes you on a day tour for forty quid. That seemed like a good option as I was most interested in Skara Brae so I bought tickets and then we headed off to find some food and a bed. The food was easy but the Seaview Hotel had no rooms left with en suite so we headed up the road and pulled into the place with the first Bed and Breakfast sign, the sign on the wall said Ha House but the B and B was in fact down the back and the name of it was Windy Ha House and windy it was, at that time of year and that time of night there was a cutting cold wind blowing so I was glad to get inside. If you are going to John O Groats you turn left after the Seaview hotel and it is the first B and B on the right, overlooking the sea. A nice man came out and said he had a double room with a sofa bed at 25 quid which is a bargain so we took it. It was huge, and brand new and contemporary in décor, Dianne you would have approved.

I am quite excited at going to the Orkneys tomorrow. If you are travelling in Scotland or always wanted to do the Orkney Isles (for those who do not know John O Groats is the northern most tip of the UK in Northern Scotland and the Orkneys are a group of islands between John O Groats and The Shetlands. It is almost parallel in latitude to St Petersberg in Russia (we established that because Martha has been on a plane which flew over St Petersberg and was wondering if this location was as far north. Anyway back to the story, you can drive up the coast through Inverness and north, the roads are fabulous and we experienced no delays or tricky bits. You can travel to Inverness by coach or train and there are Orkney experience buses which bring you to John O Groats where John O’Groats Ferries run the trip we are going on. Because we were already going to Skye, we were already quite far north so I think it was worth a little bit more effort to get here. http://www.jogferry.co.uk. Please, please, please can we have some nice weather tomorrow. We are going to Burwall, an Italian Chapel, Kirkwall, Stromness, Skara Brae (the best example of a preserved Neolithic village), The Ring of Brogar, Standing Stones of Stenness. Photos with tags below, just point at them for explanation.

My interest in the Orkney Isles was whetted when I saw a program on television about Skara Brae, a 5 thousand year old neolithic village that had been preserved under sand which was re discovered after a storm in 1850. I think I had imagined Orkney to be kind of isolated with sparse population so was amazed to discover that there was a population of 20,000 people and that there had been a lot of activity there during the war. We had a nice bus driver, an Oracadian named John who had a very soft Scottish accent which most of the time sounded almost welsh. he was softly spoken and sometimes missed words out but the meaning was still conveyed although it was a bit hard to understand sometimes. He ran words together so that "the island" came out sounding like "thighland". I found that if I tried to concentrate I could not understand but if I just let the words drift by me I understood them all. Very odd I must say. John was full of information about the war, the history of Orkney, its industry and also livestock and farming.

Orkney is very much Norse influenced and is rich in historical events as well as folklore so I found it quite surprising. The Earldom of Orkney was held for the Norwegian (and later Danish) Crown until 1468, at which time the impoverished Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, gave Orkney to the Scottish Crown as part of a marriage agreement with King James III. The Scottish king was to marry Christian's daughter, Margaret, and by this agreement Orkney was held as a pledge, redeemable by the payment of 50,000 Rhenish Florins. At the end of the first year the payment had not been forthcoming so Shetland was pledged for a further 8,000 Florins. Two years later, Christian had still not made the payment so the Earldom of Orkney and Lordship of Shetland were annexed to the Scottish Crown. There is loads of information on Orkney at orkneyjar.

There was a naval base there during the war in Scapa Flow and they sunk a lot of ships in the channels between the islands to stop the Germans getting in but it didnt work, they got in anyway. They then brought the Italian prisoners of war up to make big concrete blocks to dump across the channels and later they turned them into roads so you can drive between the most important islands now. The World War II history of the island is huge let alone all the Norse history and the industry there too. You can see one of the roads in the picture below and what is left of one of the wrecks too.

