So last night we found out that both Pentland Ferries (who we are due to sail with) and Northlink (the only other ferry company who sail to the mainland) had their sailings for today “under review” except for the 9am Northlink one, which was unavailable to book on-line.

We got up early to check for updates only to find that our sailing has been cancelled due to gale force winds and the tides. It turned out that the 9am Northlink one did sail, so we could have booked that one had it been available to book, however by the time we found out it was sailing it was too late for us to get there in time to check in even if there had been spaces.

Pentland have now booked us on the 5pm sailing, but it is still “under review” and they probably won’t know till this afternoon if it will be going. The 4.45pm Northlink one is also “under review” however they said they should know by around 11am if it is going or not. If we find out that it is, we shall book it while there are spaces and get a refund from Pentland. Then at least we should know we are getting back and can also let our next B&B know.

Meantime, I have been in touch with the next B&B to ask if they can swop our booking to tomorrow night if we get stuck on Orkney. She has been very helpful and I am keeping her updated. If we do get stuck it’s unlikely that we can extend our stay in our lovely holiday home as there are guests due to arrive later (if their ferry doesn’t get cancelled). As its all a bit up in the air just now, so I think we will have to just check out as planned, although the owner says she will let us know if / when she hears back from her next guests.

Luckily we had a bit of contingency built into our plans, as we planned to camp for 2 nights in Durness. However, we have found out that the campsite has closed although you can still camp for £9 with water and electric, but no showers or toilets etc will be open (there are public toilets near the campsite however). Because of this, we had decided to probably make it just a one night stay, so we have a spare night to “play” with if we do get stuck in Orkney.

More later…

The 5pm Pentland crossing also got cancelled, however Northlink are still sailing at 4.45pm so we booked that crossing and Pentland are refunding us. The sea swells, according to a website Paul checked, are about 3.6 metres and it’s “blowing a hoolie”, so I think we will need sick bags, but hopefully we will get there!

Update…

Finally the weather broke today. It started pretty overcast and by mid morning the rain was on and it was quite windy. We decided nevertheless that we would get into our wetsuits and go out in the canoe, the plan was to canoe just off Aikerness beach, then change to dry clothes and go to the Highland Park Distillery for a tour.

So we put our wetsuits on and packed the canoe into the car. As we drove the rain got heavier. By the time we got to Aikerness beach (at high tide) we realised that canoeing might be just a bit dangerous for novices like us. So we took our “almost did it” photo and then wriggled out of our wetsuits (inside the car, as the toilets were locked and it was raining outside) and into clean dry clothes.

Since we were so close to the Broch of Gurness, we decided to drive the short road along the coast to it. Jeez oh, the potholes! So far we have found the roads in Orkney to be excellent, but this was like a farm track as you can see from the photo.

Canoe trip now abandoned we continued to the distillery for a very informative tour. A nice bonus was the free whisky tasting glasses that we got to keep!

Back at our lodge we found out that the ferries for tomorrow (when we are due to go back to the mainland) are “under review” meaning it’s possible (likely?) our ferry could be cancelled or disrupted. Much as we love it here, we are now keen to continue the rest of our trip on the NC500, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow. I have sent some emails off for contingency planning and checked out if the pods in Kirkwall are available tomorrow should we need them (they are, but I really hope we don’t need them).

A “quieter” day today. We got up early with a plan to go to the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness, then on to Waulkmill Bay where we hoped we might be able to canoe. However, 2 things were against us canoeing there – firstly it was high tide, so there was no sand at all, and secondly the beach is accessed by steep steps, so it would have been extremely difficult to get the canoe down to it anyway.

The weather forecast was excellent, to be mostly sunny all day. In actual fact it was mostly cloudy and a bit chilly compared to yesterday. So we stuck to the first part of our plan and visited the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones, which were interesting.

We did then continue to Waulkmill Bay, but didn’t stay. It’s a shame the tide hadn’t been out as it looks lovely on google images and would have made for a nice stroll along the beach, if not a canoe trip. Instead we made out way back to Birsay for a relaxing afternoon, with a picnic stop on the way back at Loch Harray (where we had taken our post-sunset “glow” photos the evening before).

On return to Birsay, we considered taking the canoe out in the bay, but it was cold and a bit windy, with the tide on its way out, so we decided against that in preference of a dip in the hot tub back at our holiday lodge and a relaxing afternoon. We did stay to watch the seals for a short while first.

Sunset looked as if it was going to be spectacular, but in the end although it was nice, it sank down behind clouds that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Now we are just relaxing again, and will use the hot tub (and perhaps the sauna) again later on.

Today was all about the East Mainland. The weather was fantastic for late October, sunny and mild.  First we headed out to Deerness to walk to the Gloup (a collapsed sea cave separated from the sea by a land bridge), and Mull Head Reserve, with amazing coastal scenery. We have some great video footage when Paul’s video is ready. For more information on this area please click here – https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/gloup-mull-head-reserve-p669091

Continuing south from there we made a brief stop at the Italian Chapel which was built by Italian prisoners during the Second World War. This used to be free to visit, but now charges admission, so we just had a look at the outside. Next to this is the Orkney Wine Company where we were offered plenty of tastings (not just wine, but spiced rum, whiskey, liqueurs etc). We ended up buying their port, which was very nice.

