A weekend away

The last weekend of the school holidays calls for something more than messing about at home so we took the tents and cycled over to Hoy yesterday.

A short ferry trip and a cycle through the hills took us to the very basic campsite at Rackwick. Have a look at yesterdays blip, to find out what we did there.

After a sunny morning with more sandcastles and swimming. The sky darkened and the wind got up so we decamped and took our time cycling back.

Onnly 6 miles or so and fairly easy going on a single track road. It winds it's way through the RSPB reserve where hen harriers, ravens and bonxies soar above you. A host of small birds, big hairy green caterpillars and bumble bees inhabit the heather and dragon flies the size of helicopters overtake you on the road.

We had intended to leave the bikes and go up the hillside to The Dwarfie Stane but by the time we reached it wee legs were tired (mine!) and Campbell was nursing a few nasty grazes from a nasty fall of his bike. So as we've been before we gave it a miss and headed for a cafe back at the pier, where some wonderful soup and cakes revived us nicely.

Of course by the time the ferry got back into Stromness we were so hungry we had to sample the delights of the chippy. Few things compare to eating chips in the car feeling very tired and sore after a day spent in the great outdoors... wonderful!