Uist and Benbecula
Saturday 13 October 2018
Storm Callum did its worst, rattling and shaking Ceol na Mara. We had a very pleasant room on the top floor, with skylights, and the rain and wind rattled even the double glazing. In fact, the Hebrides got off rather more lightly that the rest of the UK, and all day BBC2 had updates on rail cancellations, traffic accidents and the situation on the Severn Bridge. I think the announcer was waiting for some poor HGV to be pitched into the drink by the 70 knot winds. Wales seems to be getting an unreasonable amount of rain and I’m grateful that the storm didn’t strike in two weeks, when I would be walking the coast.
I forgot to mention that, among other purchases at the Harris Tweed shop, I bought a jacket. It’s on it’s way back to Australia and represents the fastest purchase I’ve ever made with clothing. We are going back to the shop tomorrow because Paula has decided that a tweed throw for our bed would be just the thing.
I could rabbit on about Harris Tweed and the survival of this unique craft: it has to be produced on handlooms and the skill-level of the weavers is impressive. Even in the days of natural dyes, the colours were impressive, and now it’s every colour of the rainbow.
We were finally able to get out and walk our breakfasts off, the sun peaking through the haze and making the landscape just right for photographs.The picture above is taken on the track to Luskentyre, just across from the beach pictures from yesterday. Storm Callum nearly took a door of the car and Paula with it, but it has been almost dead calm today, with the hills of Harris reflected in the water,
The sands of Luskentyre were everything promised and we walked for about four kilometres all the way round the point. It seems to be a photographer’s paradise because a group of about 15, burdened with DSLRs, passed us as we left. It seems that we won’t get a chance to visit St Kilda, the island isolated for two centuries and then evacuated after the Great War, which is a pity; but notwithstanding their isolation, the Western Isles have lots that we have seen or done. It would be nice to come back and do a self-catered holiday one day.
We crossed on the ferry from Harris to Uist, threading our way between the Islands, and drove in a rain shower the thirty minutes to Benbecula, where our B and B was. We had the place to ourselves and the room was large – an unexpected luxury, and the owners didn’t live on site.
The smaller islands really make you feel like you are in the sea all the time. Driving south from Berneray takes you over causeways over sea-lochs, and myriads of small freshwater lochs. The warning signs for otters crossing had me rubber-knocking, or would have if I hadn’t to keep my eyes on the road ahead as most of the roads are single lane and you never know when you would have to stand on the breaks and pull in – or back – to a passing place.
Such an interesting day, and the forecast for tomorrow is sunshine, so we plan to walk around Berneray and do another walk in Eriskay, at the other end of the archipelago. Just writing that word makes me think of the Wizard of Earthsea and I wonder if Ursula Le Guin had the Hebrides in mind when she dreamed up her fantasy world.