We boarded the bus which also had two dogs as passesngers with their mums. Dogs in the UK seem to be allowed everywhere and I can just see those in Oz turning up their noses as dogs are not allowed anywhere much in Australia. Most of them are well behaved and cause no problems but there were two particularly smelly ones taking up a lot of floor space in one hotel I went in to in Scotland. First stop was Kirkwall but it was a brief one but we came back later in the afternoon. The three buses seem to coordinate so they do not stop at the same places at the same time. We then headed to Stromness which is the second biggest town on Orkney. There was a cafe near where the bus stopped but Martha and I headed up the street and found the Stromness Hotel with an enticing sign advertising Sunday roast for lunch so in we went. A rather quaint Victorian building complete with revolving door and shabby carpet that looked rather original we had a very nice lunch cooked by nice chap that Martha proceeded to chat up. She also chatted up about three other fellas while we were in there (none of them wearing kilts Sharon) and I left her there in her element while I went up the street further to take photos. Take a look at the Stromness Hotel web site, it has a nice animated view from the harbour.

Lots of narrow streets on Orkney but not much traffic to cause problems like in Cornwall. Most of the buildings on the island are built from Gray stone which makes it all look a bit dour and dismal, I liked the white painted Irish houses with their pink, blue and yellow windows and doors, they were much more cheerful. Most likely paint would have been blown off these buildings but they all looked the same. Stromness is a majorr harbour and where the Northlink ferries dock with the motor vehicles. John said most of the fishing was for crustaceans rather than fish trawling.

This is a picture of the island called Flotta which means flat in Norse. The white things are chimneys which burn the gas from the oil terminal. At night you can see the Flotta flare for a long way but today it doesn't even seem to be burning. North sea oil and gas is supposed to be running out but it is one of the important industries in the very north of the UK. Most of the Islands are pretty flat and windswept but they are interesting nonethless.

Not all the islands are flat, Hoy has hills on it and a landmark called the Old Man of Hoy. We didnt go there on this trip but it would be one place I would like to get a closer look at if I ever returned.

Skara Brae

I really did love The Orkney Islands although they are rather sparse and somewhat primitive when you consider other world destinations. I am not sure that they would be for everyone but I would like to spend at least a week there to explore and find out what it is that draws me there.

We returned to the mainland by boat exhausted after our one day coach tour. I wonder how people travel like that, one day was enough for me let alone a 10 day tour of Europe or something, I would be dead after three days. Anyway it was worth it and I do regret just a little that we didnt take the car and stay but never mind, we went and we saw things and we would like to go back if the opportunity arises.

We headed south again to see how far we would get before Martha got too tired to drive. We stopped at a nice hotel and had fried camembert and cranberry served with Scottish Biscuits then managed to get as far as Brora and the Sutherland Hotel where we stayed for the night. The Sutherland is on the main road and is another olde worlde kind of establishment quite dated and somewhat shabby but otherwise comfortable. They had free internet access too which was not always available in the places we stayed at so I got some email done. After a good night sleep we headed for the dining room for breakfast but there appeared to be no one serving and although there was some self serve cereals there were no bowls so I went looking for someone and found a rather surly girl who reluctantly gave us a bowl but then didnt come out to see if we wanted tea or toast or anything for quite a while. We helped ourselves to left over milk in jugs on other tables and eventually she came out to see what we wanted for breakfast. Apart from this person the hotel staff and facilities were good. Anyway, when we were leaving and I was paying the bill the lady asked what brought us to Brora and I said we have a cousin who lives here, oh she said, who is your cousin and we told her and also added that her granddaughter and grandson worked in this hotel which is why we stayed here. Firstly, she said, if you are visiting Anne she just drove up the road so was not likely to be home (small towns are amazing aren't they) and then she called Michaela who turned out to be the surly cook for breakfast and she introducted us to her as cousins. Amazing ey! We dobbed her in to her grandmother later who said she had probably been out partying the night before.

We had lunch with Bill and Anne and Michaela's mother Karen and boy did we talk, I cannot believe we got so much conversation into a few hours but we did. It was nice to meet them and it was nice that we all seemed to click so quickly. Martha had been there a couple of times before but after a few minutes you would not have known that I had not met them before. Very nice people. glad to be related to them.

