Stromness and Hoy -Day 14

My day started earlier than usual when I had a rush of blood to my head enabling me to get up and go for walkies round the further reaches of the parish at 7am when the world seemed to consist of just cows and me, not forgetting the birds cheeping their early morning songs. After heavy rain it was a beautiful morning and wonderful to be alone in it.

Home to find later, another bus load of tourists wandering along an empty street where some shops weren’t open and there really wasn’t anything for them to do in the 45 minutes they are given before their bus departs for pastures new. What are the powers that be thinking when they disgorge tourist in a very small town before it is fully awake?

At noon I presented myself at the pier to get the ferry over to Hoy to meet up with IainatCreel and CMC who were summering over on the island painting the roof of their house there. We repaired to the local café for lunch before we had a quick visit to Rackwick Bay.
It was maybe 4 years ago that his Lordship and I stayed on the island for 4 nights and made our way to Rackwick to walk to the Old Man of Hoy.
I think HL, not known for fully embracing island life in any form, declared Hoy to be one of the instigators of our car’s eventual demise. The other one was Rhenigidale in Harris.

Rackwick was looking beautiful today in the sunshine, but we couldn’t linger because there was a small amount of roof painting to be done before we had to get the ferry back to Stromness
Thank you kitten hips for entertaining me so royally. You know who you are.
I met Chris on the Hoy ferry who is walking the coastline of the UK with his dog Jet. Former soldier he is raising money for SSAFA(?). He has been on the road for 2 years and starting from Swansea he has done the islands as well as the mainland. What a nice guy. I believe he has a Facebook page under ‘Chris walks the UK’. I have his photo as an extra image