A busy day

Firstly, thank you for the messages of support for yesterday. I know it is hard to know what to say so I appreciate that you did.

We got up at 6am and got the ferry from Scrabster to Stromness. It was a smooth crossing in sunshine with great views of the Old Man of Hoy. We both remembered the 1967 3 day TV climb by Bonnington, Patey, Haston and Brown but hadn't been aware Bonnington did it again on his 80th birthday.

We visited the Standing Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar, older than Stonehenge, which was under conservation work. I was really keen to see Maeshowe reputed to be the finest chambered tomb in Western Europe but the car park was closed. We later found out that had we approached on another road we'd have found the new car park. We have to book a tour to see it so we must try to do that.

We proceeded north to see the Earl's Palace and St Magnus Church. I was just walking out on the road when a car screeched to a halt and someone called my name. It was Blipper 60Plus. We had an impromptu blipmeet!

Mr C is interested in all military so we headed to walk to the memorial to Kitchener at Marwick Head. Apparently he was on a secret mission to Russia when his ship hit a mine. Rain started so we had a cup of tea in the van then walked up the hill via some dramatic cliffs to the imposing monument.

It was so windy we thought we'd get more shelter on the east. On the way we stopped to walk over the causeway to Brough of Birsay to explore the ruins of the 10th century Norse settlement.

We have s wonderful freedom camp
Sheltered from the wind at Broch of Gurness. My cousin tells we the Northern Lights may perform tonight. So we may not get much sleep as we would love to see them.

Another 3 year old wisdom from Nathaniel. His mum told him it was good it was raining as that meant the grass would be green again. "No! Rain isn't green so how will
It make the grass green?"