Further on to Windwick Bay, which I had read was a great spot to see seal pups from October to December. We saw lots of seals and pups, and the scenery was great too. We stopped at the small parking bay, which overlooked the beach where the seals and pups were. It also had a picnic table, and as the weather was sunny and mild today it was a perfect spot for our picnic lunch.

Travelling back, we stopped at the Churchill Barriers for photos of the ship wreck and decided it was a nice spot to get the canoe out for a short paddle.

With the days being short now that the clocks have turned back, once we had canoed we ran out of time for doing anything else, so we headed back. We missed seeing the sunset as we were driving on the wrong side of the island at the time, but we did a short detour to see the afterglow reflected in Loch Harray.

This evening as we were in the hot tub, we took the camera outside with us and picked up some photos of a weak aurora, only visible through the camera. Such a shame not to see it by the eye. About 4 weeks earlier it was visible here, but unfortunately it’s not been very active this week.

We headed south originally planning to “do” the east of the Orkney mainland as the weather was looking good. However, when we stopped off at the Broch of Gurness, one of Orkney’s best preserved brochs, we realised that Paul had forgotten to pack his drone.

We decided to go back for it, but as it was already midday when we arrived back, and with sunset at around 4.30pm, it didn’t leave us much time for what we wanted to do. So it was back to plan A.

Instead of heading to East Mainland Orkney, we decided to look around Birsay village (we are staying a little bit outside of the village and hadn’t visited it yet), then head to Skara Brae via the Orkney Brewery for lunch, and back to the Brough of Birsay for a walk and sunset, as the tide times worked for walking over on the causeway to the island.

After picking up the drone, we parked up by the village and spent some time looking at seals out on the rocks, the Earl’s Palace and St Magnus’ Church. There are lots of points of historic interest in this area.

We then headed on to the Orkney Brewery where we did a tour (after which Paul drank my beer samples as I am not a beer drinker) and we had lunch.

This is on the way, and close to, Skara Brae & Skaill House, which are for many possibly the main attraction on mainland Orkney. Skara Brae is a Neolithic village which is around 5000 years old! It was found after it started to become unearthed following a great storm in 1850. Lots more information can be read here – http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

Skaill House (entry fee included as part of the Skara Brae entrance fee, currently £9) is a historic manor house. More information can be found here – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaill_House

Finally we were back to Brisay, seeing a beautiful rainbow on the way.

Arrived and ready to walk over the causeway to the island and the Brough of Birsay and catch what there was of a sunset (it had clouded over a bit, so nothing spectacular, but still quite dramatic).

Now we are back at our lovely rented house, we have been in the hot tub, had dinner, and now almost ready for another hot tub dip…. The northern lights don’t look at all promising, but I guess you can’t have it all….

We had a good sleep last night, although we had to grab the mattresses off the spare beds to put with the sofa bed mattress as it was pretty lumpy. It ended up fine and comfy and the heater kept the pod warm and cosy. We just used our sleeping bags as a duvet and had a sheet (that we had brought for the airbed when we camp) underneath us.

Once we left the campsite / pod, we took an hour or so to have a look around Kirkwall at St Magnus Cathedral, the ruins of the Bishops & Earls Palaces etc.

After a look around we stocked up in Lidl and Tesco for some more provisions, then headed towards Birsay (where we are staying for 5 nights) via the Yesnaby coastal walk and sea stack (we just did a short – and very muddy – walk of perhaps a mile each way to view the sea stack and cliffs). The drive to Yesnaby was scenic, with some views over to Hoy.

The weather today has kept changing, we saw a few rainbows again, but mostly it was favourable and fairly sunny.

Our self catering accommodation in Birsay was ready for a 2pm check-in, which was great timing. After Yesnaby we arrived almost exactly at 2pm. We are super impressed with our accommodation, even better than expected, and the hot tub is fab! We face north, so if we are lucky enough for the Aurora to show while we are here, we have the perfect spot! (Fingers crossed!!!) However, the weather forecast, although looking to be fairly dry, is also forecast to be mostly overcast… There are some stars out though, so maybe we might get lucky…

UPDATE: We got the Northern lights later from the hot tub, albeit only through a long exposure on the camera, not by eye… Thousands of stars though…

Once again we were up early this morning, especially with the extra hour in bed as the clocks went back. It was getting light around 7.30am. We had our breakfast at the hotel and set off around 10am. Today was all about the east coast part of the NC500.

The weather started pretty wet. We planned to look for dolphins at Chanonry Point, but the tides were wrong for dolphin spotting, so unfortunately that didn’t happen. Our other plan on the Black Isle peninsula, was to hike the Fairy Glen, but it was raining very heavily as we arrived, so we scrapped that plan and headed back to the A9 north. Just before getting back on the A9 we stopped at Clooty Woods (and Well) for a stroll. It was a peculiar place, steeped in myth, where (in a nutshell) people leave an “offering”, usually a piece of clothing, in the hope that as the “cloot” (clothing) rots away then so shall an illness. Read in much more detail on https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/munlochy/clootiewell/index.html

As we continued north the weather kept changing from rain to sun and back to rain again. We saw lots of rainbows! Our stops along the way included Dunrobin Castle (you can walk to the beach for an excellent view of the castle without having to pay to go in, so unless you actually want a look inside, this is your best option). Use their car park, it is free, and take the path down past the castle grounds to the beach.

