Outer Hebrides 2019

Dud and I are both big fans of the books of Peter May. We started with the books of the Lewis Trilogy and the images that he creates of the landscape and the weather put the Outer Hebrides firmly on the list of places that we wanted to visit. So today we set off to do just that.

We decided to do a relatively short hop on the first day and the plan was that it would give us a head start for day 2. So we opted to stay at the CAMC site at Richmond.

Not really anything interesting to report on the day itself. We got away early afternoon. Radio 2 was reporting a closure on the A180/M180 but we didn’t think that would be on the stretch that we would be using and that proved to be the case.

I’d done this route in the car so many times prior to my retirement and used to be able to do it blindfold (not literally) but strange how a break of a couple of years makes you have to think about which junctions to take.

We got to the the site around 17:00 and found a decent pitch. We’ve been to this site before back in 2015. The site has a fenced-in dog walk but there are signs to keep the dog on a lead so not really much point. Ellie and I went for a walk and used it anyway.

Tea was beef ragout but not a great success tonight. It takes a couple of nights to get used to the layout of the kitchen – that’s my excuse anyway.

A reasonable night’s sleep. The trans-Pennine A66 is a busy road and you can hear the traffic but it’s not something that kept us awake.

We set off around 11:30 ish (that’s early for us). We needed bread (and wine!) so we pulled in to a farm shop on the A66. There were a couple of rheas in the field by which we parked. There was also a field with some other animals including camels. There was a good variety of stuff in the shop. I expected to see camel burgers but didn’t actually see any.

Driving over the Pennines, the highest we got was 1,447 feet. We’ve made a note of that in case we get any higher in Scotland.

Driving up the M6, then A74(M) and finally M74 was easy but uneventful. I know I mentioned it in the Lake District blog that we did in 2015 but passing the “Carlisle turn off the M6 motorway” always make me think of Leo Sayer and the song Moonlighting.

We got to the CAMC Strathclyde Country Park site at around 16:00 – just after the rain started. As you approach the site, you are faced with what looks like dozens of caravans and MoHo’s all parked very close together which didn’t really appeal. But that’s a storage compound separate from the campsite. The site itself is extremely well kept – even by CAMC standards.

Tea was a chicken pasta which was good and an improvement on last night’s meal. I’m starting to get used to being in the MoHo again and so you become a bit more organised.

There were fewer and fewer gaps in the rain. I managed to get Ellie out for a walk in one of the gaps.

A tugger parked next to us and the couple with it were not so lucky with the rain and we watched them setting up. It took around an hour with positioning, disconnecting, levelling, getting water etc. I know we were tuggers once but the setting up part of being in a MoHo is so much easier – takes us 5 minutes maximum.

There was noise from the nearby M74 but it was not a problem. What did become annoying was the noise being made by some boy racers. They were either doing stuff in a car park somewhere or were doing circuits on some roads around the site. They went on until after 23:00 and even after that, you could hear them in the distance. It wasn’t deafening but it was there and took the edge off the evening for me.

We woke to weather of intermittent showers. I managed to get Ellie out for a walk in a gap between the showers.

We were ready to leave just after 11 and so went to service the MoHo. As we were about to pull off the pitch, we saw another MoHo drive up to the service point. We’ve learnt the lesson from being on the French aires that you get in the queue or somone else will so we set off to wait behind him. With that, another MoHo pulled up behind him and so we would then be third in line. As it turned out, we didn’t have long to wait but as we were waiting, 2 others pulled up behind us. We’ve never experienced any sort of queueing at a Caravan Club site previously – possibly an indication that there are ever more MoHo’s around.

As you would guess from the name of the site, it is near the Strathclyde Country Park so we thought we’d have a look before getting back on the motorway.

There was a funfair which didn’t look very busy and then we saw the lake that was used for the Commonwealth Games so I looked for somewhere to park up to take a look. Shame I wasn’t looking at the road because there was a traffic island down the centre of the road and we drove over it with both offside wheels. Hopefully, the Peugeots are built of stern stuff and there didn’t appear to be any damage. I suspected maybe even a puncture but that didn’t happen either. There should have been some kind of bollard or, at least, yellow paint – but that’s no excuse for what was poor driving.

The rain was starting to become more persistent as we were travelling. We took the M74 and then M8 and skirted round Glasgow. We were seeing signs for Loch Lomond and eventually got to it and drove around it. I hadn’t realised how big it is. We didn’t stop because there were no obvious viewing places and, in any case, the mist and low cloud were spoiling what views there were.

We were overtaken by a Quayside Distribution truck (and saw a few others later on) – like us, they are from Grimsby. He was shifting but we kept catching him up when he got held up by other traffic. I hadn’t anticipated how narrow some parts of the A82 at the northern end of Loch Lomond and beyond were. We had a tugger between us and the Quayside truck and that proved really useful because if they braked for oncoming traffic then we needed to as well. And if they weren’t braking that meant that the road was clear so we could move out away from the stone walls on the nearside and give ourselves a bit of breathing room. There were quite a few spots where either we had to stop or the oncoming traffic stopped so that we could squeeze past.

We started climbing and the scenery was becoming more rugged but still the low cloud was spoiling the views so we didn’t stop. Shame because as we approached Glencoe it looked as if it would be spectacular on a clearer day.

We had been looking for garages along the way that sold lpg. I’m never too sure how much gas we have in our bottles. There is some kind of gauge on the top of each bottle but I have no idea what it is telling me. We got into Glencoe and saw a garage with no lpg but, since we were down to a quarter of a tank of diesel, we decided to fill up anyway. Turns out there was an lpg garage just a couple of miles further on so we headed for there after filling with diesel.

We found the place and the lpg pump was away from the main area of the garage. It was self-service but when you go to pay, you have to tell the attendant the cost of what you used. It cost us £9.50 but I was going to tell him that I’d only put in 20 pence worth – but didn’t.

The Invercoe Highland Holidays site is just outside of Glencoe. When we arrived, the commandant turned up on his bike and told us to follow him to our pitch which we did. We’re on the front row facing out on to Loch Leven – spoiled by the poor visibility but not much we can do about that.

Ellie had been cooped up in the MoHo for most of the day so I took her for a walk. She had a pittle almost straight away. She did it in a grass section but I could see patches on the grass where tents had been pitched and her pittle was in the middle of one of those. That could be pleasant for whoever camps there next.

She also did her usual trick of waiting until we pass a caravan where the occupants are sat having their tea and then deciding to have a shit right in front of them. I usually stand between her and the caravan but it’s still obvious what is happening.

Tea was home made sausages and rice. Nice.

