Otterstone Viewpoint

Having only packed the kids off to bed at the ungodly hour of 10.30pm rather than the usual 8pm, the adults then proceeded to stay up late gassing. Nothing stops the sheep and crows and other assorted wildlife, including Ellen, who kicked into life about 6am. Mind, Ellen just needed to know we were nearby and settled down until about 8am.

After bacon rolls, we headed off for a walk at Kielder Water, round past Freya's Cabin that I mentioned back in April and then on to Otterstone Viewpoint, via an enormously circuitous detour that meant that we walked about 5 miles and arrived at the viewpoint to find that we were only half a mile from the cabin. Luckily Ewan and Hannah were on their bikes so didn't complain too much.

At the viewpoint we stopped for a snack at some trees and stones. Somewhere in the trees there was an owl's nest because the floor was covered in pellets. We opened one up so that the kids could see the ingenious way that the bones and other indigestibles of the owl's prey are formed into pellets with the fur. This looks like two small mice or voles.

The rain started pouring down at this point so we just had to trudge our way back in the rain, reasonably well waterproofed.