At Brora beach it was wild and windy, the sun was out, as was a lovely rainbow that stayed out for the duration of our stroll along there.

The Whaligoe Steps are not easy to find as they are not signposted, but they are worth the effort. The road to them is exactly opposite the sign for the Cairn of Get. Over 300 steps take you from the cliff top to the naturally formed harbour between two sea cliffs, with a rocky beach. This was once a landing place for fishing boats and the steps were then used by fisherwomen to haul up the creels of herring. The scenery as you walk down, and even more so once you reach the bottom, is really quite dramatic. You may read on other webpages that you have to be really careful to use the steps, but they are currently under repair and we felt perfectly safe on them. An extra bonus was the mother seal and pup that were there, the mother bobbing about in the sea keeping watch on her pup, and the pup lying on the rocks on the beach.

Our final stop before heading to Gills Bay for the Orkney ferry, was Duncansby Sea Stacks. About 15 mins walk from the parking area, they are quite dramatic, but as you can see from our photo, the light was too low to get a good picture.

We hoped to find a fish and chip shop or van to get dinner from, but the only one we saw was closed, so we had some soup and a scone at the Pentland Ferry cafe.

Tonight’s accommodation is a camping pod at the Orkney Caravan and Camping Park in Kirkwall. We could have camped there with an electric hook up for £16, but the pod was only £35, and since we arrive in the dark, we decided it was a better idea. (Our original plan had been to camp at Gills Bay and get the ferry tomorrow, but we were glad we changed our minds as Gills Bay is a rather desolate place, at least at this time of year it is).

Now we are in our pod, with the heater on, and sharing a bottle of wine – nice and cosy!

We woke up to great weather and a lovely view of Ben Lawers from our bedroom window. After a hearty cooked breakfast, we set off fairly early to drive via Glen Lyon and the Schiehallion Road to Inverness. We knew we would be stopping a lot for photos and drone footage, so we gave ourselves plenty of time.

The trees were at “past peak” as a lot of the leaves had already fallen, but it was still a beautiful and colourful drive, especially one particular part of the Glen Lyon where the road twisted and turned and the trees came over in a canopy. We took so many photos and footage on Paul’s GoPros (yes, we has 2 of them set up at different vantage points – on the car windscreen and front grille).

The last part of the journey when we joined the A9 was also scenic, but without the same opportunities to stop for photos. We detoured into Aviemore and picked up a bottle of wine and some cheese, olives and crackers for dinner. Our hotel deal included afternoon tea so we knew we wouldn’t need a proper meal tonight.

Speaking of the hotel deal, it was excellent value, booked through itison, at Jury’s Inn Inverness and we have bed, breakfast and afternoon tea. In addition they gave us a voucher for any type of Costa coffee each and 10% off in the bar & restaurant. If I recall correctly it only cos us £65.

The afternoon tea was mostly nice, but some of the sandwiches were a bit stale, as if they had been made earlier and left out for a while. Most of it was very good though.

A little while later we went to use the health club which consists of a gym & studio (which we didn’t use) and a pool, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. Nice and relaxed afterwards, we sat in the bar for a while, used our coffee vouchers, and started to sort video clips & photos and write our blog.

Now we are just chilling out in the room, which has 2 comfy chairs, a table and king size bed. Paul is still sorting through video footage while I finish writing today’s blog. The clocks go back tonight, so we get an extra hour to sleep. I expect we shall set off quite early, even though our “deal” offers us a late check out till 2pm and breakfast is on till 10.30am. We have a few stops planned for tomorrow as we join the NC500 and make our way up to the north coast and Gill’s Bay for the ferry over to Orkney. Fingers crossed that the good weather follows us!

We set off after lunch to overnight in Killin, Perthshire. Our plan for Saturday is to drive through Perthshire for the Fall foliage. Perthshire is Scotland’s version of New England in the Autumn.

For our overnight stay, we picked up a good deal via the 5pm.co.uk website for the Killin Hotel, a lovely, quirky and slightly old fashioned hotel that serves great food. For £94 we got a 2 course meal (anything from the main menu, which was great value as our dinner alone would have cost around £45 just for the food).

On our way to Killin we made a short stop at Loch Lubnaig, which is often very calm and reflective, but although beautiful it was quite windy, so the reflections weren’t great.

Once at the hotel, we took a walk through the village to the Falls of Dochart, which is Killin’s main attraction. We have seen the raging in the past (especially one time when the river overflowed) but they were pretty tame just now.

Drinks by the fire, followed by dinner in the conservatory finished off a lovely day.

Have a read at our web page written about our wild camp trip on Saturday night in the Achray Forest near Aberfoyle, click here

To watch our video, click here