We have an Elddis Avanté twin axle caravan next to us but have not seen any occupants. The reason for that became clear during the evening when a breakdown truck appeared with a Range Rover on the back. The Range Rover was offloaded and a bloke and a couple of children got out of the cab. I couldn’t understand why they would drop the car off here – if it was fixed, why weren’t they driving it? All would become clear tomorrow.

This was our first day not travelling. If one word could sum up the day, it would be “rain”.

It had rained a lot during the night but stopped for a while around 10:00’ish so I took Ellie out for a walk. Unfortunately, it started again during the walk. I had my khagoul on but still got very wet. It then did not stop raining until around 8 o’clock at night. At times it was quite heavy.

We basically just chilled all day. I caught up on newspapers and Motor Cycle News that seem to pile up at home.

I needed to empty the toilet cassette and kept waiting for the rain to ease off – but it didn’t. Waterproof overtrousers and wellies are on the check list but I thought about not bothering with them for this trip – they’re mainly there for autumn/winter trips. But I did bring them and was thankful that I did because they kept me dry while I sorted the toilet.

The breakdown truck had turned up earlier and re-loaded the Range Rover on the back. Some time later, the Range Rover turned up under its own steam. Turns out, the driver had hit a pothole which punctured his tyre. He had an issue with his spare hence the need for the breakdown truck.

Tea was a tin of chicken in white sauce. Having just emptied the toilet, I washed my hands before cooking it!

Once the rain stopped around 8’ish, people started to come out of their vans and the site became quite busy. There’s a notice up at the gate saying that the site is full and it looks it. Visibility was the best we’ve seen it for a few days and you could actually the tops of some of the hills.

As I came back with Ellie on her late night walk, you could see the visibility reducing again and there were dark clouds overhead. Not long after we got back, it started to rain again so normal service was resumed.

Earlier on, I’d noticed one of the MoHo’s on site had what looked like signwriting on front and back. I assumed it was a rental – we’re seeing a lot of those. But when I got closer, I could see some reference to a cancer appeal and a walk to Ben Nevis. I didn’t pay any more attention to it until I came across this on my dose of late night Twitter (I’m not sure how long that tweet will be available). Turns out Muriel Gray was on site and that bloke in the tweet is the bike-riding commandant that we followed yesterday – and I’d echo her comments about him.

We were awake reasonably early (for us) and it wasn’t raining so I managed to get Ellie out for a walk in the dry. Visibility was not great but better than it has been so far.

We had another queueing experience for the service point. We were 3rd in line. It cost us around 20 minutes. No-one behind us this time but that’s the second time it’s happened this trip. (May not be the last)

We needed supplies so I’d googled supermarkets in Fort William last night. There was a Tesco Metro (which I’d not heard of) but I couldn’t see any parking so we opted for Morrisons. When we got there, the car park was almost full and we couldn’t see any obvious place to park. We found one eventually but it meant getting the front wheels on the pavement so that the back-end was not stuck out too far. We took on much needed supplies (ie we’d run out of wine).

After a few miles, we passed a sign for Free Parking and there looked to be a viewing area – though we weren’t too sure what the view was. Turns out the view was of Ben Nevis (though the visibility was still not great) but there was also a Commando Memorial garden and sculpture. We could not get too close because dogs were not allowed.

Whilst we were parked, a couple of busses turned up and parked, off-loaded passengers and then loaded back up and cleared off again after a few minutes. One lot was American,the other was Dutch but I suspect that this goes on all day with different nationalities.

I’d set the satnav to Uig on the Isle of Skye. It started to take us on the road to Mallaig which I didn’t think was correct. There is a ferry from Mallaig to Skye but I wanted to take the road bridge. A check of the map confirmed that this was not that route so we doubled back. Only cost us 15 minutes or so.

Throughout Fort William, we’d seen road signs to do with parking for the “World Cup”. It didn’t say which World Cup. I thought about cricket – which I think is on at the moment – and also women’s football – which I think may be due soon. We also passed lots of coned off laybys, a park and ride and eventually what appeared to be the entrance road to the event itself. A bit of googling later on and it must have been referring to this event for mountain bikes – who knew there was such a thing.

We passed through areas that must have been spectacular scenery if we could have actually seen anything. Visibility was poor and cloud levels were low – and it was raining for a change. We’ll be coming back this way so, hopefully, we will be able to see it then.

We were closer to the Isle of Skye bridge when I saw a road sign for Wester Ross. I’m a fan of Game of Thrones (which is based in the fictional land of Westeros) but I had no idea that there was an area of Scotland of an identical sounding name. Opinion seems divided as to whether George RR Martin pinched the name from this area. It’s also ironic in that I spend my time in the MoHo with an old dragon!

Driving across Skye was similar to what we’d seen all day – ie spectacular scenery obscured because of poor visibility.

We eventually arrived at Uig and went straight to the campsite. To get to it, we had to drive past the queue for the ferry that we would be taking the next day. It looked busy including loads of MoHo’s. We paid (cash – they don’t take cards) and parked up. There were only a couple of vans already parked and a couple of tents so there was loads of room.

A few more vans started to arrive but there was still lots of spare room. Just as we were finishing our tea, a panel van conversion came and parked within about 6 feet of us. You have to put up with that sort of thing on French aires (and, sometimes, closer than that) but I’m not going to put up with it on a campsite so I went and asked him to give us more room. I don’t know if he had had a bad day or not but he wasn’t happy. He said something along the lines that the site owner had asked them to park close because they were expecting more vans later but I still asked him to move. He went round to the driver’s door and started to get really annoyed and was effing and blinding in his scouse accent. I just laughed but was not going to back down. He moved the van – not much but enough.

This was the night of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Spurs. I could have watched it on BT Sports web site but didn’t because a) it would use up data on the mifi and b) I wasn’t bothered who won because I have no allegiance to either side. Our scouse neighbour seemed to be enjoying it, though. I could hear the cheers when Liverpool scored. He must have calmed down!

Later on, after Dud had gone to bed, we heard the ferry coming in again – the low thud thud of the big diesel engines is distinctive. About 15 minutes later we heard the sound of MoHo engines on site so people must get the late ferry and then come to this site rather than drive through the night – makes sense. The problem was that the owner does not appear to allocate pitches hence it is a free-for-all. I heard one of them park between us and the van next door (other side to the scouser). That was far too close (and I would have gone out again) but he decided against it and parked somewhere else. Poor organisation, really.

Guess what the weather was like this morning…… rain.

Ellie and I went for a walk when it was not raining so fast and we went in the direction of the ferry terminal. It was around 10:30 and, surprisingly, there was no queue. The ferry was due to leave around 14:15 but, after seeing the way that the queues built up yesterday, I would have expected some vehicles to be there.

Back in the MoHo and we got a call from the owner of the site where we would be staying tonight and for the next two nights as well. He wanted to confirm times that the ferry would be in. He said that he’d be at the site entrance waiting for us.

