Orkney

By now, we should be just off the Scrabster ferry (given today’s weather the Pentland Firth would have been ‘interesting’) and on our way to Peedie Harray. We would have come via Eire, with friends in Counties Wexford, Laois and Cavan, then Ayrshire, the Hebrides, (friend on Mull,) probably through the Glens rift valley, up the East coast thus repeating our superb Celtic journey of 2018.
Or we’d have wound up the West coast and ‘across the top’.

 I have always wanted to see Knoydart, been fascinated by the less accessible Munroes like Sgurr na Ciche, fairly doable but for the long walk in - there are no roads on Knoydart.  Now, I would find them not at all doable even with my trusty walking poles, and might struggle with the long walk up Glen Dessary! So, this afternoon I have been mostly watching other people’s great youtube videos of their long walks. Stunning scenery, but I am glad not to be wild camping however amazing the sunsets and starry nights. But I am in Scotland in spirit if not in reality.

I get a little wobble now and then, wondering when we will feel safe to travel again, stay in great places, find lovely pubs and restaurants, meet interesting people. No, we are not going to the pub today. Not even the local Stour Inn. We will wait and watch what happens.
My mum would have been 100 today. We will drink to her memory with a nice Laithwaite’s Rioja and stay home, stay safe.