Claire's Highland Fling 6th Leg - Orkney and on to the Kyle of Tongue

Tuesday 17th June

    We had an earlyish start for an early ferry from Scrabster to Stromness, Orkney.  The ferry this time was huge!  It even had cabins on board but for only a short sailing I’m not sure why.  (B&B onboard for early morning sailings)

    I continued my vigil for whales but didn't see any.  We passed the island of Hoy and the rock formation called Old Man of Hoy.  The rocks here have amazing geology.  There was also a long waterfall off the top of the cliffs into the sea.

    We couldn't get onto the site early so we stopped off at Maes Howe, an ancient cairn.  Mike reversed into the only space left in the car park and as we got out of Daisy, a lady came over and congratulated Mike on his reversing.  He does do that well but having cameras everywhere, it also helps.

    We managed to get onto a tour.  We should have booked a time slot so we were very lucky to get this as we only had to wait 15 minutes.  A short coach journey took us up to Maes Howe, a short walk and then a bent-down scramble through the cairns entrance corridor.  That was interesting for our old bones!  The cairn is over 4,000 years old but they don't know what it was used for.  No bodies were ever found and none of the locking stones had been put in place.  The Vikings found it when they invaded and left rune marks in the rock.  Apparently on 21st December, the setting sun shines directly through the corridor and hits the back wall of the cairn so some skilled engineering was used for its construction.  Unfortunately we weren't able to take any photos inside the cairn.

    We continued around the island to the Italian Chapel.

    Italian POW's built it during the war from 2 nissen huts and some plasterboard for their worship.  Some of them were skilled artists too as the inside was amazing.  It was almost as though it was 3D.

    We continued down to see the Churchill Barriers.  These were barriers that were made during the war as commanded by Churchill.  Ships and boats were scuppered at certain points to prevent German U Boats getting past.  

    By this time, we were able to get onto the site so we headed to Kirkwall.  En route, I saw a strange wall around a field and when we got closer noticed it was made out of old rubber tyres.  Certainly a use for them.  We set up and chilled.  It felt like we'd done quite a bit that day.

Wednesday 18th

    We were going to have  rest day but then the sun came out!  It was very windy and we walked around the 'Peedie Sea' (a boating lake)  Peedie in Gaelic means small.  It was so windy there were waves on it!  There was a liner anchored in the bay and hoards of tourists were coming ashore.  There were so many people in the town.  Kirkwall has many independent shops but most of them were gift shops.  I did buy a beautifully hand knitted cardigan from the local craft fayre though - Knitted by Shirley.  I also visited St Magnus Cathedral, which is rather impressive.  Very old funeral stones from 1600 and, I think, older than that.  There was a display of the Kirkwall Sails.  These were fabric depictions of various adventures during St Rognvald's Crusade to the Holy Lands in 1151.

Thursday 19th

    Sunny again!   We took Daisy for a spin around the island.  Once past the stones Ring of Brodga and Skara Brae, we were virtually the only vehicle on the road apart from the odd farmer in a tractor or local out and about.  The land is very open and spacious, probably due to the lack of trees.

    I've bought some embroidery with me - for the ‘restful’ times.  I had finished this piece before but when I washed it some dye had run from the poppies I'd put in place.  I hadn't checked the material for colour fastness before using it.  Doh!  So after unpicking it I then wondered what to do with it.  On asking members on a FaceBook page, they gave me several suggestions and out of them came the idea of embroidering chrysanthemums.  I must say they do look rather impressive but are taking a long time.  Still it will keep me occupied.

    It was also Sophia's 13th birthday today, so we called via video link to sing Happy Birthday to her.  It was good to see familiar faces again.

Friday 20th

    A short drive to the ferry to leave Orkney.  While they were loading the ferry, we noticed that they were taking ages and were late for the departure time.  Then we realised that some vehicles had to reverse on. Mike then offered to do it.

    Once under way, we tried a bit of whale watching but no luck. Once we were docked back on the mainland, we decided to have a look at John o'Groats seeing as we were really close.  

    A quick look then u-turned back out to carry on to our pitch at Scarsferry for the night.  It transpired that we were staying in someone's garden!  Not bad for £12 a night.  You can get charged that just for disposing of your waste on the NC500!  

Mike thought about straightening this photo up but it would have made the lampost looking like it was going to topple over!

    Later on, I decided to take my bike out for a ride and see if I could see a harbour that I'd seen on my walking app.  Philip's Harbour - reopened in 1979 by Jimmy Page of Led Zep fame.

A curious seal's popping his head out - not many visitors down here

Saturday 21st

    We decided to stop at Thurso to get a few provisions before carrying on our journey west.  There's also a hadware shop in town that just about does everything apart from storm proof clothes pegs.

    Back on our journey to Tongueand we were starting to get really buffetted by the wind.  It seems that the suns has now left us and returned to England as they're basking in the 30's!

Mike had been watching this loch for ages trying to catch sight of wildlife but it dries out at low tide and there's hardly any depth of water

    The calm before the storm - torrential rain and thunderstorms kept us awake most of the night.

Sunday 22nd

    We'd booked in here for 2 days so we could catch up on the laundry and it was really hard keeping the clothes on the lines due to the wind.