Top of the World

Here lies Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, after Thor destroyed him in the first Ragnarok; Those are the remains of his fangs jutting out of the water. (Russ told me this when he first saw the stacks, and as you know, when bards dream and speak, it must be true!) And I shall tell you more; if you dive down below the swimming of seals you might find the rest of the serpent, so old that many mistake his bones for rocks themselves. But Thor, despite what legends say, found a cure for the poison that nearly killed him, and slept a thousand years in his healing. If you look North from this point, you will see where he made his resting place for all that time, though none know where he is now.

Travelling on from Wick, we made our way to John O'Groats, and from there the lighthouse and Duncansby stacks are close by, the Orkney archipelago shimmering across the water in a haze of clouds and sky. Here then was my first, perhaps only regret; that we couldn't just take a ferry and go across, explore those lands. But there was much else to see, including a dolphin moving gently through the water, and birds of course! Dunnet Head was wonderful for them, including excellently close puffins, so nippy that we couldn't get clear photos of them flying, and so cute we couldn't stop trying.

That wasn't meant to rhyme. Clearly I am still not myself.

But these memories make me smile.