Mainland, Orkney

On Saturday we could finally pick up the car from J D Peace. We handed over four bottles of Brouwdok, but there was so much staff around and not the one gentleman we’d promised them to. Rental cars are in short supply everywhere, so we could have a car from half past one on Saturday afternoon until half past four on Monday, but that means you pay for 3 days… Makes sense, right?? Anyway, we had a car, which made us one of the few (the only sailors in the harbour, at any rate). I have to say, a fine little motor, a VW Golf TDI, 45,000 miles on the clock but truly spotless.

Having learned our lesson by now, we had a look at a few websites, and sure enough, these days you can’t just turn up at an excavation – you have to buy a ticket first. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad on the spot, but anyway, we had tickets for Skara Brae on Sunday morning at 10. On Saturday we drove to a burial chamber in the southeast, but once there it turned out one was permanently closed and the other only open on weekdays. Same as the little café next to it, which was recommended for its spectacular view. And that information isn’t posted at the start of the farm track, oh no, it’s halfway along. After that the signs did multiply: don’t drive any further, turn here, we’re closed. Ah well, it’s rather charming like that. Then we had lunch in the delightful but tiny St. Mary’s Hope (nice name too), loaded up on groceries at Tesco, and after a quick bite headed off to the “community cinema” in Stromness. This was pure coincidence, because it was open for the first time since Covid and only opens once a fortnight (in summer, so that’s often…). Since it was in a former church, we were curious whether there was anything we could learn for the Midlumerlaan church cinema back home. It was great fun: round tables you sat around, with everyone laying out the drinks and snacks they’d brought. We hadn’t brought crisps, because they crunch so much, but not everyone felt the same way. Good film too, “Another Round”, or in Danish “Krug”. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Round_(film)

So on Sunday off to Skara Brae, a village dating from 3100 BC. In the gift shop Ella got chatting with the shop assistant, who explained that there were more burial mounds besides the ones that were closed or fully booked (Maes Howe), namely Cuween. By way of the 2 breweries – one commercial with a restaurant, the other on a farm with no visitor access – we drove to the northwest, where we went for a walk. We couldn’t get onto the little island because of high water.

Along the north side to a “broch”, a round stone tower from the Iron Age, probably built a few hundred years BC. Then, running on fumes by now, on to the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.

Back at the harbour I had a serious case of stone overdose; Cuween could wait until tomorrow. Philosophising, Ella and I reckoned we might well have had these kinds of houses, villages and monuments in Drenthe and elsewhere too, if only they’d been made of stone. Wood and textiles simply rot away. As it is, all we have left in the Netherlands are the hunebeds, our dolmens.

On our last day with the car we did go to Cuween. Very interesting: you just walk in once the previous group hands you the torch, and when you’re done and there’s nobody waiting, you put the torch back in the box provided for it. It was a bit creepy sitting inside a burial mound. Maybe 1.5 by 2 metres, with a few small side chambers. You see, the people back then had the habit of simply placing new bones in with the previous people. Somewhere a few thousand years ago that social custom changed and people started burying the dead individually. So those can no longer be found.

We rounded off the car day with a visit to the east side, where we had anchored on our first night. From the shore everything looks completely different. The little jetty we might have anchored near turned out to be a sweet, abandoned and run-down affair, with 2 farms and nothing else. We did have a really excellent lunch at a place that, by the looks of it, was 99% locals. In general the food and drink turned out better than expected; sure, most of it is greasy. But we ate badly once (the kebab), mediocre once (the Chinese), and for the rest fine to good (the American diner, the trendy little place “21”, the pub “Helgi’s”). And everywhere we could drink the local beers. At some point the penny dropped: many breweries here use only one particular English malt, and as a result they all taste a bit alike. Unfiltered isn’t the norm here either, not even with the small brewers. And not too much alcohol, of course, but that’s fair enough: the 8% beers are all very “heavy” too and not exactly sessionable. A Vlaams Paard really is not done here…

To give you an idea of the (water) temperature: we just take the bottles straight out of the bilge, and they’re at the ideal drinking temperature.

Meanwhile it was time for some maintenance; we had some water in the bilge. This time one of the filters on the drinking water tank turned out to be leaking, so after 2 weeks the entire tank (200 L) had ended up in the bilge. Fortunately, last year in Horta I’d had a “portable pump” made (always invest in local businesses, that way they stay…), which came in handy once again for getting rid of the first lot of water. And in Aruba I’d already bought lovely new 10" water filters with a knob on top to shut them off, so you can easily change the filter even with the line under pressure. Time to fit them! After a few hours of fiddling it turned out I had a slightly odd adapter after all, so that one mustn’t come off again, because by screwing it in I’ve now cut a “new thread” into the fairly soft plastic. Let’s see whether we can order those American filters in the Netherlands too… Oh, and also: afterwards, don’t leave open the valve for emptying the drinking water tank with the electric pump, or the drinking water tank will siphon into the other water tank. So now we’re drinking from the other tank, but with our softening system the water is fine – you can’t even taste the chlorine in the supplied water.

By the way, we had fine weather for these parts. One local boat owner even thought it was time to go sunbathing shirtless (at 15 degrees, but with a bit of sunshine).

Now on to the Northern Isles…