Sure enough, after a misty start, the sun came out on Saturday morning and we packed up the van and drove to the layby up the steep hill from Midhowe Broch. I got my hiker's walking sticks out, and used them to great effect on the precipitous path down to the shore, across two large fields with some sheep able to spill from one to the other through an open gateway in the wall. There is so much handy square flat building rock around in Orkney that most fields are bordered by stone dykes.

When we got to the bottom of the path there was a large building in front of us, which looked vaguely like a barn. It wasn't a barn, it was a protective cover for a long neolithic tomb, with multiple small cells where various skeletal remains had been found during the excavations. A high level gantry had been built in steel from which it was possible to look down into this amazing constructon, with its many vertical stone slabs separating out the individual cells.

Coming back out into the sunlight we approached the broch itself. Two workmen were busy strimming the grass in there, but to our amazement one of them was actually using a blower to blow the cut grass away. Hardly necessary in a windy place like Orkney!

The broch is fantastic, although its remains only hint at its former height of two storeys. At one point I was amazed to see that a whole lot of vertical stone had been leant against a part of the outer wall, could this be the very first instance of buttressing a vulnerable wall?

We took lots of photographs, and regretted not bringing our picnic lunch down with us, as it would have been the peerfect spot to just sit and watch the eiders and the seals in the waters in front of the broch.

A long slog later, we climbed back up to the van, and had our picnic lunch there, while other tourists arrived in cars and headed down towards the broch. Lovely! After lunch we drove on round the island again, spotting a crannog in a little loch, then finding the island's shop for supplies. We packed up late on Thursday morning, and headed for Stromness, via the southern road through Houton and Orphir. We noticed a Historic Scotland site down by the water, so we went to investigate, and discovered a lovely coastal walk. Once we arrived in Stromness we checked out the campsite and Ju booked us in online to one of the free pitches on hard standing by the edge of the pier. We left our little wooden reserved sign on the electrical outlet, together with our long cable. We carry two ever since we toured Ireland a couple of years ago, and noticed that on some campsites the electrical outlets are far from the pitches. I reckon if we plugged our two together we could manage over thirty metres, maybe even forty.

We found the address of 'All4Paws' dog grooming centre, and abandoned Jack to his fate, for a remarkable three hours. Then we drove to the ferry terminal and parked, paid our pound for a few hours' parking, and headed for the Ferry Inn, of which we had many fond memories on former trips to this lovely town. After a pint of lager shandy, which we enjoyed at a table set outside in the alleyway, We strolled along the main street and went into the Stromness Museum, which was much as I remembered it.

The custodian was a very chatty,woman, and I asked her about the new publication, which made no mention of that other Stromness, in South Georgia. I knew I had drawn a blank when she admitted she didn't know why it had been named after the town.

We walked back in search of a fish shop, in vain, and instead went to the butcher's shop we had made much use of in 2011 on our voyage on Little Else. We found that it stocked crabmeat, so bought some for tomorrow's lunch.

Later we drove round the top of the bay to the industrial estate ner the new secondary school, and came upon a real fish shop, which was unfortunately closed. Our three hours were up, so we went to pick Jack up and he was looking fantastic, and smelling even better. You do wonder what they use to shampoo dogs with, that smells so pungently on their fur for days!

Back to the campsite, where we reclaimed our pitch, beside a nice couple, real kindred spirits, in a similar van to ours. As we had dinner later we watched the local boat club race their dinghies round the cans in the harbour, only nudging over a bit when the Hamnavoe had to have space to reach her berth for the night.

It was a perfectly calm night, hardly any wind, and in the morning we woke to a dense mist over everything. Two yachts crept out of the harbour round Point of Ness, almost invisibly.

As time went by it slowly cleared, and became a wonderfully sunny day. We packed up and left for Dounby, where the Coop sells petrol cheaper than elsewhere. And we stocked up on dinners for a few days, as we were unsure how easy it would be to shop on Rousay. We drove then over the gently rolling hills to the north of mainland, at Evie, then drove down to the ferry at Tingwall.

I noticed that vehicles have to reverse on to this ferry, and was not looking forward to that in the slightest. The queue was funny to look at, as we were first and all the other vehicles had to reverse towards us and park. Then suddenly I thought I saw a familiar face. A man in amred sweater was walking around the end of the queue talking into a mobile phone. Ju made some comment about him being lucky he had a signal, because we had the dreaded 'no service' on ours. I asked her for the binoculars and had amdiscreet look. Yes, it was our second sighting of an Orcadian Lib Dem politician in a few days (Jim Wallace on Sunday). Alastair Carmichael himself! And he was about to travel on our ferry to Rousay! I stopped myself from leaping out of the van and delivering a few suggestions as to his chances in the GE being fairly slim, but reckoned that enough people are probably doing that already, without some random tourist like me joining in!

On Rousay we soon found the hostel/campsite, but not the hard standing with power we had prebooked. It is a lovely site, overlooking Eynhallow Sound, where the ferry plies by all day to Egilsay and Wyre, two nearby islands, as well as Rousay. Finally Ju went and found the campsite manager, who simply pointed over the wall into a corner of the next field, which was the spot we wanted! Excellent.

After a few minor problems with the power supply which the manager came and fixed, we were set for the night.

We decided however before setting up camp properly, that we would do a circuit of the island in the van to see where the various attractions are, and to get a general impression of its overall size.