We’d thought that we’d sit in the MoHo chillin’ until around 12:30 and then set off to join the queues but we got bored with that so I did the toilet, grey water, fresh water etc and then we set off on the 200 metre journey to the ferry – and it was 12:30 by that time, anyway!

I’d been getting quite worked up about how we would let them know we needed wheelchair access so as soon as we were parked in the queueing lanes, I went into the office. I let them know that we needed wheelchair access on board and they checked the manifest and agreed that we had requested it. They had a little discussion and came up with a plan of how to sort it for us.

I went back to the MoHo and took Ellie for a walk hoping that she would do what dogs do before we got on the ferry rather than while we were on the ferry and she did. It’s surprising how many MoHo’s there were waiting to board. We didn’t see any caravans so Outer Hebrides must be a MoHo destination.

Eventually, the man came down the queue to check tickets and he knew that we needed wheelchair access so he and his colleagues discussed how they would get us in position.

The ferry came in and the vehicles all offloaded and then the loading commenced. A line of cars was first to go on. Eventually, the man came to us and said that we needed to be down the jetty next so he guided us out of the queue and into a clear lane. He told us to put on our hazards and keep them on until we were on the ferry.

We were the first MoHo down the jetty but we had to park up behind a queue of cars (all with hazards flashing). Then the MoHo’s started down the jetty and boarded. At the appropriate time, the loader came up to us and told us to board next. The cars were all still waiting.

They directed us onto the car deck and we were right opposite the lift. They also let us park further away from the wall so that we would be able to get the wheelchair out and get Dud in it. We duly did that and Dud went in the lift supervised by a CalMac persion and Ellie and I went up the stairs. All in all, CalMac did a grand job.

Dogs are allowed in certain sections of the ship and also the open decks. We went to the lounge where there were quite a few other dogs and got a seat. I got some food and took it back to the seats. Ellie was curious and took an interest in what was going on around her and was generally well-behaved.

We went on deck a couple of times. I was hoping to get some video footage of coming into Tarbert harbour but the open decks were on the back of the ship so there was not a good view looking forward. In any case, they called everyone to get back to their vehicles which we did. Again, Dud went in the lift and Ellie and I went down stairs. They were very steep and Ellie struggled a bit but we got there.

Immediately off the ferry, we were in a convoy of MoHo’s but gradually we all went our different ways. We turned off the main road (“main” being a relative term!). A lot of the roads are single track with lots of passing places. We soon had experience of using these with cars coming the other way and either they stopped or we did.

We got to Flodabay Farm and the owner, Tony, was waiting for us as agreed. He gave us a good introduction and also gave instruction of how to take the steep hill that you have to take to get to the pitch.

There were no other vans on site so he took us to the best spot right at the top of the site. There are only pitches for 3 vans and we had the pick of them. We decided to stay on the top one even though it was quite windy. Tony is possibly the friendliest and most enthusiastic site owner that we’ve come across. He gave us a welcome pack of half a dozen eggs and a jar of locally made plum and cinnamon jam. He also told us that we qualified for a free sea-food hamper because we were staying for 3 nights. He will bring that in the morning. Looking forward to that.

He also gave us a bag of golf balls and showed me where he had put up a bit of a driving range. There’s an area for teeing off and there’s flags on a couple of rocky outcrops at 80 meters or so. Shame that there are only right-handed clubs so I mentioned to Tony that I am left-handed. He is going to try and find a left-handed club for me! That’s service.

We didn’t put the satellite dish up because of the wind but there is a reasonably strong terrestrial signal so we are using the ariel.

For the first time in days, we had a couple of hours of sun and blue skies. We have an excellent view over the Atlantic Ocean and the sunshine made it look even better. We’re looking forward to a few days of peace and solitude on what appears to be an excellent site.

True to form as the night went on, it started to rain again.

For a change, rain was not the weather feature that dominated today – that place is taken by strong winds. I woke up around 7’ish because the winds were rocking the van. The body of the Bailey goes a long way behind the rear wheels. You need to be aware of that when driving because the back end swings out but also it has the effect that any movement of the van is magnified at the back. The fixed bed is at the back so you really feel the effects of any movement.

I got up to wind down the tv ariel because that would be taking the full force of the wind. After a few minutes back in bed, there was an almighty clatter and the wind noise increased significantly. I’d left one of the vents open at its lowest setting – I usually do that. The wind had caused it to come out of that lowest setting and lifted it to its highest which is almost at 90 degrees to the roof so that was deflecting the force of the wind into the MoHo. Ellie shot out of her bed and hid behind the front seats. I shot out of bed and had to close the vent completely.

Tony the site owner turned up around 9:30 as he’d promised and he brought us the complementary seafood “hamper”. Actually, it’s a Tesco carrier but inside were black pudding, scallops, crab and a couple of packs of fish fillets. I’m looking forward to eating all of those. Unfortunately, he also brought some bad news: he’d been unable to find a left-handed golf club so I handed him back the complementary bag of golf balls.

We needed to use up some eggs seeing as though Tony had given us half a dozen in the welcome pack – so breakfast was an indulgent eggy bread for us both.

I took Ellie for a longish walk through the rocks to one of the two lochs on the site. We’d gone a short way along it yesterday but the ground was very wet so today, I put on my wellies which, it turned out, were definitely needed.

There are otters in this loch but we didn’t see any. Ellie loves being in this environment – she bounces along from sniffing area to sniffing area and you can see how excited she is. I wasn’t so bouncy. There are no real paths and there are loads of rocks. I suspect that any fall here could easily result in broken bones so I was treading very carefully.

We’d mentioned earlier to Tony that we might move to the more sheltered spot below us because of the winds. He’d said that the forecast was that the winds would both drop and change direction around 16:00 and we later confirmed that on one of the weather websites so we decided not to move.

Later on, I saw the bloke from the other van stuggling to find the electric hookup connection and went out to point out to him where it was. He commented that he’d seen the Union Flag on our number plate and he said that he’d printed the same to put over hie EU stars on his own number plate. He’d assumed from that that I was pro-Brexit and then quickly got quite passionate about the need to leave. I’d only gone out to help him find the EHU connection!

Tea was Pizza Express from Tesco – Sloppy Giuseppe (plus my usual array of toppings) for me and Margherita for Dud.

Ellie and I went for another late night walk. It was around 22:30 and it was still light. We walked down to the entrance gate but could not get through it because it is locked. While I stood waiting for her to sniff every square inch, I noticed that it was completely silent. Back home, it is never completely silent. That also meant that the wind had dropped – at last.

Weather was quite pleasant first thing. Looking at the national forecast, it looks like most of the rest of the country is having rain but the north of Scotland is dry. Not the normal way round.

