Albert Hotel Ltd Kirkwall

Started off at the castle this morning and went to see the leaping salmon at Shin Fall. There were not many salmon around but after hanging around for nearly two hours I managed to get a couple of
pictures of them leaping, boy are they quick! I popped into the coffee shop for a look around the gift shop selling Harrods goods???

Back into the car and off to John O'Groats via Wick. I drove up following the A9 and ...

... Helmsdale scare me.

Worrying isn't going to help though and I'll just have to take each day as it comes - there aren't any shortcuts! Inspired by a friend who cycled across America and who talked about having specific milestones for every day (alarm going off, getting on the road etc), I decide that as well as milestones I'm going to focus on what makes me smile each day - anything from a silly placename ...

... of sky. The Orcadians say we are in Southern Norway. Between the North Sea and the North Atlantic, so far north that the Michelin Map of Great Britain & Ireland has to put Orkney in a side bar. You already know why we came and what we found was beyond my dreams.
We landed in Glasgow and changed to a turboprop plane for the last leg of the Journey to Orkney. Once in the air over Glasgow, the Highlands unfolded below us and, Toto, we knew we weren’t in Kansas ...

... bit like the skies here- I guess we can blend in with those rather than the road now. It handles quite well and with the exception of the windscreen wipers and indicators being on the ewrong side, it's quite easy to drive. Navigating Edinburgh (and indeed the rest of the country- with the exception of a minor detour though the smaller streets of Perth) was actually not too bad with the help of our big colins Atlas.

Once you get out of ...

Rousay is a small island just a few miles north of Mainland, Orkney. It has been called the "Egypt of the North" because of the large number of prehistoric sites found on the island. Only about 200 people call the Island their home, but it is a popular tourist site because of its archaeological importance. We visited just a few of the hundreds of sites on the island where even today most of the sites have yet to be excavated and researched by archaeologists.

... was occupied for about 600 years around 5,000 years ago. The site was found in the 1850's after a large storm had blown uncovered the tops of the ruins.

This small cluster of about 10 homes looks more like something a millionaire would make for his children as a play ground. The homes are built into the earth where they are sheltered from the wind and sea.

... br>
Six guests arrived today that flew in from the United States (1 from Germany) to join us in our tour of the United Kingdom. They landed at the Kirkwall Airport where the Bosun and deckhands met them at the airport to help with their luggage and to take them to the yacht. It's the most guests we’ve had aboard so far. Once aboard, the chef had food for them, and they were given a chance to unwind and relax from their long journey. There is always a cocktail party on ...

... horas y media, a una velocidad moderada ya que la carretera no da para más, y la niebla espesa tampoco lo ha facilitado. Por fin llegamos a John O'Groats, y parte del enigma se nos desvela; John O'Groats es un pueblo tipo Finisterre, o Nordkapp, es decir, un punto en el q se acaba la tierra...(de Escocia), o eso es lo que pretenden vender... ya que cuando observas con atención un mapa de Escocia el punto más ...

... warps and fenders to be on the safe side. Then I got back into bed and there we stayed until about 9:00; then it was time to get going as it was laundry day - oh joy! As I've mentioned before on numerous occasions, getting laundry done is one of those 'must do' chores and the degree of choreyness (new word, I reckon) varies from real pain to tolerable. Today was in danger of being a real pain ...

... waterfront in Stromness that was just as I described above, paved with flagstones and cobblestones, narrow, with stone buildings close in and no sidewalks. Once back in the countryside we went to Skara Brae which is a series of semi underground buildings built with flagstones and connected by underground tunnels. The Ring of Brodgar was next. It sits on a low hill in the centre of a fertile valley with low mountains all around in the distance. There are so many wildflowers the ...