Monday 19 July 2010
We got up early so we could put our washing in the laundrette as soon as it opened and then drove a few miles back the way we'd come the night before to take some photos we'd missed the previous day. We'd gone past some old abandoned buildings, flagstone fences (very different from the usual drystone fences everywhere else) and a wind farm that looked interesting.
The wind farm was really interesting – massive big wind turbines that looked fabupous against the blue skies – we spent ages there. The sunshine was a welcome change & it was just the perfect way to spend the morning before returning to Thurso to pick up our laundry and then driving on to St Mary's Bay to catch the ferry to St Margaret's Hope in South Ronaldsay. We were early and just second in the queue of cars, but it didn't take long for much more traffic to arrive – including 14 motorcycles. The ferry arrived & the cars on-board were offloaded remarkably quickly. The motorcycles were put on first & then we were on ourselves – the fist of many car ferry rides we'd be taking. The ferry was a catamaran with the car deck open to the skies. There were two inside areas for passengers & small open decks as well. We started out on deck, and to our suprise as soon as the ferry moved a whole heap of car alarms went off. Also one car started to move – causing rather frantic requests from the captain on the load speaker for the driver to return to his car & put the hand-brake on. By the time the man realised he was the guilty party, virtually everyone on the boat was watching him return to his car to put the brake on. We retreated indoors quite quickly as the wind was very bitter. The trip went really quickly and we had arrived at St Margaret's Hope before we'd had time to get bored. We were off quickly also and decided to check in to our hotel first and then decide what we wanted to do with the rest of the afternoon.
We were booked into Sands Hotel on the island of Burray which is connected to South Ronaldsay by causeways you can drive over. The hotel had a fantastic location and our room was by far the nicest we had stayed in so far. After a quick cup of tea, we headed out to see the Tomb of the Eagles which is at the southern end of South Ronaldsay. We got there quite late, but we were still able to catch the explanation of the discovery of the tomb and what had been found inside. Unlike most “museums”, here they let you touch and handle many of the artifacts which made it much more engaging than it might have been. After we'd listened to the entire spiel (we'd walked in somewhere in the middle & simply left when she got back to same point again) we set out to walk to the tomb. First we checked out a Bronze-age site along the way and then we walked out to the cliffs to see the 5000 year old tomb. The location was absolutely stunning & the tomb itself didn't disappoint either. To get into the tomb though the small opening, we had to drag ourselves along on a wide “skateboard”. It was a chambered tomb, so the inside had little “rooms” off the main part. There was a torch you could use & of course our digital cameras could take flash photos in the dark spaces to show us what they looked like also.
We walked back along the cliffs and enjoyed the wild-flowers and the blue butterflies that were seemingly everywhere. As we got towards the end of the cliff walk, we saw nesting sea birds & the antics of the adults flying in to deliver food to the chicks. It was a very magical afternoon. We made a few more stops on our way back to the hotel – the scenery was stunning and the light was really beautiful too.
After dinner we caught a rainbow over the bay the bay and then later, a stunning sunset. We couldn't have asked for a nicer start for our Orkney adventure.
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