On Friday we packed up and set off from Birsay, headed for Dounby where petrol had gone down again, to 1.16 a litre, and filled up for our next islands trip. We picked up mail from James' house and collected the ring I had ordered from the Ortak workshop. We did some shopping for provisions in the Lidl and Tesco in Kirkwall, then drove out to a bay near the airport to give us all some fresh air before our ferry trip to Eday. There in a small pool was a solo whooper swan.

The ferry was a ro-ro, to my relief. I had not enjoyed reversing on and off the Rousay ferry! It's not the actual reversing I don't like, it's having to interpret mysterious hand signals from the men in hi-vis jackets at the same time! One 'full lock left' instruction was so ambiguous I put on full lock right and almost gave him a heart attack!

The ferry, the Earl Sigurd, was a rather old fashioned kind of a vessel, with a dismal 'cafeteria' deep below decks, where we ordered hot chocolate and lived to regret it, as the man serving it told us to stir it thoroughly. This proved a long and laborious task, as a dense sludge of vaguely chocolatey material only reluctantly gave up its solidity to the spoon. We coped, then claustrophobia set in and we climbed up to find a loo and a place to spend the rest of the journey. No windows looked forward, from the passenger saloon on the top deck, so we knelt on the bench by the aft-facing window and watched to see if the lorry with the high, teetering, strapped-down load of motley boxes and bags would stay put, and not deposit them all on the roof of our van in the unpredictable swell. 'It'll be a bit bumpy', the ferry man had told me when I asked him if he would be chaining our van down as well as the lorry! It wasn't until we were back in the van, waiting for the ferry to dock, that Ju spotted some small bags jammed in the space behind the lorry's cab and the rest of the bodywork. Just jammed in there, Royal Mail bags!

Once on the island we headed north to the hostel, where we saw immediately where we would park. We lined the van up, plugged in to electricity, and went to explore the building. It displays the symbol of the Scottish Youth Hostels Association, of which Ju and I are former members. But like the community centre on Egilsay, it was open house, with an honesty box.

We were as far as we could tell the only people here at the moment, so we had dinner in the kitchen, watched the final of Masterchef in the lounge, and hit the hay early.

Saturday dawned dreich, and got considerably more so as the day went on. Thick damp mist, despite a strong wind, persisted all day, making visobility very poor. As we have a day or so on hand we decided not to do too much, not move the van, and hope for a better day tpmorrow. We did a couple of walks with the dog, one down to London Bay itself with its perfact sandy beach, where Jack enjoyed the first real long runs for a while, then up the other way to the heritage centre, a converted church. For the rest of the day we vegetated in the lounge, watching reruns of Lewis.

Ju prepared a delicious three course dinner, which we enjoyed with a bottle of Malbec. A little more television, which we have up on when the Eurovision Song Contst began. I caught the beginning of the Portuguese entry, it was the only one I heard, and was amazed to discover later that it had won. The other songs must have been even more dire!

Sunday dawned sunny and clear, hoorah! We lost no time in having coffee and breakfast and packing up the van for some exploration of the island. We drove north to the shop, parked and set off on foot to do the heritage walk, a five mile trek past chambered cairns, standing stone and the like. First there was a bird hide beside a loch famous for red throated divers. We managed to see seven at one time. Then in deteriorating weather we headed uphill towards a huge standing stone, and some chambered cairns on the very top pf a hill.

On trips like this Ju is the one who gets excited about the wildlife, and I get excited about the engineering, the buildings, bridges, architecture etc. I was keen to see a real Stevenson lighthouse in Calf Sound. While we were looking for it we were walking towards huge red sandstone cliffs, from which 900 years ago rock was quarried to build the cathedral in Kirkwall. A vessel came into view, and I said half in jest 'it's a viking longship!' Ju looked through the binoculars and said that it was indeed a viking longship, with a red sail. I couldn't believe it. Of all the headlands in all the Orkneys, it just happened to sail past while we were watching! Furious efforts ensued to photograph the vessel before it disappeared behind the cliffs on the next island. We were marginally successful, in rainy conditions.

It reminded me of the evening over ten years ago when I was sailing with Clive Brown on Little Else, and we had just finished supper, at anchor in Lussa Bay on Jura. I went up on deck, it was a calm night and there was very little wind, getting dark. We were the only boat there in that isloated bay. Suddenly I became aware of a rhythmic sound, and movement at the entrance to the bay caught my eye. In disbelief I watched a large viking longship with many people aboard row their ship past us towards the side of the bay. I called to them and asked where they had come from. Denmark, they replied, on their way to Dublin.

Back on Eday, the rain became more persistent, and we pressed on from the lighthouse, which was tiny, towards the shop again. But we counted without the exploits of some rebellious lambs, which had managed to scrape out of their field under the gate, and of course flee before us along the rod, as we were accompanied by our pet wolf.

Ju returned to her shepherding best and headed them off at the pass while I picked our miniature wolf up and turned my back to the lambs so they wouldn't see him.

A tasty picnic lunch in the van was followed by a tour of all the main roads on the island, and we were rewarded for our efforts by the sighting of numerous short eared owls, who obligingly sat on posts until we were fed up taking close ups of them.

A highlight for me was the sighting of the EMEC test water turbine rigs, two as far as I could see. To me harnessing wave and tide energy is a no-brainer.