ISLAND HOPPING Day Ten
After yesterdays Wren, today it's the turn of a Wheatear to be busy flitting around looking for food for it's young.
After all the rushing around for ferries of the last few days, today made a welcome change. I had decided I would have another night at the hostel, and remain on Papa Westray. Talking to Jean, the lady from Seattle, at the hostel, I offered to show her around some of the island I had visited before. She had managed to borrow a bike and we used them to get up towards the north of the island and then left them and headed off on foot to walk around North Hill. This is an RSPB reserve and is an important breeding site for many birds. It was a lovely day, if slightly windy. At the very top of the island is Mull Head, off shore from here is the Bore. This is a fearsome tidal race where the Atlantic Ocean crashes into the North Sea, not sure if we saw it at its most spectacular, but it was certainly very visible.
Just before we reached Mull Head, we passed the small monument to mark the spot where sadly the last Great Auk in the UK, was killed in 1813.
It is now extinct, wiped out by mankind, sometime between 1844 - 1852.
Apart from the wonderful birdlife, an other reason to visit Papa Westray is to use the Airport. In fact there were two Russians staying in the hostel, who had come over to Papa, purely to use the Airport.
Okay, why would you want to make your way out to Papa Westray's Airport, not the easiest of islands to get too ? Travellers from all over the world head here for an experience that lasts only a couple of minutes. They come to fly on the shortest scheduled flight in the world, between Westray and Papa Westray. The distance flown is shorter than the main runway at Heathrow, and has been done in under a minute on a good day.
I must find time, just a little, to do this in future visits.
Later on that night, sat alone in the lounge of the hostel, as the evening began to turn into that lovely half light twilight you get up there, I clicked around on the TV.
What I found was certainly interesting, and my situation, on a small isolated Scottish island, with no flights, ferries or other method of getting off the island till at least the next day, gave the film an added edge.
The film ?
From 1973, The Whicker Man, the story of Edward Woodwood's misadventures on a small Scottish Island.
Islands Visited; One
Total Visited; Twenty
Ferries Used; None
Total Used; Twenty Seven
Ports Used; None
Total Different; Nineteen
If you wish to see the rest of todays shots just click on the link below..........
http://365project.org/markp/Alternatively/01-07-2015
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