On Your Doorstep Issue 6 | Page 20

Terns at sunrise 6 a.m. and my thoughts again have turned A few days later I repeat the experience, inner glow, and then at 4 a.m. I am treated to food…and sleep. As I turn to leave, a but this time I travel from east to west to the sight of the arctic tern colony haunting disembodied sound reaches me and the conditions are very different - the saturated by intense colour as the sun rises and I realise that the seal is singing his still, skies are clear but the wind is 30 mph. I over the island of Westray behind me. I sad song, and I am almost overwhelmed. photograph the North Sea after sunset, realise that I have seen Orkney at its most rocking and rolling and with a mysterious magical and I am changed. 20