We didn’t get very far the first day. We stopped for fish and chips after only 3 miles (5km). We then drove about 80 miles (130km) to Pitlochry where we wild camped in a car park near the town centre. It was really handy for walking to an outdoor (Covid-safe!) pub.
The next day we drove to Inverness and then via the Black Isle to Ullapool to catch the ferry to the Isle of Lewis. Neither of us had been to the Black Isle before. It’s not an island, and it’s not black either, but it was interesting. Maybe it should be renamed “Interesting Green Peninsula” instead. Michelle was keen to visit Cromarty which was where one of the houses in Wales that she grew up in was named after.
We took the ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway (Isle of Lewis). During the crossing, we were escorted by a pod of dolphins who were jumping in the bow wake. Wow!
We arrived on the Isle of Lewis quite late so we stayed at a campsite near Stornoway. The next day we drove to the north of the island and visited Port Ness where we had a pub lunch.
Ronnie was desperate to visit the Callanish standing stones on Lewis. The site is about 5,000 years old – 3,000 years older than Stonehenge, and contemporary with the [most accepted age of the] Giza pyramids in Egypt. It has some of the usual astronomical alignments.
We stayed at a wild campsite which overlooked “Cliff beach”. There were good waves for the surfers. We put £5 in the honesty box to pay towards maintenance.
We had to visit the famous Luskentyre beach on Harris. Unfortunately we didn’t see it at it’s best with sunshine.
A photo of Luskentyre beach (with sun) was famously downloaded from the internet and used in a Thailand Tourist promotional brochure a few years ago.
We visited the Harris Distillery in Tarbert. It’s a new distillery, so the malt whisky isn’t ready yet. In the meantime they have been making Gin which is infused with seaweed. It would have been rude not to have bought a bottle.
It was our wedding anniversary, so we had some fizz overlooking a beach. There was a wild campsite with an honesty box for donations of £5 towards local maintenance.
We took the ferry from South Harris to the island of Berneray. Berneray is then connected by a causeway to North Uist. That night we stayed at a lovely campsite called Balranald next to a horseshoe-shaped bay of white sand.
We bought some peat smoked salmon and had a very sophisticated breakfast in the campervan: smoked salmon, poached egg, with avocado on pitta bread.
From North Uist, we drove over the causeway onto the isle of Benbecula, which is then connected via yet another causeway to South Uist.
The weather while on the Uists was very wet and windy so we didn’t see much. Oh well. We have an excuse to go back again.
We drove over the short causeway from South Uist to Eriskay where we took the ferry to Barra.
We stayed at the Scurrival campsite at the north of Barra. It’s run by “Angus John”, a very kind local man.
He brought us Barra fillet steak from one of his own cows, together with freshly-dug potatoes, kale, and onions from his garden. Michelle cooked it all perfectly in the campervan and we had an amazing, local, fresh, tasty meal to remember.
Ronnie eventually managed to get Michelle on a bike! As usual she fell off. The bikes didn’t come off the rack on the campervan again.
As compensation for cycling (and pain relief!), Michelle got to have some of the latest, local Gin. We bought it from Angus, who’s son owns the distillery. Again, it is infused with seaweed. Michelle preferred it to the Harris one.
Barra’s airport is on the beach. It’s the world’s only scheduled service that lands on a beach. The schedule does however change depending on the tides.
Our Outer Hebrides culinary extravaganza continued. We bought some locally-caught scallops and had a posh lunch of Barra scallops with Stornoway black pudding. Michelle cooked them perfectly. Yum.
We just had to cross our final causeway from Barra to the island of Vatersay to add to our island count.
And we caught our last ferry early the next morning back to Oban on the mainland.
On the way back home on the mainland, we drove through Glen Coe and into Glen Etive.
And that was our staycation over. We don’t know when we’ll be travelling next.
