I have stayed in a lot of Airbnbs (last count - 37). This one now tops the list of my absolute favorite - ever.
The house is in Stromness, right on the water - the edge of Scapa Flow. And by on the water, I mean that we have our own anchorage/ramp into the water, and that we have an enclosed porch on the front of the house with views at the water in three directions. We watch the weather, the boats, the birds, the tides, and today a human swimmer. It is gorgeous and endlessly interesting. Which is good, because it's been windy and rainy and hard to be outside for too long.
We brought our own binoculars - and they provided a whole basket more for watching boats and birds:
The Northlink ferry is my favorite - and we get to see it coming and going to the mainland six times a day! Plus the Gramsae ferry to the nearby islands and assorted fishing, diving, and cargo boats. We've all got the Marine Traffic app on speed dial.
At night - the lights are gorgeous.
We've seen a bunch of female Eider ducks - which are a lovely but unremarkable brown color. We finally saw some of the males - which are much more distinctly colored.
The shags are a hoot to watch, because they're diving ducks, and they almost jump out of the water as they dive down. A whole flock of them clustered in front of our porch earlier today.
The water level changes dramatically with the tides. Obviously, the top picture is high tide - by low tide, the ramp is completely exposed along with a lot of sea weed.
No comments:
Post a Comment