Tranquillity

I was hoping that the red streaked sky last night meant a good morning today, and I wasn't disappointed.

I managed to persuade his Lordship out of bed to join me on an early morning walk round the Ness to Warebeth Beach.

The sea was as calm as a millpond and it was a t-shirt temperature. The campsite was still slumbering as we passed through and we only met one dog and his master on the walk.

The early morning Northlink ferry passed by on the way out of the harbour, following in the wake of a noisy chugging dredger, and then round the corner came a wee red fishing boat with two seagulls hitching a lift on K94 away for a day's fishing.

Having visited the Brough of Birsay yesterday with a visit to the Barony Mill nearby, we explored Mull Head and the Gloup*, in Deerness today with a visit to the Brough of Deerness with its cliffs and nesting birds and Norse settlement remains.

On a fine day like today in Orkney, when the road is elevated just a little, there is this vast expanse of sky, partly blue, partly busy with clouds, seemingly taking up the whole view as far as the eye can see, the low slung land just visible above the water. It's like Oklahoma without the corn fields.

*The Gloup is a long sea cave, the landward side having collapsed to give a spectacularly deep chasm.