The Road to the Hide

 Today it's a bit overcast and wet, the first day like this since I arrived on Mainland Orkney. Yesterday I had quite enough adventures for two days, so I think I'll take today a bit quietly until the sun comes out, and catch you up with what I've been doing. 

So, since I got the Peugeot, I've been wrestling with the idiot satnav. Sometimes she takes me to the place at the address I've keyed in. Sometimes (often) she drops me short or doesn't understand the address at all and I have to ask Siri, which is dangerous because she won't let Siri's voice come out of her sound system, so I have to look at the phone while I'm trying to drive down single lane roads.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to go to a bird hide I was recommended on the first day. It appears on the tourist map I was given as Cottascarth. The satnav took me down lanes of broken stones and dirt lanes in which the wildflowers grew so high in the middle and at the sides that the Peugeot was sounding its alarm.

Then the satnav told me I had arrived, but there was no sign and I had no clue. I passed the baton to Siri and she took me into a farm onto a track that ran along a paddock in which there was a gang of half-crazed steers, mooing loudly and trying to push down the fence to get at the big orange car. It was terrifying. I had to reverse out of there as fast as I could, checking that I wasn't reversing into the fences to the left and right. 

I felt that I must be somewhere close to the bird hide, and then I saw the first person I’d seen since I got into the farm. I asked him and he pointed out the sign to Cottascarth, hidden as it was on a fence post behind a digger. That road was sealed. I parked in the empty parking lot and followed the road and the signs through a flock of sheep towards a house. 

I reached the hide, and this was my view from inside, and a closer view of what I saw out of the window.

A lot of hill, but no birds (specifically, hen harriers) in the sky. I waited for an hour and saw one hen harrier (maybe) in the sky, but too far off to take a photo of. Apart from that there were a few pied wagtails, but I already have a good photo of one.

My bum's a bit sore from sitting on the sofa typing this, now, so I'll sign off and publish this. Maybe I'll key in another post tonight with my adventures around the Ring of Brodgar.