Let's do the chicken in the Cobb, Ju suggested, when we got back. We have recently bought an extension for the dome, and she was eager to try it out, with a pyrex dish full of sweet potatoes, onion, carrot and green pepper in there as well, effectively under the chicken. I lit the cobblestone with the usual flourish of the blowtorch, and we set up the Cobb to do the business. We weren't happy about the temperature of the dome however, it was cool enough to put hands on, when ideally during cooking it should be too warm to touch. Sure enough, at the end of the allotted cooking time the chicken wasn't looking nearly brown enough. So Ju set off to the hostel and put on the oven to 200 degrees. Some little time later we sat down at the hostel table to a fine chicken dinner. There were no other occupants, so for one evening it was all ours. It is a really fine hostel, with all kinds of crockery, pans, coffee percolators, fridge, cooker, books, cds and player. Fantastic!

Saturday dawned with dense mist, again. We are getting used to this. Once the sun gets up the mist burns off and a lovely day ensues.

We drove back to our campsite again and in the afternoon we investigated the nearest chambered cairn to the campsite, a rare double-decker!
Then later we scoffed the remains of the chicken with vegatables for dinner. Yum!

On Sunday we walked down to the pier, then along the bottom road and then up towards the RSPB reserve on the hill up behind Trumland House, and trekked across scrubby heather and peat covered moorland, following rather sketchy waymarkers, until we found our way back to the road, and our base camp.
On Monday we got up early and headed for the pier, carrying a picnic lunch in the Gibraltar daysack. We have had this for years, having bought it in Gibraltar for one Gibraltar pound!

We climber aboard the ferry and paid a princely £6.60 fare for the two of us to have three trips, from Rousay to Egilsay, then to Wyre, then back to Rousay. That's £1.10 each per trip! What a bargain! Jack went free, and got a lengthy cuddle from the man who took our fares!

On Egilsay we made straight for the church, crossing a field and negotiating some tricky gates in the process. The building was amazing, especially the tower, which you could get into at the bottom, but there were no stairs, only two very old timber (we think) cross pieces, about three metres up. We left the church, crossed back over the field and waved to a couple of farmers on a quad bike, and said good morning to a woman on the farm. That was the sum total of our human interactions on Egilsay. We walked on, following our excellent book of island walks, and discovered the monument to St Magnus, part funded by a church in London also dedicated to the saint. It was just a stone structure about two or three metres high, with a plaque on it. In a field.

We walked on across to the far shore, where we were rewarded by finding a small sandy beach, and a picnic table and seats, so we rested for a bit and let Jack sniff about.

Ju's bird count is mounting, and today we added a snipe to it, and I drove myself mad trying to photograph a lapwing in flight as something bigger than a distant dot! My new camera has an amazing zoom lens, hopeless for following something as fast as a lapwing. Ah well......

On our return we investigated what was down on our map as the community centre. The door was open, a lovely room with sofas and armchairs, wifi and the means to make coffee etc, even some packets of biscuits laid out. No set prices for anything, the implication was just help yourselves and leave a donation in the large open pot of money on the table! So we did. Impressed by the trust in us by the community!

Down to the pier, and off to Wyre, to find Cubby Roo's Castle. The oldest castle in Scotland.
It is brilliant, on the top of a hill near a farm called the Bu, where Edwin Muir lived as a child. In his day it was just a mound, but later excavations revealed a well defended building, with ditches and walls, a water tank, an oven, and numerous small rooms. Kolbein Hruga was the guy's name, you can see why his nickname arose. His son Bjarni Kolbeinsson became bishop of Kirkwall Cathedral, and founded Kirkwall Grammar School. There you go!

Our third boat trip took us back to Rousay via Egilsay, to the pier bar where we had a pub meal accompanied by two pints of the Orkney IPA, very nice. After all that exercise we didn't fancy cooking. So we had a bar meal at the pierside pub.

On our final day on Rousay, Tuesday, we walked along the main road and investigated two chambered cairns, one of which was situated very high up, overlooking the sound. In the first cairn Jack surprised a professional photographer, who was painstakingly photographing the contents of the cairn for Historic Scotland, so that anyone online could have a virtual visit to the cairn, and see how it is constructed.

At the end of the walk we found a hotel bar, and had cullen skink (a kind of creamy fish soup with onions and potatoes and parsley, for the uninitiated). Then we ambled back to the van and had a leisurely afternoon.

On Wednesday we packed up early and queued for the ferry back to the mainland, where we headed back to Birsay for a couple of nights. We remembered the free laundry facilities at the hostel, and decided to spend the rest of the rather cold rainy afternoon laundering everything we could, even our bedding. In the evening, after dinner, we watched Masterchef in the hostel. There are only two other people staying here at the moment, two intrepid campers in a tent, with a small dog, and they showed no inclination to watch tv so we had it to ourselves.

On Thursday we decided to do some touring of west mainland, at least in the Birsday area, and headed first for the RSPB reserve at the Loons, where Ju went into the bird hide while I walked Jack for a bit. Then we visited the first of Orkney's two breweries, and bought a supply of five of their ales, Corncrake, clootie Dumpling, Red McGregor, Raven and Puffin. Then we headed down towards the Ring of Brodgar, where we took Jack on an extended walk mostly off the lead, and where Ju spotted a large group of migrating Knot. Then we went to the Bay of Skaill and had lunch at the Skara Brae visitor centre restaurant, and finally checked put the second brewery, at Swannay, where we purchased two of their brews, Islamd Hopping, and Scapa Special. As I was,leaving i spotted a bar mat which said that the Scapa Special went down better than the German Fleet! Referring of course to the scuttling of that fleet in the first world war. The sales girl said she sells a lot of that bar mat to German tourists! They must have a sense of humour, I think!