There were lots of touristy things to look at on the way down to Edinburgh but we didnt stop at them, we just kept driving till we got to Edinburgh where we tried to book into a travelodge but there were no vacancies, we ate their instead and headed back up the road to look for a B and B. B and B owners are nice they let you leave your car there while you bus into the city to look at things. It was gray when we left but relatively fine so I didnt take my raincoat - silly girl, Scotland is still part of old blighty and just as famous for its "weather"

Edinburgh buildings were all mottley black and looked like they could do with a good wash. When the weather set in it all became a little too dismal for me but I trudged around the castle anyway. I probably would have liked the castle but there were just soooo many people it kind of took away any atmosphere for me but Martha enjoyed it. The castle is built on top of a big rock and you go up a road which is inclined through the main gate and the road just seems to keep winding upwards with other roads and buildings off it. I spied some very nice young men wearing kilts in a very smart black tartan and I immediately thought of Sharon but I had to visit the facilities and we had a cup of tea in the tea room and by the time I came out they were gone. Sorry Sharon, if anyone is looking for a husband maybe I am not the one to help out. We meandered in and out of the buildings looking at displays and getting stuck behind hoards of tourists (we are travellers not tourists ey Colin). At one stage it began to rain heavily and we all tried to get into one building to shelter and there was a gaggle of Italians having a barney in the doorway so no one could get in or out. In the building which houses the Scottish Crown Jewels there was a great lump of Germans and I nearly suffocated wating for them to move on. I think I would have liked Edinburgh Castle if there had been 60 % less people but as it was I did not enjoy my visit all that much.

Edinburgh Castle his home of The Scots Dragoons so there was a lot about the glory of the regiment including the glory that occured at Culloden. It was odd to see the story from both sides within days, to see the Cullodden battle site tending to paint the tragic story of the Highlanders whereas Edinburgh painted a picture of Victory. I guess there is no coming second where war is concerned.

The Scottish Crown Jewels are a little underwhelming after you have seen the Queens' stash in the Tower of London but the Stone of Scone (skoon) or Stone of Destiny is also housed with them. From 1057 to 1292 the stone was used in the inauguration of all Scottish Monarchs. Then, in 1296, Edward I of England invaded Scotland and took the Stone from Scone to London. Edward installed the Stone in a magnificent golden coronation chair. Since then, all English monarchs and – since the Unions of the Parliaments of Scotland and England in 1707 all British sovereigns have been enthroned on this seat. (The only exceptions are Edward V and Edward VIII.) - In 1950, four students removed the Stone from Westminster Abbey in London. It soon turned up at Arbroath Abbey, north-east of Edinburgh. The abbey is famous for the Declaration of Arbroath, a robust statement of Scotland’s independence from England. The stone was returned to Westminster Abbey. Her Majesty The Queen allowed the stone to be returned to Scotland in 1996, after 700 years.

Martha was disappointed, she said she expected something bigger than it was and I though it looked like something you would tie your boat to rather than use it at the inauguration of a king. How irreverant of me but there you go. Have alook yourself and see what you think. It was just this big slab with some rings on it in a glass case.

Hadrian's Wall runs from Wallsend in the east to Bowness on Solway to the west. A system of milecastles (fortified gateways) turrets and forts ran along the length of the wall which was built by order of Emperor Hadrian following his visit to Britain in AD 122. It was planned as a continuous wall with a milecastle every Roman mile (1.48 km) and two turrets equally spaced between each milecastle. the wall, with its defensive ditches and forts, stretched across the country from coast to coast, a distance of some 80 Roman miles (120 kilometres or 75 miles). Why was it built? To keep the rabbits out. Actually it was to separate the Barbarians of the North from the Roman Empire which then included the bit of Britain south of the wall. Hadrian was more into conquering than into tourism, had he been into tourism he might have seen a great opportunity for creating an adventure package tour to see these Barbarians who, as it happens, are my paternal ancestors. The bloody cheek of those Romans calling my ancestors Barbarians and shutting them out with a big wall, ok so they were into raping and pillaging like their Norse ancestors but what ever happened to free enterprise? It always amazes me how races of people just lob in and take over lands, What we know as the United Kingdom has had so many races invade and colonise over history that the pureness of races is lost as are many languages such as Norn, once spoken on Orkney.

The information centre at Segedunum in Newcastle had a pretty comprehensive history with many replica buildings and interactive displays. The white building in the picture below is a reconstructed Roman bathhouse complete with communal crappers, a bench with lots of holes where people took a comunal dump (toilet break). They also had a stuffed horse that looked so real that I had to check if it was breathing. Apparently Segedunum means strong fort.

