The ferry to
Hoy went from Stromness at the other end of the main island and the bus driver
was happy to take my bike on board, me being weary of unnecessary cycling but
expecting to need my bike to get across Hoy. I didn’t expect to meet anyone
else going there just to get to the Old Man of Hoy.
The Tourist Information
staff in both Kirkwall and Stromness had no information on local climbing
guides, but as I boarded the ferry one of them rushed onto the ferry with the
business card of the local climbing guide. Alas he did not answer my repeated
calls, text messages or emails that day or the following and I had no
information on other local guides.
I was
surprised to find a dozen or so tourists on board the ferry including four
other cyclists with their bikes all of whom were also heading for the other
side of the island too. Also to my surprise there was a local minibus on which
I’d had no previous . Nevertheless it was only a half hour cycle to Rackwick
Bay, the start of the path to the Old Man of Hoy.
Once at the
Old Man I was again surprised to find so many people already there.
I set off in
search of a path down to the base of the sea stack and eventually found a steep
difficult path clearly only used by climbers.
I’d asked a
couple to use my camera to take a photo of me climbing the lower part of the
sea stack, and they kindly agreed but saying they didn’t know how long it would
take me to find a path down nor how long they’d be there so all being well
they’d take photos of me climbing (and/or falling) and email them to me.
The climb
looked easy enough (there being an E1 route) and given the proper climbing
gear, and a climbing partner, neither of which I had. Nevertheless I decided to
climb the first five meters to at least know I’d climbed ‘on’ the sea stack, if
not all the way to the top.
The sea stack looked like it would still be there
for a future better planned climb with guide and climbing gear.
On the way
back I got chatting to a couple in their 50s who had semi-retired to Orkney
from England, and who were restoring an old house. They’d got married a couple
of years previously on the headland overlooking the sea stack and returned from
time to time to celebrate. Both were well educated semi retired and ‘culture
vultures’ but neither of them concerned with the isolation of living so far up
north. They said they both had lots of reading to catch up on.
Later back at
the YHA I got chatting to a couple holidaying with their teenage daughters, all
four riding two tandems around the islands, a regular form of holiday transport
for them. It soon emerged the father had studied at Sheffield a decade after
me, and had learned to climb there and later climbed in several countries so we
had lots to discuss regarding the sea stack climb.
