Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow is a channel in the Orkney Islands. It used to be used as a base for the North Atlantic convoys, I believe. I can't remember what ship I was on, but we got shore leave to just wander around, and five of us boys got up onto a headland, and there was this round tower with a pointed roof. It looked to have been built around the 1700s, something like that. It had the slits in the walls - like a castle - and the only way in was an opening in the wall about 8 feet off the ground. We managed to climb in and we got into the one main room - no graffiti or rubbish or anything, but there was a set of stairs going down. So being the intrepid explorer...off I went. We didn't have any flashlights, but we did have matches because some of the kids smoked. So I got to the bottom of the stairs, and it's getting quite dark - I couldn't see the floor - but I did notice to my right what looked like an opening with a pointed ledge. I took one further step forward and stepped onto nothing. Somehow or other I remembered that ledge to my right, and managed to grab hold of it, and then saying to the others not to come any further. Somebody had enough sense to light a match and help me get back onto Terra Firma. Once my heart had calmed down a little bit, we dropped a stone down the hole and it seemed to take a long time before we heard a splash or a sound. So we figured out that this must have been a garbage dump when this place was built. We decided that was enough exploring for the day and left.

Also, while we were out on this little exploration trip, it was quite warm and after working up a sweat for awhile we came across this really nice looking stream, and it looked so inviting we thought we'd strip off and go for a dip. But who was going to the first...guess who??? Well, I jumped in and God Almighty was it cold!!! I think I became countersunk in about 5 seconds. It really took my breath away. And seeing how much I'd enjoyed this, my erstwhile companions decided it wasn't for them. Wimps. That was the end of our expedition for the day and we made our way back to the jetty to get a boat back to the ship.