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We often forget about those islands just to the north. But they are always well worth a visit. This time I’d take the new bike and stay for a couple of nights.

Bike trips to Orkney do not always go well. I have memories of several fights back across the islands into a force 8 or 9, blown all over the road… Or struggling back to Stromness from Kirkwall with flu, as weak as a kitten.

It looked hopeful with three reasonable days forecast. But this was March, and by morning the promised fine day had dissolved into cold rain with a hint of sleet. It lashed down as I cycled down to the ferry.

The morning charts had shown a big wadge of rain moving slowly north. Indeed so slowly that the boat almost overtook it, the rain was only just starting to spot in Stromness.

But I would stick with my plan, cycle across to Tingwall and get the boat to Rousay. I was well dressed but it’s hard to keep completely dry on a bike – the rain wasn’t that heavy but it didn’t stop. It poured on the ferry crossing, it downpoured on Rousay but did at last look like it was clearing from the south.

Rousay has always been my favourite island after Hoy, easy to get to and full of interest. You could spend a week exploring, someday I should! It has some of the best brochs and chambered cairns, a spectacular coast, fascinating hills and moors.

I just planned to cycle the hilly road round the island, steep climbs and fast downhills. As I battered westward into the wind and rain, below was the isle of Eynhallow with huge rousts (tideraces) round it on a big spring. It reminded me of the occasion a couple of years ago when I found myself sitting at those rocks in a kayak in the middle of a seven-knot tide going the wrong way, courtesy of a badly planned trip organised by someone else. I needed a tow by stronger paddlers to get out of that one.

The sun was coming out! The grey waters were turning blue, the rain retreating north to a dim, grey Westray.

Rousay, like much of Orkney, is prospering with a positive and entrepreneurial spirit. Potholes are nowhere to be found! Mums can have their babies without leaving Orkney. Transport links are excellent. There are plenty of jobs. Tourists are welcomed and encouraged with big car parks and toilets and guides at all the main sites.

There is none of that Caithness gloom so summed up by Wick Academy’s recent 10-0 defeat to Brechin City.

The views now opened out over Eday and Sanday. I stopped at the highest point of the road and scrambled up steep heather slopes to the top of the island, startling a short-eared owl which glided silently off.

I took in the grand 360-degree view over all Orkney, before returning to the bike and hurtling down the steep road at up to 35mph, then up and down more hills past the island school to be back at the ferry with 15 minutes to spare.

That’s real Orkney, waiting at piers for little ferries, then sitting on the boat in the sunshine watching the world go by, low islands with a stone house or two quietly breaking the skyline. The cost of a return to Rousay (with bike)? Five pounds.

Then the e-bike really came into it’s own. Instead of a long slog to Kirkwall I could enjoy the ride on a lovely sunny late afternoon. I remember that steep hill from the Tingwall ferry, tired, slow, a headwind… now I could just cycle up as if riding a level road, just needing to watch the battery which was getting a bit low.

And to take the hillier back road to Finstown, enjoying the lovely views out across the bay to Gairsay. Then to carry on up the old Finstown Road, no need to worry about the long hill over Wideford Hill, and a great downhill into Kirkwall to find my B&B.

The forecast was quite good for the next day when I hoped to explore Shapinsay. But it was to be wrong again…

Sitting on boats watching islands pass, sitting at harbours waiting for boats, that’s the way to spend time on Orkney!

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