My Home in Eday Part 1

Saturday 2 August 2014

9:27 AM

The isle of Eday, Scotland, UK

I wake to the uncomfortable press of a bed spring my side. It’s morning, but not as early as I’ve gotten up the past few days.  It’s good to relax, and if last night was any indicator, I may have over budget might time here in Eday. My roommate, or house-mate rather, went into town today and so I have the place to myself (when you're in the northern isles "going to town" means "going to Kirkwall" back on the mainland). 
The hostel here is really more of a small house. Sure there are loads of bedrooms, but there is also a lounge which feels an awful lot like a living room, and a kitchen, which well, is a kitchen.

Here's a picture of Eday Youth Hostel from the outside. Although this picture was taken the night before.

Okay, so this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you that I get to work busily cooking an elaborate breakfast. That doesn’t happen. Instead I feast upon the amazing wonders of the apple pop tart, which to be fair, is a delicacy that isn’t available back in the states.

With breakfast out of the way, I return my room and begin washing my clothes in the sink. Of course there is a washer and dryer available to me, but it costs money and furthermore it just doesn’t feel right in this place. To be honest, there is a part of me that relishes the novelty of washing my clothes in a sink. That part of me especially enjoys hanging my clothes out on the line. 

This is London Bay as seen from my clothesline, although this was also taken the night before. It's the east side of the island, and that landmass you can kind of see in the picture is the isle of Sanday.

The isle of Eday is long and narrow, and so from my clothesline I can see the ocean on both sides. The sun is shining brightly overhead, and I can smell salt in the wind that rustles to my hair.

I suppose the first order of business, is getting more food. The shop doesn’t open for another few hours, and so I might as well get a bit of work done while I wait. I pack my British flag bag with my Archaeoastronomy gear, and head outside to get Ethel. 

There’s a cairn not too far from here, well come to think of it, anywhere on this island is not too far from here. This first one is halfway between my house and the shop. As I glide down the narrow road, I occasionally check my GPS to make sure I hadn’t overshot it. This little gizmo has proven to be more than helpful than I ever could have imagined.

The cairn is on a hill in a field of heather that overlooks the sea. To get there, I have to jump a barbed wire fence, a talent at which I am becoming increasingly skilled. Unfortunately, most of my hike has been for naught. From the looks of things, there might be a cairn here. However, it hasn’t been excavated and there is no way to tell if or where the entrance might have faced.

Even still, I sit on its summit and survey the landscape. Directly in front of me is the ocean and the isle of Sanday. It’s a nice view for a nice day, even if the cairn turned out to be a dud.

Sorry this is wobbly. It's my first attempt at a panorama. The day was much sunnier than this video depicts and I had to mute the sound in order to get rid of the sound the wind which was rather persistent as I sat here.

I continue on to the shop, where I buy some groceries and ask about the cash point. Apparently, you can pull money from the post office but that won’t be open for another couple hours. So I return home with my groceries and check on my clothes. They’re still wet, but I hadn’t expected them to be dry quite yet.

I'll give them another look when I get back in.