We bought some binoculars after our last trip and we’ve been using them a lot from our current pitch. I spotted some seals basking on a rock in the bay that we overlook and so I got the tripod out so that I could get some video. One of the problems with doing this is that my glasses tint and so I can’t really see what’s on the screen. I got round that by putting on an older pair of glasses that don’t tint and I also put a towel over my head so that there was no light affecting the screen. I must have looked a right tit and would have looked like one of those old photographers that had a cover over them and held up a flash that basically exploded. Anyway, I got a really good long-range shot so it was well worth it.

Dud was reading in bed so I took Ellie out for a long walk. The gate to the site is locked – Tony told us that he did this because freeloading MoHo’s were coming on to the site and using the chemical toiled disposal. We have a key so I took that with me so that we could get out on the road.

There are no footpaths so we walked on the single track road itself. It is so quiet that you can hear when anything is coming and can get on the verge. We can see traffic from our pitch and mostly it’s a single vehicle that you see. If you see more than one then they probably consider that as rush hour!

Ellie is loving the new smells and she’s all over the place sniffing. A slight problem is that sheep roam wild and are on the road and the verges resulting in loads of sheep shit. When Ellie was younger, she considered that a delicacy and would eat it at every opportunity. She’s not so bad now but I had to keep dragging here away from it because it looked her old habits might return.

There is a road down to the actual bay of Flodabay (or Fleoideabhagh as us gaelic speakers call it) so we went down there and the seals were still on the rock so I got some close up video. I could see the MoHo at the top of the hill looking down on where we were so I started to wave in case Dud was watching.

We went further down the road and we came to a sign for a Church of Scotland church at Manish. I’d noticed that Manish was coming up as a WiFi source on the laptop but hadn’t known what it was. It’s the next settlement to Flodabay. I think that settlement is the correct word because it consists of only a few buildings.

We walked down to look at the church and then headed back. At various points on the walk, I kept waving at the MoHo which I could see looking out over us. I assumed that Dud would be looking at our progress but when we got back to the MoHo, she hadn’t even been looking. So all of my madman waving was a waste of time.

We had breakfast and it was my intention that Ellie and I would take the walk to the second loch on the site but, surprise, surprise it started to rain. A couple of hours passed and it was still raining so we had some lunch – which, for me, was the remaining parts of Dud’s pizza from last night topped with the crab from the “hamper” – and very nice it was.

The rain kept coming for a few hours. We kept thinking that the skies were clearing but, as soon as we thought it was going to stop, it started up again.

We’ decided to have for tea the fish fillets that came in the hamper so I took them out of the freezer and left them on the side to defrost. The downside to that is that the MoHo started to smell of fish so I had to get out the Febreze air-freshener a couple of times.

I’m not sure what fish it was but it was tasty so all is forgiven.

After tea, the weather started to clear so Ellie and I went on the walk to find the other loch. There’s another MoHo on site so all three pitches are occupied. Tony asked that we did not encroach on any other MoHo space which is fair enough. That meant that we had to start the walk away from the area now occupied by that third MoHo. The quick route would have been over what is now their pitch.

I’ll admit to being slightly worried about the route that we had to take. I lost sight of the markers that are there to guide you and so we were walking blind through moss and mud that were hard work to walk through. Ellie was loving it and was treading her own path as opposed to following me but, at one point, she stepped on a lump of moss that was not solid and she ended up on her back.

Eventually, we got to the second loch but, truth is, it looked very much like the loch that we visited yesterday. There’s a third loch that you can but, according to Tony, this is on land that belongs to Prince Charles and it’s out of bounds.

On Ellie and I’s late night walk, the wind appears to have worked its way to a northerly and it was cold. I still have shorts on (and will have until October) but the MoHo display is suggesting that outside temperature is around 5 deg.

I suspect that 3 nights in one place is the most that we’ve ever done but Flodabay is a good place to be at so it’s been an enjoyable stay. Sad to leave but ready to move on.

We were up reasonably early because we needed to be at the ferry for 10:10 latest and, although it’s only 10 miles or so, I wasn’t sure how bad/good the roads would be.

Roads were single track and, at one point, there was an Autotrail coming the other way so I pulled in to a passing place. He didn’t seem very confident and asked me to pull in a bit more but there were some rocks on our side that I definitely did not want to hit. I got it as close as I dared and he then got through – in my opinion with plenty of room to spare but I can understand nervousness.

We were a few miles down the road and came to the classic satnav junction dilemna where the satnav was telling us one way but the road sign to Leverburgh (the ferry port) was pointing down a different road. Both ways looked equally bad so we ignored the satnav and followed the sign.

It was quite a narrow and badly surfaced road and we were threading our way between some impressive mountains so it was quite stressful. The stress level was not helped by Ellie. She has a habit of slipping her collar so that she can come and sit with us at the front and she’d just done that. That means that she can rest on Dud’s lap and can see out of the window. There were lots of sheep about so that sets her off barking – often quite violently. So the bad roads and the incessant barking did not make it a relaxing experience – lucky I’d had my blood pressure tablets before setting off.

We got to Leverburgh and the ferry was signposted. To keep it in perspective, Leverburgh is not much more than a few houses spread out around a single road so there aren’t many places that you can go wrong.

This is a much smaller ferry than the one we’d used from Skye to Harris. The CalMac man checks you as you arrive and he knew that we needed wheelchair access. I’d wondered if Dud would be able to stay in the MoHo but that’s not allowed. There was a MoHo already in the queue but he put us in front of it.

The ferry duly arrived and we were loaded at a point that would put us alongside the lift. I had to be careful in driving on because the ferry ramp was at quite an angle to the approach. Again to keep it in perspective, the approach is a concrete angled pier and when it arrives, the ferry pushes itself as far up the approach as it can and then drops the ramp. So the higher the tide, the further up the approach the ferry will be able to get.

They gave us some room so that we could get the wheelchair out and could get Dud into it – but there was only just enough room. Dud went up in the lift with a CalMac man in attendance and Ellie and I went up the stairs. Ellie was not comfortable with the stairs but she managed them after some coaxing.

The ferry crossing is not really the open sea – it is across the Sound of Harris. It takes you from Leverburgh on Harris to the island of Berneray. The route that the ferry takes is quite tortuous in that it is threading between islands and outcrops of rock so you are constantly changing direction. We were all sat in a lounge-type area but there were people on deck some with binoculars – which made me wish that we’d taken ours with us.

We docked at Berneray and I took it steady coming off the ferry but I think we hit the rear chassis on the deck at one point. That’s not the first time that’s happened – it’s possibly the fourth. Hopefully, no damage.

