Isle of Lewis

Day 2, Monday

Quiet day. Visit to Stornoway; hey, there is actually life there, provided you go on a weekday! Shopping + Fish&Chips.

It's not particularly cold (for people wearing 3 layers of clothing including a thermal fleece and our magical windproof jackets), but it is still particularly windy.

Eating your fish&chips requires skillful use of the box to protect your food so it stays warm and doesn't fly around (if it does, do you get fined for littering?).

Black Houses in Gearrannan. Interesting place, but the weather being crap, the pictures aren't very good.

See Day 8 for better pictures, and Day 11 for comments on the Black Houses. Here is a view from the top of the cliff...

And us on top of the cliff, overlooking the bay and looking at the sunlight playing on the sea through the clouds.

Weather: Wind.

Day 3: Tuesday

Drive to Harris; Harris comprises the little peninsula, south of Lewis, and the montainous part. It's still a mystery as to why Lewis and Harris have different names when they really seem to be the same island. Anyway.

Walk from east to west, through mud and swamps; midges, panic, dirt. My red backpack died: its strap snapped right at the beginning of the walk.

It followed me everywhere since 98: bought in Germany for 5 Marks, it went to Australia, many places in France and Scotland. The feeling of loss depresses me for the rest of the day.

We should probably have headed back when we realised even sheep weren't going that way. The muddy path slowly turned into a large field of bog and mud, where no solid ground was to be found. We had to walk large rounds to avoid lakes like this.

Day 3: Tuesday, continued

Here is one of the many perilous crossings we went through.

At some point Narelle got stuck on a small sinking island of grass, surounded by deep mud. Rescuing her, I tried to build a bridge of rocks (what few there were! -- N.) to jump on, getting ourselves splattered in mud in the process.

Eventually, we rejoin civilisation: Here is life! I especially loved the chicks.

We were tired, we'd spent nearly 4 hours walking just a couple of miles, but we were alive! (The first view we saw when we got to the end of the mud and the beginning of solid ground, was the beach in the distance and it was almost worth going to hard way just to appreciate the view, although in retrospect, we could have just driven there... -- N.)

From the top, we rejoin a real road that follows the stream.

At the bottom of the hill, the stream turns in strange shapes as the ground is extremely flat for several miles.

After these fields, the stream goes through the beach of Seilebost, which goes on for another couple of miles before reaching the sea.

We had lunch on the beach (with wine -- hey). The tide came in at impressive speed, as the ground is so flat. Here is Narelle walking on water... yes, it's so flat that it covers meters and meters before being even an inch deep.

We came back using an old road... Coming back took less than half the time; let's stay away from mud fields from now on. Weather: Cloudy with rays of sun. Nice but sore feet.

Day 4: Wednesday

Lazy day. Some shopping in Stornoway. Walk along around Breasclete, beautiful sunshine. Unfortunately, we left the camera at home so we have no proof.