Old Men A-Hoy!
More Island hopping on the 'little uns'
Although Christine and I had been over to Hoy fairly recently in the MX-5 with the Orkney Vintage Club, it's a place both Leslie and I enjoy visiting, so this was another chance to use the smaller bikes which are more suited to the single track roads over there. Again I was on the C125 Super Cub and Les was on his 300 Forza. With a 10 o'clock sailing from Houton and in no real rush, we set off in quite a leisurely manner at a quarter to nine for the 20 mile ride to the terminal. Les wanted to have a ride over to Rackwick on the west of the Island as he had never been there, so that was where we headed after leaving the ferry at Lyness. The weather looked rather poor, very misty but at least it was dry. Following a brief stop to admire the view at Lyrawa Hill and take few pictures plus getting covered in sheep dung and realising why the new 350 Forza now has traction control, we were on our way again but only as far as the turn off to Rackwick, with the inevitable pause to visit the Dwarfie Stane. Back on the bikes, we eventually parked up a little while later in Rackwick with its lovely sandy beach.
The weather improved considerably as we sat on the grass for our picnic lunch. It's a real shame that the place is now comprised almost entirely of holiday homes, where once there had been a thriving community - including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music.
Leaving the Rackwick road we turned north west past the Hoy Heritage Centre towards Moaness, where the foot passenger ferry (MV Graemsay) docks after leaving Stromness; there is a delightful little café here but we had only just finished our lunch. I wanted to show Leslie the very impressive farm steading buildings at Orgil - there must have been someone of high status who had that built. Retracing our original route we made our way back to Lyness and then out to Longhope to visit the Lifeboat Museum - unfortunately only open on Wednesdays and Fridays but at least you can see into the building and the setting.
It was from here that the ill-fated TGB was launched on the evening of 17th March 1969 in a force 10 gale to help a Liberian Cargo ship - the SS Irene in difficulties off the Caithness coast. The rendezvous was never made and all eight crewmen on the lifeboat perished, mostly from the same few families. The Martello Tower is another interesting place to visit, so we made our way there and enjoyed a short walk around the site.
Les and his Wife Joanna had actually looked at a house very close to the Tower 10 years ago but bought one in Birsay instead. The Lyness Military Cemetery is also well worth seeing and I know there is a grave belonging to someone with the same, quite rare surname as my own but couldn't locate it on this occasion - I must do some research on that one to see if there might be any distant familial connection. Returning to the ferry terminal at Lyness, we had a relaxing half hour after picking up a drink and snack at the new catering van. All too soon it was time to make our way back to the lanes for boarding the 'Hoy Head' which would take us back to Houton after a short but very enjoyable adventure.
We would both like to try the new 350 Forza as by all accounts, it seems to be an improvement over the 300 - I suppose 10 years since the first ones must have produced some advances. Present circumstances seem to dictate that there are no bikes available anywhere for a test ride; all of the dealers seem to want you to pay a deposit to be put on a waiting list to order a bike but £6k is a lot to fork out for something which might not suit. I like the 300 but the adjustable tall screen on the new 350 should be of great benefit to me, plus another 50ccs - although that capacity increase was probably necessary to offset the effects of having to comply with Euro 5 regulations.