By Peter Krug - September 2005
Some of you may have noticed that there was a proposed trip to Skye planned for June which proved a no-goer for me as I was somewhat hamstrung by injury inflicted by a fall in Northumberland. Nonetheless, undeterred and with great fore-planning (we decided on the destination on the day before we left) Louise and I decided to go to Outer Hebrides.
We set off from Ipswich just before 7.00 pm. Louise stormed up the A1 and I took over at Washington Services having been forced (much to my shame) to pay for Esso petrol and drove the remainder of the way via Edinburgh and Inverness. We parked up at Ullapool at 4.15 am, had a wee, and my head hit steering wheel at 4.20 am.
We caught the Saturday Ullapool to Stornaway ferry and arrived on the Isle of Lewis at about 2.00 pm having been treated to some splendid sights as we sailed over. We had great views of the West Coast Mountains; some of Scottish Islands and sea-life including seals, dolphins playing in the ship's wake (much to Louise's excitement), birds and jellyfish.
On arrival in Stornaway we visited The Tourist Office to get information on what we could do on the Islands (remember we had only decided on Thursday) and headed south to Harris (this calls itself a different island, but is joined very solidly to Lewis) where the best walking was and there was a rumour of a wild camping spot near some toilets in a bay overlooking Taransay (remember Castaway 2000). Rumours were founded as we pitched at a lovely spot overlooking a sandy beach. The weather was cloudy and breezy and still knackered from the overnight drive we retired early.
We woke up on Sunday morning much refreshed though it was still cloudy and breezy outside, and had breakfast. Having eaten we noticed that the cloud had lifted slightly on the mountains where we were thinking of walking. Louise had details of a walk which was gentle-ish and indeed details of easier walks which weren't on the maps we had, but the chances of buying anything on the islands on a Sunday is zilch (they keep the Sabbath and nothing is open). We headed for this area along single-track roads that Louise found interesting! Even more interesting was a tennis court in the middle of nowhere and what we think was a Fish eagle that swooped down very near to us. We found a parking spot and headed off into the hills. Nice walking through some bogs and then along a valley to a col where we lunched and then we headed into an adjoining valley and climbed to another col. Along the way we saw a couple of deer nearby, some nice plants and we believe that we saw an extremely rare corncrake. From the second col we climbed the ridge and summited Tiga Mor (alt 672m?) which did involve some scrambling (if you wanted) near the summit on a reasonably exposed ridge with a stiff crosswind! Perfectly reasonable visibility until we got to the summit!
All downhill from here and it was. I was delicately descending due to my knee when I had the tiniest slip and everything went wobbly in the knee and was in some pain! I needed some Ibuprofen and snatched Louise's walking pole. A slow descent but we eventually made it back to car inside the book time! Very pleasant walking indeed and we returned to camp, cooked dinner inside tent as it was cool and windy (this became a theme for the holiday) and drank there too (no sign of a pub).
Monday morning dawned and there was rain in the early morning and cloud levels were lower. We chose to cycle around Harris as my knee was well fornicated and a pleasant ride (I use the term advisedly - fellow tone-lowerers). It was nice contrasting the sandy beaches on the west coast with the rocky inlets and bays of the east.
We saw a colony of seals in one such bay!
Small hamlets were dotted along the road and the weird rocky landscape (someone described it has lunar but not having been to the moon I could not comment) was quite captivating. We learnt a bit about the local history at St Clements church at Rodal. The road was undulating (Louise says hilly) and it was quite breezy and in our faces at the start and end and right behind us most of the way in the middle. It rained as we headed up towards the pass near the end and Louise was knackered as we approached campsite after cycling 53 k. Dinner and Beer ensued.
On Tuesday morning it was again windy and rainy so we slept late abandoning the possible cycle backpacking concept for Uist. Once it stopped raining we packed up and headed around Harris retracing much of the previous day's route to take pictures as we had forgotten the camera the day before (it was quite bright now) and then headed north to Lewis. On the way we found a nice cafe and art gallery (Skoon Art Gallery). We stopped en route to get some exercise and have a quick cycle ride to Bernesay during which we met a couple of chaps fishing on what they called "The Bridge over the Atlantic".
After chatting for a while we carried on but before long Louise found that her rear brake was jammed on. No wonder it had all been such hard work! We could not mend it so undid the brake and gingerly headed back to the cars (round trip of 21 k). That night we stayed on the official campsite at Siabost (Shawbost) and cooked dinner. Today was the longest day and we headed for a little walk to the beach and saw a splendid sunset.
Wednesday morning and the weather was shite - very windy and wet - so we headed for Stornaway to get Louise's brakes fixed and she also got some cycle shorts as she was feeling the effects of over 7 hours in the saddle! Today was car tourist day as we went to the standing stones at Callanish where we saw the chaps that we had seen fishing the previous day.
During the day visited a blackhouse village and an extremely impressive fortified dwelling known as a broch which had dry stone walls some 13m tall. This all gave us a bit more of a feeling about local history and crofting. Evening dinner was at the pub (yes we finally found one). The food was good but not so the beer.
We felt we had too much of the frenzy of life in the North so on Thursday we upped anchor and headed south but only after visiting the Butt of Lewis (it had to be done) and going for a three hour walk along the coast and beaches (saw a very impressive kiddies park at Europie).
We caught the ferry to Uist after a two-hour drive down the Islands of Lewis and Harris. Having arriving there early evening and furthermore no idea where to camp we headed along the west coast looking for somewhere and eventually found a beach or 'machair' as the land just above the beach was known and put up our tent. Louise convinced me that we had enough water! No toilet or running water except the sea - 20 metres away!
On Friday we packed up and headed for Lochmaddy tourist office to ask for camping sites and were given a list of public conveniences on the island which, apparently, is normal practise! The idea being that you can wild-camp near one of these. Time for another cycle ride around another Island (North Uist)! It was still breezy which made it hard going for about one third of the 56-kilometre route. We visited a smokehouse and purchased some salmon, had lunch in a cafe (part of which was a nursery, part government offices, part shop, part training centre, part everything else!), saw great scenery of a good variety (gentle hills, beaches, offshore Islands and lochs) and were held up by two red deer that were on the road. Near the end of the ride Louise was getting knackered as she has never cycled this distance before although she maintained she was deliberately going slow to prevent me 'overdoing' it with my sore knee!
Weather-wise this was the nicest day of the week and on return to the car headed for one of the aforementioned waterholes on Berneray to get some water and then found a lovely site, possibly the nicest of the lot, a few miles away. Another grassy machair just above the beach and proceeded to finish our food and drink.
Sadly on Saturday morning we had to leave these lovely Isles, departing early to catch the ferry to Uig on the Isle of Skye. I must admit I fell in love with the Islands finding the pace of life enchanting. It was a place I could really chill out in. They kept the Sabbath, of which I approved: and by the end of the week I was looking for local insurance offices and houses! The weather whilst generally cool and breezy was ok if you were active. It did rain but mainly whilst we were asleep (apart from Wednesday). A wonderful place well worth a visit (hence the title)!
Peter
