Airport on the beach, Isle of Barra, 24th-28th July, 2002

One of the highlights of a trip to Barra is going up to the airport for lunch and watching the plane land. Flights go from Glasgow, take around 45minutes and are scheduled according to the tide. Yes, that's right, the tide. The airstrip is the beach, and you have to wait for the tide to go out and the sand to become firm, before the plane can land. You also need reasonably good weather, and the plane only takes 8 passengers. British Airways run the plane, which also delivers goods to the islanders. The flight is a bit pricey, and you're not guaranteed that you'll be able to land when you get to Barra, considering how quickly the weather can change.

We cycled up to the airport, and by the time we arrived, we were soaked to the bone, cold, hungry and tired. We parked our cycles against the fence outside, and went inside the building. The airport building is about the size of a small one bedroom flat in the city, and seats about 15 people maximum.

The food in the airport is mostly local, organic produce, inexpensive (seen from a British point of view, and also considering that it is an airport) and very tasty! We sat down on the couch and had hot homemade soup, with a crusty bread roll, followed by a coffee and chocolate mud cake. Definitely worth the ride up there.

Once we had eaten and dried off, we gathered our things and braved the cold wind, to go outside and watch the plane arrive. There must have been around 20 other tourists there, more than half of whom were just there to see the plane land. It was certainly an amazing sight, to see the little plane, lights on, emerging from the foggy distant hills that surround the entrance to the beach, and landing safely just 4 metres from where we all stood, holding onto our ponchos.