A Day of Two Halves

What a varied day it has been, both in terms of weather and our activities.

Last night we freedom camped at Yesnaby so this morning, when we woke to bright sunshine (and a cold wind) we set off to look for Primula scotica, a very tiny flower which is only found in certain places on Orkney and the north of Scotland. You can see how small it is as I blipped it beside my finger. Next our walk along the cliffs took us to Bowick Broch which is right on the edge of the cliff so with coastal erosion it might not be there for much longer. That's part of the collage.

In the afternoon the weather changed to cloud which was a shame as we got our flight from Kirkwall to Papa Westray. At the airport we watched a large Bristol helicopter arrive to refuel and a crowd of oil rig workers got off fully dressed in their flotation suits.

Another bit of the collage is the LoganAir pilot who looked like he was scarcely out of his teens, and the view from the plane as we flew over the islands. The plane took 8 passengers and flew low. From Papa Westray it was a 2 minute hop to Westray - reputed to be the shortest flight in the world. The landing strip was a 3.5 mile walk to the village from where we needed to catch the bus to the ferry. The chap who manned the airstrip (he was only needed for two 20 minute shifts a day so had s few other jobs) offered to pick us up on his way off shift. We were enjoying the walk although we were having to go quite fast so decided to keep going. He said he was doing a few errands so would keep an eye out for us. Just as the rain came on he arrived to give us a lift the last few hundred yards. We have found nothing but kindness here.

We made it to the bus - another bit of collage is the view from the bus stop - the sun just popped out. Apparently it is 23 degrees in London. It must be at least 10 less here.

I'm writing this on the boat which takes 1.5 hours back to Kirkwall. Then it is a short walk to the place we parked the van and not too far to drive to our site for the night where we'll have hook-up to electricity.