Thursday May 19th

Grumbl posted on the Mavericks CC site last night that the cabbage tree's botanical name is: cordyline Austraulis. I didn't know that.

Seeing that lone cabbage tree made me realise what was 'wrong' with the landscape, there was something unsettling I couldn't quite put my finger on, and that was it; a total absence of trees. It blows as hard as a Donald Trump here; you'd think they'd have trees planted everywhere, not only for shelter; but firewood too.

Also from the Maverick site; Goose wrote:

FYI, if you see Balfour hospital, that where I was spat out, and also my grandad.
Mum has played the organ in st Magnus cathedral, and my grannies family crest (clousten) is in the stained glass.
We used to live in about 23 king street I think.
Dad used to work on the pilot boats in Kirkwall harbour
Make sure you eat the sheep from north Ronaldsy, farmed on the beach eating seaweed. Apparently they taste delicious.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Ronaldsay_sheep

Wandered down to the shoreline this morning to check out a wee boat on a trailer parked down there, with the drawbar pointing skyward.

Okay, it makes sense to remove the bung and prop the drawbar up to let things drain; but this thing was built tail heavy. My 90kg was just enough to pull it ground-wards.

She'd be a pig of a thing to tow...all over the place like a mad woman's shit.

Not my problem; but sometimes ya wonder...

Away from the hotel about 9:30, I'd damned near frozen yesterday, so first stop today was Birsay Farmers, a co-op shop run by and for the local farmers, but open to the public as well, where I bought an extremely warm fleecy-lined 2XL jacket for around NZ $53.
Well pleased.

Off then to Kirkwall airport to book flights for Westray, and then on to Papa Westray next Sunday. Unfortunately there are only three seats available, so...short straws/long straws Rosie, Jane and James get to go; Christine, Charlie, and I stay back.

Next stop was the Churchill Barrier at Skerry Sound. There are three (I think) of these barriers, (causeways,) built between various islands during the early days of WWII to prevent U-boats and other undesirables sneaking in to Scapa Flow.

Heritage & Fossil Tearooms at Burray for lunch...a very nice crème of bacon and chicken soup.

On to the family run Tapestry Gallery at Hoxta...not my idea of a fun afternoon...alright; there's some nice looking stuff here...but at NZ $15,000...nah...

Okay: Tomb of the Eagles. This is a Neolithic dwelling, getting on for 6000 years old, that has been excavated and is open to the public; but is a one mile walk from the car park. The air temp is 8 degrees, with a wind blowing as hard as a pre-election politician. I looked up to the east; and there's heavy rain over the sea about two miles away and coming our way. The walk out wouldn't be a problem; I'd have my back to it...but the walk back...nah...I'll opt out of this one this time.
Disappointed? Yes...but the chill factor with that wind would've been horrendous.
Charlie decided to go, donned all his wet-weather gear, leggings and all. He did get there and back; but was too cold and wet to actually linger and look at the excavations.
In the meantime we'd gone on to the nice warm coffee shop at Tomb of the Otter, at the southern end of Orkney,

Last call was the Italian Chapel back at Skerry Sound, built by Italian pow's who had been taken prisoner in Northern Africa in the early days of WWII. Quite a clever piece of building/engineering/architecture. Built around two Quonset buildings for them to practice their Catholicism in a mainly C of E country.
These fellas were also the major labour in building this particular Churchill Barrier.

And so back to the hotel.