Still Westray, with music
30 May 2017
On Saturday we got up to a second day of wall to wall sunshine, and after breakfast we walked back along the main road past the airfield to the remarkably old St Boniface church, dating from the 6th century, and walked back along the coast past the Knap of Howar again, and back to the pod to pack up, as we thought we needed to vacate by noon. Not a bit of it, said Jennifer, the organiser, stay as long as you like. So we settled back in and had a leisurely lunch and a couple of hours of down time, before setting off down past the school along the east coast of the island.
The track soon petered out to a grassy path, and our attempt to get close to the small island on the loch that had a chapel on it was really difficult. The terrain was a mix of grassy tussocks and watery often muddy gaps. Footwork was tricky. At one point we rounded the end of a wall and nearly got spat on by nesting fulmars sheltering on the lee side of it. The horrible stuff they spit at the unwary is legendary, acrid, smelling of fish, cannot be removed by simple washing. Luckily we were spared this fate, but only just. We had a look at the ruins on the crannog and decided not to bother risking the old rusty barbed wire and shoogly stiles that were in the way of reaching it. The rest of the walk once we regained the coast was lovely, lots of cliffs, seabirds nesting, wildflowers everywhere.
Finally we rounded the south point and located the ferry terminal, a bench to sit on, and waited for the afternoon ferry to arrive. We really caught the sun.
When we arrived back in Pierowall our hostess, Teenie, arrived as promised and gave us a lift back to the campsite.
Wednesdays and Saturdays the chippy is open, so we had a fish supper for dinner, and wearily to bed.
On Sunday we had a definite day of rest, chilling out in the van, and only going out in the afternoon to the local shop to buy a few essentials.
On Monday we packed up the van and headed down towards Rapness, where the biggest concentration of puffins on the island are reported to nest. Best time to see them is apparently sundown, when they return from foraging for sandeels and come back with the day's haul to feed the family. So we ignored that and turned up in the morning. We looked and looked on the cliffs with zillions of fulmars nesting, and finally Ju spotted one solitary puffin, standing looking bemused on a rock outside its burrow. Out came the point and click zoom lenses, and we both tried for the puffin shot. Mine is shown above. Not perfect, but better than no puffin at all. We saw a few others just floating together on the sea nearby, but sadly not the hordes I remember from Unst on Shetland some twenty years ago or so.
Our walk took us across the island, or from the North Sea to the Atlantic!
We were just heading downhill past a field of freshly sown grass when a bird flew past me and caught my eye, as it was a very light colour. Ju saw it too and we speculated on what it might be. She was at a loss at firwt, and neither of us was quick enough to get the cameras out and switched on fast enough, before it had gone. I stayed where we first saw it, and Ju followed along a path towards where we thought it had gone. Eventually I saw it again, quite near me, so took a shot or two of it. It seemed to be fluttering about near two other small birds, going away from them and coming back again. Ju came to the conclusion is was a sort of albino sparrow, or leucistic, in orthinological parlance. This exotic mum was catching insects to feed to her orthodox young!
We got back to the van, had lunch, and head back to the campsite.
It is almost surreal being in these remote islands at the runup to a general election. There is no sign of it. No posters, no political meetings, no hustings, nothing. Even in Kirkwall we could not see any sign of political activity. Of course this constituency of Orkney and Shetland has been Lib Dem for generations, but there is a question this time whether the existing MP will be returned, or ousted by the young SNP candidate from Shetland. We shall see.
We had originally planned to leave on Monday morning's ferry, but we like Westray so much we will stay until later in the week. Our hostel is within a few metres of Pierowall bay, which is full of seals, seabirds, the occasional passing yacht, fishing boats, and generally interesting things to look at. At the end of the harbourside road there is a large unoccupied grassy field where Jack can run off the lead, so it is ideal for him too.
We plan to do a west side walk tomorrow, which is forecast to be better than today, as the rain cut us down to one walk this morning, exploring the local coastline. Meantime a large group of musicians from my olf folk club, the Edinburgh University Folk Song Club are camping on the site, and serenading us with their music in the campers' kitchen!
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