The ferry port is just at the point where there is a causeway to the island of North Uist and the satnav was pointing us in that direction but I wanted to see the Coralbox gift shop. The owner, Eilidh (pronounded Aylee), is one of our Twitter followers so I was curious about her location. We found it close to the ferry port so I went in and introduced myself. We’ll possibly get Dud into the shop on the way back to buy something

We then drove south through North Uist and through the island of Benbecula. The roads were a mixture of single track and dual track.

We needed a shop. We were out of bread and low on milk. That’s good because it legitimises a shop that will also include wine! We had seen an advert for Lovat’s supermarket in the glossy book that Tony had lent us so I thought it would be good to support a local business.

When we were close to where I thought it was, we passed a Co-op and gave it a miss. We then saw a sign for Lovats but that was alongside what looked like a warehouse with no windows. We drove a bit further and were then in the middle of nowhere so I knew that we had missed it so we turned off the road and (eventually) did a u-turn and came back.

It turned out that what looked like a warehouse was actually the shop so we pulled in and I went inside. The appearance was not exactly appealing and I got a trolley inside the shop but it was obvious that the trolley had spent most of its life outside because it, like most of the other trolleys, was extremely rusty.

I started to look for stuff on our list and, initially, the wine section was quite encouraging. I got what I needed there but the rest of the shop was not great so I decided we would go back to the Cop-op. That was actually a pleasant experience and I got everything that we needed. There was even some local Hebridean langoustines so I got some of those as well.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and we eventually got to Kilbride Campsite where we’ve booked for a couple of nights.

Ellie and I went for a walk shortly after we arrived. There is a small beach just outside the campsite. Like the pictures that we’ve seen of Hebrides beaches, the sand is almost white and the sea turquoise and very clear.

Tea was sausages and rice – but Morrisons sausages and not my home-made ones.

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary. How did that happen? The weather was dull but not yet raining so we went for a longish walk around the headland outside of the campsite.

We can see the island of Eriskay from the MoHo. It’s joined to South Uist by a causeway. It’s as far as you can get from where we got off the ferry in Berneray until you need another ferry. We wanted to see it so we went for a drive.

We went over the causeway and the tide was quite high. The turquoise colour of the water looked amazing. We took what appears to be the only decent road round the island. There are a couple of villages – or rather the usual collection of a few well-spaced houses. We took the road as far as the ferry terminal – or rather the concrete ramp that the ferry uses! The road ends there even though it is only two thirds of the way down the island. The rest of it is mountain.

We’d passed a layby on the road overlooking a bay so we went back there and had some lunch and a cup of tea. The bay has a beach and it’s like the one outside the campsite only bigger – white sand and clear turquoise sea. Looking down on it, you can see how clear it is not just close to the beach but all the way out to sea.

On the way back over the causeway, I stopped to get a photo of the otters sign. These have been on all of the causeways that we’ve crossed but we’ve yet to see an otter. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t – even if it’s one that’s been flattened on the road.

We came back to the campsite and the rain started so we sat and chilled enjoying each other’s company even after 38 years!

The commandant knocked on the door to collect the money. I’d looked for him earlier on but couldn’t find him. We asked him in the MoHo so he was out of the rain and we had a chat. He lives on the croft (not sure whether you own a croft or it’s owned by someone else) and the campsite, café and hostel are all on the croft. He also has some sheep – he said that nearly everyone on the island owns sheep.

Tea was spicy sausage tortelloni which I’d got from Morrisons. Dud had just the pasta but I made a tomato sauce to go with mine. The fact that she wasn’t going to have any sauce meant that I could load it with chilli. Very nice.

The rain eased later and even later the wind finally dropped. The forecast is for it to be bit brighter tomorrow. Let’s hope so because the incessant rain and the high winds are starting to be a bit of a pain.

On our late night walk, we went on to the beach outside the campsite. Have I said how clear the water is? The tide was in and Ellie did her usual trick of dodging the waves. They are not breakers – just a gentle lapping of the water. There was a bit of a rock pool and, at first, she must have assumed that the water was static because she actually went into it. But then the wave came and she shot out.

At last some sunshine. There had been rain in the night but the sun was out when we got up and it stayed out for most of the rest of the day. There was no wind, either. Luxury!

Surprisingly, in spite of the calm and the better weather, the sea was quite active when we went for our morning walk. There were actual waves albeit only small ones – big enough to make sure Ellie didn’t go anywhere near them.

It was so much better driving in the decent weather. Progress is good even though most of the route was on single track roads. That’s because everyone sticks to the etiquette of stopping or waiting for you to stop. It’s also because there’s very little traffic.

We drove through South Uist and stopped at the Co-op which is just over the causeway on Benbecula. Our next travelling day after today will be on Sunday and so it is unlikely anything will be open so we need to have enough on board to last us 4 days. Once we’d topped up supplies, we carried on then found a good spot to park up for lunch.

I added this paragraph in December 2019 whilst putting together the video for this part of the trip. I checked the satellite co-ordinates on the dashcam footage to double check where we stopped for lunch and it was actually on the island of Grimsay – so another island to add to the list.

Once we were over Benbecula (and Grimsay) and had reached the island of North Uist, we were looking for the Hedridean Smokehouse which we’d seen advertised in various places. It wasn’t difficult to find since it was on the road that we were taking.

I went in and bought some peat smoked sea trout, some peat roasted salmon and some peat smoked scallops all of which I am really looking forward to eating. It’s not a big shop but there was a great choice of smoked local produce and I could have spent a fortune in there. They also do mail order which I suspect I’ll take advantage of in the future.

We got to the Balranald Hebridean Holidays campsite shortly after. I took Ellie for a walk and was delighted to find that there was a beach just over the dunes outside the campsite.

The beach is stunning. It’s a bay and is about a mile long. White sand and the obligatory turquoise sea. And it was almost deserted so I let Ellie off the lead for the first time this holiday.

We got back to the MoHo and the weather was still good so we all went for a walk. Apart from getting off for the ferries, this is the first time that Dud has been able to get out. That’s not been possible either because the terrain was unsuitable for the wheelchair or because the weather has been so crap.

We struggled in a couple of places because sand had blown from the beach and had covered some of the road but we can get through that by my pulling the chair instead of trying to push it.

I wanted Dud to see the beach and we came to a point where the slope of the dune didn’t look too steep. I managed to get her up it – again by pulling – and we got to the top and had good views over the beach.

Tea was chicken curry. We try and carry a jar of Patak’s or similar and we had that and onion bhajias and samosas that I’d bought at the Co-op. It was nice but the MoHo smelt like an Indian restaurant so we had to open windows and spray some Febreze.

After tea, Ellie and I went for another walk. It was 9:30 and was still light and we had the whole beach to ourselves – fabulous. Again, I let her off the lead and she either digs or plays with the seaweed tossing it into the air (or eating it!).

