Return from Scapa Flow

We were very good and got brownie points from Marlene by all being up in time for breakfast, and all being packed and ready to go not long after nine. Which meant that she and Di could clean through without having to yell ‘Oh shit!’ when the next group arrived.


Unfortunately, nice sparkly new rental van didn’t start. Ade turned the ignition and there wasn’t even the merest thought of the possibility of even contemplating turning over by the engine.

Never mind, the man who lived in the house opposite where we were staying leapt to the rescue, with his cat, a rather lovely Blue Burmese, supervised. He ran around the corner and appeared with much banging and smoke in his prehistoric Rover, and attempted to jump start our shiny new van with jump leads that were missing half their crocodile clips. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

However, Marlene twitched the curtain and noticed our predicament. With a yell at the silly man to go away, and another yell that resulted in a lady poking her head out of a window, she went scooting off for her car. The lady who poked her head out the window dashed downstairs and leapt into an Audi, driving in the opposite direction. Mere minutes later, after I had discovered an interesting road named ‘Hell Hole Road’, a big Peugeot 406 2.1 diesel came screaming around the tight and narrow corners in a manner reminiscent of Ayrton Senna; in the opposite direction, the Audi lady screeched to a halt Damon Hill style, mere millimetres from the front of the Pug, and held out a set of sparkly new copper jump leads. Marlene plonked her Pug in front of the van and exposed her extremely large battery, the leads were attached and the van jumped to life.

Yay, the sisterhood!

Steve managed to demonstrate his closet rebel skills, wandering through every ‘No Unauthorised Entry’ sign he could find at Stromness ferry terminal, and testing every camp-bed, folding chair and assorted other items on display at every service station visited.

Ade and Chris drove us back to Kent mostly uneventfully, with little in the way of traffic jams or other inconveniences.

Arrived back at Rochester at 5am Sunday morning and slept for a week.

Thanks, Adrian for organising, and thanks to everyone for contributing to a terrific week.