After Segedunum we went back to Adam's house and stayed another night then I met two of his children Iris and Giacomo the next day.

We were supposed to drive to York next but I was shattered and it rained and rained so I said to Martha let's just go home (Oxford) so off we set. Some of the things I want to do when I go back is Chester, York, Whitby, drive around the Yorkshire Dales, some stately homes around that side of the country (Pemberly from Pride and Prejudice is over that way), Windsor Castle and Buck House and a few other places. There is sooooo much to see in such a small area it is amazing, especially when you think how far we have to travel between points of interest in Australia.

 

Jan came down to see me again on my last few days in Oxford and the country. We meandered up to Sandford Lock again and had a softdrink in the pub. It is a nice spot so I included some more photos of it. I would love to do a canal and river holiday too one day, not sure if it will ever fit in with my busy schedule of doing other things but it looks like a nice way to travel and I love watching the locks filling and emptying and the boats going on their way.

We messed around my last few days at Martha's, we did the Cowley road and she also drove me around some more lovely countryside in Oxford where I saw villages I would like to explore but alas no time. We met some friends of hers and generally I caught up with the people I had met whilst I was staying with Martha, the village of Radley has a good old English flavour and community spirit.

This is it then, time to go home

Martha dropped me off at the Park and Ride to get a coach into Heathrow. The bus driver asked if I wanted a return ticket and I replied "No way, it rains too much here I am not coming back" everyone on the bus laughed. As we travelled down the motorway he gave his speil and some newsy information and then said the weather was good in various places but it was raining in Australia. The bus people laughed again as did I. When we got to Heathrow I had to go to terminal 4 but the bus dropped us of at terminal 5 and I was told we had to get another bus back to terminal 4. There were two other people who had to do the same so they said hang out with us and we will find out what to do so I did. Well we went into the terminal as instructed and saw a sign pointing down the escalator to the buses but when we got down there there were no other signs. The man went off to find out what we had to do and came back a while later and we went in the direction as indicated to find lots of buses with no destinations on them and no drivers and no idea of anything really. I thought that this was a pretty bad thing to face travellers with, no clear direction on how to get to another terminal. Eventually a a bus driver turned up and put the right destination on the bus and drove it to a bus stop which had an indicator of bus number but not destination (here we go again it was like bus lotto the days we went to London. It was the roughest ride I have ever had on any conveyance in my life but we eventually got to terminal 4 although you wouldn't know it, there was no sign on it and the bus driver wasn't forthcoming with information either. Then they wouldn't check our bags at the airport, they wouldnt check anyone's bags but the planes that were about to board. I met a few other people by then all trying desperately to get out of the country and finding it difficult and one lady traveller with her family decided to go down to the nicely advertised restaurant and have a cup of tea and wait. They invited me along too so I went but it turned out to be a pokey little establishment near the bottom of some escalators and next to the toilet. Small as it was it was piled with other travellers complete with baggage (who also couldn't check their bags) so it was all a bit of a squeeze. Heathrow airport terminal 4 is 'orrible. It looks like a warehouse and they wont check your bags and there are very few seats, those they had (2 wooden benches) were uncomfortable. I found the contrast between Heathrow and Singapore airport quite staggering, Singapore is just beautiful.

I had another one night stopover in Singapore but managed to pack the camera in my main bag and leave it at the hotel so no pictures. I was one block from Suntec city and decided to take the Hippo tour bus to Chinatown and up to Little India and the Arab quarter. The city was preparing for the Formula one night races so there was a lot of activity around the streets building seating and preparing the roads for the race which would run through the city. There was also a noticeable increase in security but I did not see any trouble. There were flowers all over the place near Little India as there was some kind of Hindu festival and also lanterns around the city as it was the festival of lights or something so the place looked very colourful. I like Singapore, a bit expensive but it is like a big landscaped garden full of shops.

I had a wonderful 3 month trip of a lifetime and met loads of very nice people, some at airports whose names I cannot even remember but it was a really nice experience and I have lots of nice pictures to remember the trip by.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour, I will be doing some Australian places hopefully in the near future and then of course off to Hawaii in July 2009.

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