Once back in the MoHo and with it eventually getting dark, I heard the rain start again. Forecast for tomorrow is not great so it looks like normal service resumed.

There was rain in the night – there’s a surprise – and it was overcast and dull when we woke up. I can’t get enough of these beaches so Ellie and I went for a walk before Dud got up.

I could see a couple of people in the distance so I decided to go in the opposite direction and let Ellie off the lead. We went to the end of the beach and turned round with that other couple still in the distance.

Once we had turned round then they were coming towards and, as they got closer, I thought it would be best if I put Ellie on the lead. But she had other ideas and she wanted to greet them as they passed. The bloke was ok but the woman looked a bit wary. She had on immaculate white trousers and we seemed to have got over the initial passing with no issues but once they had passed, Ellie took a shine to the woman and walked behind her with nose touching the woman’s backside.

I’ve since wondered if the woman thought it was me touching her backside because she seemed quite shocked. Eventually, Ellie moved away from that area and decided to rub herself against the woman’s immaculate white trousers. I think she (Elllie) was reasonably clean but maybe those trousers might need to go in the wash!

After a morning of chillin’, I made myself some lunch. It was an open sandwich and I had some of the peat-smoked trout. It was delicious.

The weather was improving but we were still sat in the MoHo. At one point, Dud pointed out a bird nearby and neither of us had a clue what it was – later research told us it was an oystercatcher – I suspect that’s my first sighting of an oystercatcher.

The weather was picking up and the sun started to make a welcome appearance. I think the rest of the country is having some pretty wet weather but we seem to be missing it. We decided to take advantage and went for another walk – this time to the graveyard that we can see from the MoHo. There is a shell of a building which looked as if it was a church many years ago. You see a lot of old abandoned stone buildings. I suspect the population of the islands has fallen over the years so the buildings fall into disrepair.

Tea was pasta sauce with the smoke roasted salmon that we bought yesterday. Very tasty. I’ll definitely be buying some more in the future.

A word on internet access… We have a mobile wifi with a Three 3g sim and we have my phone with O2 4g. At Flodabay, the mifi was useless because there was little or no Three coverage so I tethered to the phone and speeds were really good. At Kilbride, the opposite was the case and I was getting next to nothing on the phone but the mifi was good. Good job we have both.

Last night, I posted on the Facebook Airedales page. I put on the picture of Ellie on the beach – I modestly think it’s actually a good photo. That group is international. I posted it late at night and immediately started to get likes from people in USA and in Australia. When I checked this morning, it was up to almost 100 likes and I excitedly kept checking throughout today willing that number to go up – which it has done. How pathetic!

Today was our last day on North Uist and we were booked on the 13:00 ferry from Berneray. Last check in was 12:40 but we’d decided to set off as soon as we were ready and have breakfast when we arrived at the ferry terminal. Google maps suggested the drive to Berneray would take around 40 minutes but we wanted to be there in plenty of time so, after a final walk on the fantastic beach, we set off.

As expected, it was single track road most of the way but we only met a handful of cars so we were at the terminal at around 10:40 – so a couple of hours to wait. That gave us plenty of time for breakfast. Whilst having breakfast, we saw a couple from one of the other early arrivals having a walk and it was the couple from the beach yesterday – that’s the lady that Ellie goosed. I was relieved to see that she still had on the white trousers so Ellie had not made a mess of them. Having breakfast and a couple of walks with Ellie and the time soon passed and the ferry arrived.

Surprisingly, it had been moored across the harbour from the actual terminal. I’d expected it to come in from Leverburgh. I watched it berth because I wanted to prove my theory that it pushes itself up the concrete ramp and I saw it do it. I also got that confirmed later on by one of the crew.

We had been at the front of one of the queues but there were now cars, MoHo’s, a lorry and an Acklams bus from Beverley behind us.

We were the only vehicle needing wheelchair access and we had to pull in to the side while they loaded vehicles so that we could be positioned in the correct place. I didn’t ground anything on the ramp. The lift was to our right and we were in the rightmost lane which meant that we had to get Dud out in what would soon become the next lane of vehicles. They stopped anything loading until we had got her into the wheelchair. They kept telling me that there was no rush and to take our time but I still felt under pressure. We got there in the end and I went back in the MoHo to get Ellie and they let the other vehicles come on.

The ferry was actually full. The crewman told us that they had to turn five cars away. Given that one of the vehicles on board was a coach with, what, 50 people on board, that meant that the seating area was full but we found a seat eventually.

I could hear Hull accents from the women in front of us so I asked if they were on the Acklams bus and they were. They made a fuss of Ellie and we chatted. One of them told us that she had been in the Royal Artillery in the war so I spoke to her about that. Given that we’ve just had the 75th anniversary of D Day, if she was only 20 in the war, that would make her 95 so she was doing well.

When we docked, we couldn’t get the wheelchair through the gap at either front or back of the MoHo because the cars were so tightly packed. And even if we could, we would not have been able to get the door open because there was a truck close to it. So we waited until all the vehicles around us had driven off and I could then pull forward and we could get Dud in. It also meant that the 5 or 6 cars behind us has to wait! Bet we were popular.

When looking at vlogs and tweets from others who had been, I’d seen reference to Croft 36 which is on the route that we’d be taking. I thought that because of the nature of the setup that it might be open on a Sunday but, unfortunately, it wasn’t so we missed out on that experience.

We pressed on because we had 70 odd miles to do and I assumed that most of it would be on single track roads. We passed a couple of magnificent beaches including this one at Seilebost. We came to one town and were surprised to see one of the larger CalMac ferries coming in. We were even more surprised when we realised that we were at Tarbert where we’d landed a week ago.

We didn’t see a sign announcing that we were in Lewis rather than Harris but we noticed that the roads were now predominantly 2 lane so were making good progress. Another difference in Lewis is that the towns and villages actually look like towns and villages and not just the remote spread of a few houses that we’d seen in Harris and on the Uists.

We got to the Eilean Fraoich Camp Site at around 17:00 and we were checked in by the pleasant owner. We had been allocated a pitch in the main square area of the site which would not have given us any views. As we were heading to the pitch, I saw the owner coming after us and so I stopped. Turns out she just had a call from someone who had cancelled so another pitch was available which does give us decent views so we opted for that one.

I made a complete balls-up of parking and put the MoHo on the wrong side of the pitch and also made a mess of driving on the blocks. I got it right eventually but was not proud of myself. I hope nobody was watching.

By the time I had sorted out my parking and had taken Ellie for a short run, it was around 18:00 so tea was the chicken in white sauce that I’d bought from Morrisons in Fort William. That’s the second time this trip so when we start to repeat meals, that means that we’ve been away a while.

