We’ve been to Corfe Castle several times. Sometimes we’ve gone in, sometimes walked round the village a footpaths to get shots of it from different angles, and once we climbed up the steep hill so we could look down on it. This time we did all three – and had a look in the bookshop, which I don’t think was there before.
I’m sure that hill has got steeper in the last ten years!
We got up really early and came to photograph a ship. We can’t even see the sea!
As the pilots can’t see anything either, the ship has gone to anchor. That means I can get on with some writing while we wait. A cup of tea first though I think.
We’ll be going on another ‘deployment’ in the van soon (that’s a term borrowed from Gary’s time in the Royal Navy, which we use for any trip longer than a fortnight. Prior to any deployment Gary likes to take absolutely everything out the van, clean it and then replace those things we need. We call this fettling, and it’s Gary’s part of ship.
We’re now on the repacking phase. Most things go straight back in, but sometimes we decide not to keep carrying around something we never use, to upgrade or replace something, and a few things are seasonal.
These are my autumn / winter weight hiking socks. They, and all our underwear, swimwear, and T-shirts go into these zip up bags. We have six each.
There are lots of mini sheds supplying cake, and sometimes lots of other food, drink and souvenirs too, on Orkney. They operate on an honesty basis – usually you leave cash, but some have the option to pay by card or other means. They’re always open (unlike the post boxes!) but if you arrive just after a walking group, there may not be much left.
The lemon drizzle and chocolate Brownie stars were very good – but I forgot to photograph them before there were only crumbs left.
We’ve been on the look out for puffins, and have seen some at a distance. They’re not very active at the moment. I suspect we’re at the period between nest building and hatching – hopefully we’ll get more sightings later in the trip.
There are no LPG pumps on Orkney and as we use that for cooking, heating, hot water, the fridge and making tea, that was something of a concern. We’ve solved the problem by investing in a portable gas stove. Each gas canister makes about ten pots of tea, we bought eight and plenty more are available here, so I think we’ll be OK for the next fortnight or so.