August 30 - Day 12

Early morning and full day ahead.  The town is quiet, finally, mostly because it is Sunday morning.  The ‘kids’ were on the town last night all through the night  There is nothing much going on around here and they take over the downtown after 10PM on a Saturday .  Lots of shouting and racing cars around town.  Don’t know where the police are, they seem to be inside watching the telly.  We’re told they are high spirits but very annoying for tired travelers.  We swear the close set stone buildings actually amplify the sounds. Down to breakfast.  Lot’s less choices for fruit and bakery.  A hot breakfast is being served with the usual suspects.  We take a quick stroll around the sleeping town and thinking how to find the noisemakers and go sing outside their houses.  LOL.  On the bus on our way to John O’Groats.  It is sunny and warm with some wind.  This site is the northern top of mainland Scotland, 864 miles from Land’s End the furthest south point in Great Brittain.  It’s a great picture spot with a Starbucks.  But only a facsimile of SB, the coffee not so good.  Past Castle Mey, one of the royal family homes, with a stunning view of the sea.  The flag is up so it means Charles and Camilla are in residence for their usual August holiday.  Our bus backs onto a catamaran ferry at Scrabster.  The ferry is privately operated.  It’s amazing the vehicles they get loaded on.  Two buses our size are parked within inches of each other.  We walk up to the top deck and stand through the one hour trip to be able to see everything.  We are in mostly sun, the sea is relatively quiet and wind is low.  We begin to see the many islands that make up the Orkney’s.  There is the rare house and farm and lots of sheep and cows. The islands produce enough milk to meet their needs without imports.  Also, they produce enough wind power to power all islanders with enough to sell to the bigger grid.  They are working on tidal power and plan to have it operational in next couple years.  The islands appear mostly treeless.  We are looking at the North Sea side and the wave crash up on steep cliffs.  We can see a large oil refinery on Hoy Island.  A tanker comes in once a week to unload into an underground pipe leading to the refinery.  It would be a great shame to have a spill of magnitude up there, it’s a fragile environment. It is an irony that they pursue the wind and tide power for their own use but happy to ship the oil out.  LOL. There is a lonesome looking bare island of old stone houses and buildings stretching out over the moor.  They appear empty and abandoned, very sad thinking about who built them and lived there at one time.  We disembark in St. Margaret, small quaint village that used to be where herring fishermen lived and worked. The day remains sunny and clear.  It’s a very lucky thing given the reputation of the area of severe gale force winds and rain and heavy cloud cover.  Not only are we at the same latitude for Alaska but we are where the North Sea and the Atlantic converge.  The only land north of here is the Shetland Islands.  It’s very green but covered with fields of barley and hay for their thousands of sheep and cows.  They grow Angus beef for sale and milk cows for their dairy and sheep, all have to be fed. There are two distilleries and two brewers on the island.  We tried the Orkney stout before we got here and we weren’t fans.  The Highland Park whisky distillers use local water and unlike the big boy operations they still dig out local peat from the bogs to burn in the processing of this single malt. We buy a bottle to take home no tastings so it will be a mystery until then.  We have to pinch outselves with the day we are getting, the Orks are known for fog and low visiability.  We get a few spits but it doesn’t last and then the sun comes out. We have a new bus driver for the day and a local guide who is a wealth of information on all island subjects.  The Norwegian influence here is unmistakable.  One third of Scotland (north) was ruled by them until the Scots took it back until 1498.  The houses are built like mainland Scotland.  We travel around Scappa Flow, a bay where the Royal Oak was sunk during WWI by a German sub. During WWI they decided to sink ships to block access to the connecting waters.  Their ghostly hulls are still seen in the water near the barriers.  The influence of war is very prevalent here, early transition of invaders like the Norwegians and two WW’s.  After the sinking of the Loyal Oak, killing most on board, Winston Churchhill, then naval commander, ordered the building of the Churchhill Barriers, four barriers joining four islands and closing off free water passage between them.  The Germans bombed and attempted to invade through the north of Great Britain in both wars, the Orks were a focus of their attacks.  Some barriers take brunt from storms but still stand but also create huge waves on cars, another one has built a natural sand dune on one side and subdues the waves.  Without these barriers we would have to have gotten off and on ferries several time for access. We see what are called Block shipsThere us a main island of Orkney and it is referred to as the mainland in comparison to the surrounding islands.   Added all together there is only a couple thousand people.  We venture on around the island and pass by the Highland Park Distillery, they use island barley and water and burn island peat. We don’t get to tasted it but buy a small bottle to take home.  We anticipate it will be very smoky. The names on the island are all Norwegian influenced and there remains today a special alliance and shared events between them and Orkney’s.  The Orks have their own flag, yellow background and red cross.  There are lots of festivals to draw tourists to the area.  Cruise ships come in with as many as 4000 at a time.  We stop for lunch in a tiny village at a restaurant called Smithfield Hotel.  Carrot and coriander soup and four kinds of tea sandwiches, carrot cake and shortbread.  We stop at Scara Brae, which is a highlight of the trip.  A Neolithic village found by accident by a farmer. They excavated the sight and today we are able to walk along the top and look down into the subterranean homes made of stone.  They had round hide roof tents that covered them.  Many artifacts were found that tell the story of their lives.  The site sits right on te beach.  It is amazing to see it in person.  Then we walk over to Skaill House an intact house from the 1400’s which is very opulent for the times.  It has connections with Captain Cook.  We also stop at the Ring of Bogdor.  Earlier than the druids at Stonehenge but similar design of a perfect circle ringed by large standing (up to 12 feet) local stones.  There is a ditch that forms an outer ring. Also what is called the comet stone stands at a distance aligned with the center of the circle.  They don’t know what it depicted but knew it was important.  The Picts also existed in the ORks There were two prisoner of war camps during WWII. The Italian camp prisoners were used to build the Churchill Barriers.  They were homesick and among them were many artisans. The base commander gave them two Quonset huts that they welded together and out of camp scraps the created a beautiful church. It stands today as a memorial to the church and efforts.  There were witches in the Orks and many were burned at the stake but that had been a few years ago.  The town of Kirkwall is lovely, especially with St. Magnus Cathedral, a very early church built by Norwegians on the island.  It is an incredible place with soaring vaulted ceilings and a variety of architectural early styles in red sandstone.  The bones of St Magnus are found in one of the walls.  Back on the bus and onto the ferry.  Still sunny and relatively warm.  We know we have been incredibly lucky. Back at the hotel for dinner of fresh cod and ham, new potatoes and steamed veg, Cheesecake and ice cream.  Quieter tonight.  Bars closed, it’s a 4 day bank holiday but I think this town has its limits.  We have not been able to get the pictures downloaded onto the blog, hope to do it before we leave Glasgow.  This has been a fantastic trip but very demanding schedule wise.  All we can do to get the blog on.  We have had a magcal day in the Orkney’s, which should be named the orneries weatherwise.  Nighty night.