[Photos] UK 31 - Orkney

[moonvoice]

The last batch of Orkney photos before we move onto Aviemore.

Tonight we played Dungeons and Dragons with our team (ridiculously named Brongeons and Brogons), and a hilarious night was had. I brought homemade banana bread (with chocolate chips) and Anita brought apple crumble.

This weekend I think will hopefully be pretty quiet. It's been good to post these pictures up slowly, and process them all. By the end of it, it'll be close to 40 posts, but you'll have only seen the very tip of the iceberg, given I took some 5,000 photos. (Too many, obviously, lol).








This was as we walked towards the Ring of Brodgar. You can't see them, but there are curlews nesting and courting everywhere.



The small houses, like little stones.





Daffodils and the bright sun. (I'm sure I posted this one before, I just like it a lot).



Fertile land. Blue skies and seas.









This was actually the very first photo I took of Orkney proper, while we were driving towards our destination. It was taken through the windscreen, hence the different colour.



Island after island after island.









All of these roads over water have 'drive at your own risk' signs before them which is very understandable, given how they must be when the swell is high and storms are nigh.





The dawn light, the day we took the ferry back to Scotland, with Aviemore in our sights. This was to be one of our longest days in terms of exhaustion, driving from Kirkwall to Aviemore, basically, with a ferry ride in between. This time I trusted my seasickness enough to stay in the lounge, and we mostly catnapped.

Comments

[cmcmck]

You certainly had better weather for it than we got this year!

[moonvoice]

It didn't rain once! Honestly we had terrific weather, although horrendous wind in the mornings, and we talked to our hosts about it and he said it was all abnormal, from the shrieking cold winds in the morning at this particular time of year, to the heat / lack of rain / level of sun. This was where most of the troubled 'definitely not normal for this time of year :/ ' sentiments came from, but I imagine Orcadians have more to worry about than most re: climate change and the sea levels rising, given they'd surely be made climate refugees pretty quickly because of it.

[elinox]

Now I don't feel so bad for the 2,000-ish pictures I took during our 2 week trip to the UK. :P

Gorgeous skies, thanks for sharing!

[moonvoice]

Ahahah never feel bad! :D :D :D

[silverjackal]

I am reading these just now, so I was thinking "Did you not go and see the standing stones?"... so I scrolled down and checked, and you did, just posted earlier. That's what I get for being behind! Unfortunately this spring is starting like the last and we have massive wildfires to the north (nowhere near me), so I've been on wildfire support. I suspect this will be the pattern from now on thanks to global warming, and it's a grim one.

Your photos are, however, a lovely break. This is very much how I picture the Orkneys -- all windswept space, sea and sky.

[moonvoice]

It was the first thing we did! (Well, after arriving and having a quiet day, heh). I was like 'right, if I'm only going to be well enough for one thing, let me go see the Neolithic sites.'

And oof, wildfire support D: Oh goodness, and yes a grim pattern, especially since it's a lot of extra labour as well.

[silverjackal]

We had several days of awful, smoky conditions where the air was just *foul* as well, even though base was hundreds of kilometers from the fires (literally, safely out of reach), so the people who are closer and/or have their homes at risk have my profound sympathies. I get to come home to clear skies and no immanent threat of loss -- they do not. And when one strips the suffering out of it there's still the financial angle to consider -- this province is relatively well off, and all of the firefighting and support work and repair work will place an intense strain on the coffers. It's a grim business, and yet people bury their heads in the sand and deny climate change.