Weather had been ok for most of the day, unlike the reports that we were seeing of most of England and some of Scotland.

We try and get away when kids are at school firstly because we can and secondly because that should mean that the camp sites are less busy and less noisy. So I was not too happy when, this morning, we heard children laughing, shouting and playing. I thought to myself that they should be at school – and, in fact, they were. The local school is right next to the camp site – which I knew from our walk the previous night but hadn’t connected the two.

We can see a couple of lochs from the camp site and beyond them is the open sea but there’s no obvious way to get to them. Ellie and I tried to find one on our morning walk but we couldn’t find anything. We could have asked the camp owner but had other plans for the day so didn’t.

There were a couple of places on the wish list that are close to this camp site and we planned to visit them today but first we had breakfast of a couple of the eggs that we had been given at Flodabay. I scrambled them and they were delicious – and very yellow.

There are a couple of examples of traditional blackhouses in the area. The closest was the single one at Arnol. It didn’t look particularly interesting and you had to pay to go in so we moved on to the next which is the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village.

I went into the entrance where you paid and had to go down lots of steps. I told them we had a wheelchair and they said they would set up ramps but it looked like it would be too much hassle so we didn’t bother there, either.

Next, we went a few miles further down the road to see the Callenish Standing Stones. We’d actually seen them from a distance on the way up yesterday but wanted a closer look. Parking was a bit tricky but we put the MoHo in one of the three bus parking places and put the Blue Badge out.

I went on a recce to see if it would be ok for the wheelchair and, although it would be hard work (the stones are on the top of a hill), it looked do-able.

It was hard work but we kept stopping for a rest and finally made it to the top of the hill. There is a kissing gate type arrangement and there was no way that the wheelchair would have got through. So all that effort to get there appeared to be in vain. Some people offered to help and suggested that there was another access with a bigger gate but it would have meant taking the MoHo round to it.

Nevertheless, I went through the stones with Ellie to check it out. Ellie respected the historical significance of the place by having a shit in front of all of the other visitors. The other gate looked a better bet but I’d already seen as much as I wanted and I knew that Dud would be the same even though she was looking from outside the fence.

Imagine my surprise when I got back to her and a young woman was pushing her through a fully open gate. It is meant to operate as a kissing gate most of the time but there was a catch that allowed it to fully open meaning that there was plenty of room. I’m not the most practical of people as this incident proved.

After a further quick look round, we went back to the MoHo and had a tea of corned beef hash – which was up to its usual high standard.

I’d seen on the camp site web site that there was a dog walk at our end of the site that led to a path into the village. That needs updating because I found a bit of a path but there was no way out of the camp site.

Something else I found on the web site is that it is frowned upon to put washing out on a Sunday – such is the respect for the sabbath.

The schoolkids were at it again first thing so I got up and was pleased I did because there was a bread van visiting the site. We were almost out of bread and I assumed there would be a decent choice. There wasn’t. It was bread buns and sliced loaves and that was it – though there was lots of stuff other than bread on sale. I bought a loaf anyway – and a litre of milk.

We had water available close by so I filled up. We needed to empty grey water but there was a MoHo on the service point. We queued up behind him and he seemed to be taking an age. It was another Bailey but a newer model and I got chatting to the wife while the bloke was overseeing the filling.

She said that he could move even though I told her we were in no hurry – but he moved anyway with the fresh water hose still connected. He was aware of it and intended to move forward enough so that we could get on the service point – the hose was long enough. But one of the campers came running up to him thinking he was driving off. Quite funny, really.

We’d decided to visit the Butt of Lewis which is the most northerly point of the Outer Hebrides and has a lighthouse. Not that we have any interest in lighthouses but it will complete the trip round the island.

The terrain was not suitable for the wheelchair so I went out with Ellie. It’s a bit exposed (understatement) so it was very windy and cold. It was worth it for the views of the waves crashing against the rocks but there were some big drops over the edge of the cliffs and I don’t have a head for heights so we kept our distance from the edge.

We’d booked for 2 nights at the Laxdale Holiday Park which is just outside Stornoway so we set off for there. We got there reasonably early and so drove past it into Stornoway to have a quick look round.

That drive got as far as a Co-op so we did a shop. That made the bread van visit that morning a waste of time but we weren’t to know. Have to say, my opinion of the Co-op has changed as a result of this trip. This store in Stornoway was on a par with the likes of Tesco.

When we booked the site, the woman said that she’d have to put us on the overflow site – which didn’t bother us because we only need electric and don’t need showers etc. However, when we got there, the man found a spot on the main site. It’s a bit tight but we got in.

While we were sat chillin’, a Hymer turned up, parked in the waiting area and was allocated a pitch. As he was manouevring, we heard a loud smash. For a minute, I thought he’d hit us but he’d hit a stone wall. The stone wall won and smashed his nearside rear lights and probably made a mark on the bodywork. I resisted the urge to rubber neck because I imagined the accident would not have put him in a good mood. He went and parked up and then came back to pick up the bits.

There is a bunkhouse on site just across a road from us. I assume that is like a hostel type of arrangement. Quite a few motor bikes turned up and parked outside. Other bikes turned up at various intervals so it looked like it’s a regular bikers’ haunt.

The weather had been ok for most of the day but the wind was getting up and was rocking the van a bit. So, no satellite dish and we are limited to terrestrial Freeview.

Tea was what was left of last night’s corned beef hash for Dud and I had the remaining tortelloni – again with a very hot sauce.

We had an alarm call of loud motor bike engines at 05:20. In fairness, they didn’t hang around long and weren’t revving the engines but it’s still not the level of sound you want at that time in the morning. There’s a ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool which sails at 07:00 so last check-in would be 06:15 or so so I suspect they had got up early to catch that.

The wind kept up all night but there’s not a lot of rain – not a lot of sun, either.

We had scrambled Flodabay egg for breakfast again. The eggs are definitely tastier than standard shop eggs.

We’d decided to have a drive into Stornoway and Dud suggested we drive past the airport and to a lighthouse that is a few miles out of Stornoway and is on the eastern tip of the area.

For the airport, I was expecting a stretch of grass and a nissen hut but it actually looked quite a size. Turns out there are no international flights so maybe not that big.

We got to the lighthouse but there was very little parking. There were some outbuildings which apparently are kennels and a cattery. I got a couple of photos and, since there wasn’t a parking spot, we decided to come back. That would have meant a long reverse down the single track approach road but, luckily, a driver of one of the cars already parked came back to the car and drove off. That gave us space to turn – which was a relief.

We drove back to Stornoway and drove through. It’s not a big place and is the most “normal” looking of any of the places we’ve visited on the islands – so, all in all, not a lot to get excited about.

