The Old Man of Hoy

On entering the breakfast room this morning I caught Scullion ironing my copy of the Finstown Bugle. Whilst he was cutting m ywholemeal soldiers he informed me the forecast was for a day of gloomy harr. The Current Mrs Creel then took charge and called her Uncle in Rackwick. He reported that Rackwick was bathed in bright sunshine.

Last night I used my card for my first ever 'cashback'. It was so thriliing that when I got home I noticed I had kept all initialled receipts - the only thing I hadn't taken home was the cash. It's times like that when I remember why CMC keeps such a heavy fryiong pan. So this morning after calling in-past the Co-op for my money (and also a quick trip to the solicitors) we caught the Hoy boat. Even approaching the Moaness Pier it was all very gloomy. But once we were on the Hoy Pier the sunshine did indeed breakthrough and it shone gloriously all day.

After yesterday's visitors from Australia today we took folk to see the Old Man. We last saw the folk in Arizona. We walked there and back along the 'Old Road' - about 10 miles.

The stack is 450' in height - look carefully and you can see a few folk at the top of the cliff. Whilst having our lunch we watched two climbers about 3/4 of the way up. CMC's brother (Albert) reported that he had given them a lift to Rackwick earlier in the day. Whilst we had a clifftop snooze one of the climbers reached the top of the Old Man - and stood on it in about a 35 mph breeze. We met the climbers in a Stromness pub in the evening.

After such a good day we may return to Hoy the morn.