A very relaxed start to the day today as we were headed for the Isle of Barra by ferry, which was only 10 miles away and departed at 1pm.
The sky was practically clear of cloud and the wind was very light, making the ride down to the ferry terminal at Eriskay on the southern tip of Uist a very pleasant experience. Pleasant that is until the road threw some unexpected and completely unnecessary climbs at us in the last couple of miles. Fortunately what goes up must come down and we enjoyed a nice steep descent to the terminal past some other cycle tourists who had obviously just disembarked and were pushing their bikes up the steep incline.
The term "terminal" is a bit of a grand description for where one catches the ferry from Eriskay. It's essentially a square of tarmac and a small waiting room that wouldn't be out of place on a small village railway station. The ferry itself sat just offshore, and as we'd arrived over half an hour early for our sailing we got to sit and watch the crew joyriding this strange glorified raft of a vessel, even smaller than yesterday's ferry, around the harbour presumably doing training exercises.
The crossing to Barra was quite different because it was across open water. The sea was very calm though and the small craft barely rocked as it made the crossing. Once again the views and the colours were amazing.
On landing we had our priorities in the right order by buying burgers for lunch at a stall next to the landing stage. As we ate we enjoyed the spot, and remarked upon a rather strange nearby statue of a pair of otters and a fish.
Barra, like the other Hebridean Islands had a unique character of its own. The trees that we passed, and even a small wood, really stood out. It's also a very small island and so we covered most of the remaining distance to Castlebay, our destination for the day, rather quickly.
When the opportunity to pause at a beach came up we were all too happy to stop for a while and dip our toes in the Atlantic. I dipped my toes anyway, but when I turned to look for James I saw him plunging headlong into the sea. It seems he was determined to swim.
A couple of miles of road found us in Castlebay at the hostel where we'd be spending the night. An opportunity to do some laundry and get an early night before the ferry to Oban tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment