Back on the mainland last night and awoke this morning, not unsurprisingly, overlooking the North Sea this campervan morning. Surrounded by sheep, brown fields, broken up by islands of flowering yellow gorse and the return of dreich, forcing a retreat back into the van. A solid blanket of cloud and shimmering silver sea. An altogether flat calm with an onshore breeze, though quite misty looking out to sea. Quite chilly in the breeze as it whips over flat open ground and into you, another reason to retreat to the van. A calm short ride from Stromness across to Scrabster, past the mighty and imposing ‘Old Man of Hoy ‘ and now the slow crawl south. Sitting here reflecting on the amazing few days in the Isles and also a genuine sadness at leaving. A real immersion in culture, nature, history and wildlife. Real food for the soul. Alan De Botton in his book on Travel writes :
“ Instead of bringing back 1600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts.”
One of those thoughts is the urge to return and to explore further, but also understanding elements of my self.
De Botton goes on to write :
“ We can see beauty well enough just by opening our eyes, but how long this beauty will survive in memory depends on how intentionally we have apprehended it.”
The power of a sandy bay to yourself, walk amongst ancient relics, pick my way through stones, pebbles and rocks along shorelines, touch ancient stones, stand in houses that were built thousands of years before the pyramids, sit in splendid isolation and watch the weather turn and pass. To look at things through other peoples eyes. Go looking for and observe nature. One of the lessons I learned this trip is to stop looking. When you stop looking it invariably turns up. A useful lesson to have learned. And now slowly southwards. Lovely days people.
“ Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on our first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect.” Alain de Botton.
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