Poser- Stromness Day 15

It was the Viking Venus in port at Kirkwall today spilling its possibly maximum number of 930 passengers on shore to see the sights.

It was cold and murky for them as they reached Stromness to amble aimlessly through the Street like a wayward flock of sheep….(except sheep don’t lick ice creams). I counted 8 coaches parked at the harbour. It somehow felt too familiar for this Edinburgh lady. I can only hope that the shops that opened felt the benefit.

There is an even bigger cruise ship docking on Tuesday with a maximum passenger capacity of 2,300. Kirkwall’s population is only 8,500. I leave you to your own conclusion.

The cruise passengers hadn’t reached Stromness at 10am when I joined about 10 ladies and one poor man for a swim off the slipway at the Ness. It was high tide and the water temp of 8.1° matched that of the air. It was just wonderful.

After lunch I escaped the hordes of tourists outside my door to climb behind the town on a deserted road. Three horses thundered down a field to suss me out. The two black horses were very affectionate with each other and the grey horse seemed a bit left out bringing to mind the saying- Two’s company three is none’