Orkney.

The ferry ‘Daggri’ old Norse for ‘ Dawn of the Day ‘, beautifully apt for this time of the morning, pulls clear of the Bay of Ulsta, a wee swell and some wind to speak of, but still made for a smooth transition to Mainland Shetland for a quiet venture around Lerwick. No cruise ships and a delightful, calm and spacious wander. An opportunity to catch up and thank yous to the ladies who gave us directions and spots to camp. We found them in their usual place as we left them so many days before sat outside their shop on the high street, swapped stories and thoughts and said goodbyes, in more ways than one. Then overnight leaves us waking up in Orkney. A sad farewell to Shetland and an acknowledgment that I will be back, a sense that the visit has changed me in some way yet to be fully understood. Another catalyst for another shift. I look forward to getting on the ferry soon to say ‘Hello Again’. As John Muir wrote over a hundred years ago :

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”.

The delights of this part of the journey is arriving late around midnight into Orkney and this Campervan Morning view is… Tesco’s and Lidl’s car park on a busy Saturday morning. The sky is streaked with a multitude of dark blues, whites and purples. It’s windy once more the soundscape is passing cars and crying gulls. Time to get a wiggle on. Lovely days people.

“ There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.” Lord Byron.