On the last leg of her cruise Azura had left Iceland and stopped at Lerwick before her last port of call at Kirkwall in Orkney. The first leg of the cruise had been to Belfast and Stornoway followed by four days in Iceland.
This was also Azura’s last ‘maiden call’. One of five on this cruise. The others had been Lerwick, Belfast, Stornoway and Isafjordur in Iceland.
Day 13 Friday 1st July 2016 Kirkwall Orkney
We docked at Kirkwall a little way out of the town at the Hatston Pier. We had a leisurely breakfast during which we had to stifle a smile as one of the fellow passengers had had delivered figs when they had ‘asked’ for ‘thick toast’.
For the first time since leaving Belfast, Vodafone provided us in Kirkwall with a 3G or 4G signal and then emails and social media became available without wi fi. This was soon degraded to GPRS when we left Kirkwall and even when returning signal strength did not hit 3G or 4G until much later in the afternoon.
Our free transfer bus was a bendy bus and we were dropped off at Kirkwall’s bus station. Not having booked any excursions we went into the Visitor Centre and there we learnt about the ‘Discovery Orkney’ open top bus that ran every day in the Summer.
The Orkney Open Top Bus T11
For £8.30 the bus takes passengers to the majority of sites of the island in about 3.5 hours with stops and with plenty of time to explore.
| Places | Times (approx) |
|---|---|
| Kirkwall Travel Centre | 10:00 |
| Stromness Travel Centre (arrive) | 10:40 |
| Stromness Travel Centre (depart) | 10:45 |
| Skara Brae (arrive) | 11:00 |
| Skara Brae (depart) | 12:25 |
| The Ring of Brodgar (arrive) | 12:40 |
| The Ring of Brodgar (depart) | 13:10 |
| Kirkwall Travel Centre | 13:35 |
Scapa Flow and Stromness
Stagecoach’s T11 service was a double decker open bus and other buses as well depending on the number of passengers. The service leaves at 11 am and 2 pm. By the time we joined the queue it was already almost a full bus and we had to sit downstairs.
In order to get a good view of Scapa Flow, in the future, sit on the left hand side of the bus. This is the best picture I was able to get from downstairs and on the right side.
The service is a hop on hop off and our first stop was at Stromness, by the ferries, for only 5 minutes.
No-one left the bus but all those upstairs were feeling the cold as the bus did not go slowly between villages.
Skara Brae
From Stromness we headed North to Skara Brae. This was a site that had neolithic remains, a replica of the neolithic houses, an old house, an exhibition and finally a cafe. Using the T11 service meant that entrance fees were needed for the various parts of the site. We choose to skip the exhibition and to walk around the site and went first to the Stone Age village, Skara Brae. These eight dwellings were built using stone slabs and are linked by low covered passages.
Walking back along Skaill Bay to the cafe we were provided some beautiful views and even more (for me) interesting abandoned ironwork.
Alongside the cafe was a replica of the slab stone houses including the low passageways that linked them.
The cafe had quietened down from when we first arrived as many of the tour coaches had now left. It was now time for coffee and locally made carrot cake and scones, which were delicious.
On the wall was a poem by George Mackay Brown which visualised life at Skara Brae in earlier times.
We then made the short walk from the cafe to Skaill House and walked around its grounds with its views out to sea with the visitor centre and replica neolithic houses.
There were a few moments of chaos when re-boarding the bus as a passengers from the upper deck had decided to move down to the relatively warmer lower deck. The upside was that I was able to find a seat upstairs.