Other motor bikes have been arriving on site. They include a group of 7 or 8 mainly Harleys which are never the quietest of engines. They are all parked in the camping area which is down the road from our pitch so, if they are on an early start in the morning, it may not be as bad as it was this morning – we hope!

Tea was pork chops and rice. I did something wrong because the chops were a bit tough – but still tasty.

The wind keeps getting up and then dropping. We’re on the ferry back to Skye tomorrow so let’s hope the crossing coincides with a dropping phase.

My worries about the Harleys making a noise early this morning were unfounded. It was a quiet night.

Last check in for the ferry was 10:50 and Google was predicting just under an hour for the drive from Stornoway to Tarbert. Again, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time so we wanted to set off at 09:00. I’d set an alarm on the phone for 08:00 but, as always, I was awake well before the alarm went off so got up a bit earlier.

The wind had dropped during the night. That was a relief because it would have been an interesting crossing if it had kept up to the same level as yesterday.

We were away for pretty much bang on 9:00. The campsite is just off a main road and imagine our surprise when we got to the main road and there was a queue of traffic going in to Stornoway and it was busy coming the other way. That was so at odds with our experience of the rest of the Outer Hebrides.

We’d been overtaken by, amongst others, a Mercedes mini-bus on the way to Tarbert but caught him up as we actually drove in to Tarbert. He turned in to the ferry terminal in front of us. All of the other crossings involved getting in to a lane and then having your details checked but here, there is a single point of entry and someone checks your details as you enter. The Mercedes was the vehicle in front of us and as we approached the entry, he went to the front of an empty lane.

We’d already flagged up on the booking that we needed wheelchair access and the CalMac person knew that so she radioed the blokes organising the queues and they decided to make the Mercedes back up so that we could take his place at the front of the queue and he would have to move in behind us. I bet he wished he knew that would happen before he overtook us!

We had breakfast sat in the queue and Ellie and I went for a couple of walks. The ferry had not arrived from Uig so we knew that we had plenty of time. As at Berneray, the time soon goes and, eventually, we saw the ferry coming in.

I got a vantage point on an elevated walkway looking down on the terminal and watched it manouevre itself and then use the ropes to pull itself into position. I got back to the MoHo just as the first cars were coming off.

They slotted us in so that we were near the lift and Ellie and I took the stairs while Dud was escorted up in the lift. Ellie is getting more confident at climbing stairs. We found a place in the lounge and, apart from a couple of trips on to the open deck for Ellie and I, we stayed there for the crossing. Ellie attracted a lot of attention from people walking past and also from a couple of young kids who were being continuously walked around the ship.

The weather as we left Tarbert was dull but clear. As we approached Skye and sailed towards Uig, it became more overcast and mistier. I assumed that our views of the Isle of Skye would be the same as when we came – ie overcast and with poor visibility. But that changed as we manouevred to dock at Uig. The sun came out and the low cloud disappeared and we got great views of the mountains as we travelled across the Isle of Skye.

We had not booked anything for tonight. I’d seen what looked like a great site on the at Glenbrittle on the southern side of Skye and thought it would be good to visit that area. The site had no capability to pre-book – first come, first served. So the downside was that we may not be able to get a pitch so I lined up the details of a Caravan Club Certified Location nearby just in case.

The roads to the campsite turned into single track and progress was quite slow – not helped by some Belgian and Dutch drivers not abiding by the rules. The site is actually at the end of the single track which goes on for 7 miles.

We had a Nissan pick up following us and he was clearly quicker than us so I pulled into a passing place to let him overtake. It was not particularly successful from his point of view because he caught up to a German MoHo in front of us who also slowed him down but would not let him pass.

We got to the site and could see that there was lots or room so we went to the reception to check in. The bloke who dealt with us was the driver of the pickup that I’d let pass so I was his best mate. He gave us a good pitch overlooking Loch Brittle and then out to sea. I suspect that we would have got that pitch anyway but I’ll kid myself that it was because I let him pass.

The sun was shining but it was cold. I thought I’d better get some photos in the sun because you never know how long it is going to last.

There is no terrestial tv signal, no phone signal, no 3 or 4g connection and no site wireless and the wind was too strong for us to put up the satellite dish. Dud and I tried to revive the art of conversation but I’m not sure how successful we were.

Tea was a Tesco Mexican Chicken Bake which we’d had in the freezer since we left home. It was very tasty.

After tea, the wind died down and we could put up the dish so were able to watch a couple of hours of tv. Dud turned in early and then the wind started to get up again so I put the dish down.

Rain again later and I got wet taking Ellie out and had to change my shorts – which I’d been wearing for most of the holiday so changing them was not a bad thing.

Glenbrittle is a lovely site and it was very quiet in the night. We woke to a dull day but it was reasonably clear. There was intermittent light rain. We had booked at the Caravan Club site at Bunree for tonight and tomorrow otherwise I would consider staying here.

Our morning walk produced another Ellie goosing moment. We walked out of the site and there was a foreign MoHo parked with the guy taking photos of the loch and of the mountains. I’m not sure what nationality he was – the license plate had a red portion a bit like the Isle of Man plates but he had a Spanish-sounding accent.

He asked me what time the reception opened. I told him 8 o’clock and he then asked where the reception was. I was pointing it out to him and then Ellie pounced and sniffed his private parts. His was a weird reaction in that he jumped whilst bending his body at an angle but he jumped sideways rather than up. I reckon he must have jumped at least a metre. A car was passing at the time and I bet it looked really funny to them because it certainly looked funny to me. I’m not sure it was funny to the man because he muttered something and then walked off.

I’d seen on the ticket that the campsite gives you to prove you’ve paid for the night that they bake bread daily. We were getting low and I think that if they make the effort on something like that, then it deserves your support so we drove to the reception before setting off. They didn’t have a wide choice so I bought a seeded batard which was only £3.75. A bit like the baker’s van episode at Shawbost, perhaps I should have turned round and walked away but I did the English thing and just accepted it. The man did say that they use only the finest ingredients – I should have said that I hope so at that price – but I didn’t.

I’ve mentioned previously about Ellie escaping from her collar whilst we’re driving. She used to be well-behaved and just went on her bed and slept while we drove but now she escapes almost every time and spends her time at the front with us. I’ve bought a camera mount that has powerful suction pads so that I can mount the camera in the MoHo. So I set that up to film Ellie to see what she does to escape. It makes interesting viewing and is a bit like the Harry Houdini escapologist technique of shaking things about for a few times and then suddenly they are free.

We covered the 7 mile stretch of single track road out of the camp site a bit easier than when we came in – presumably because it was earlier and therefore less traffic. That road passes a car park where people park up so that they can visit the fairy pools whatever they are – which is why it was so busy yesterday.

The single track road comes out near Carbost which it the home of the Talisker Distillery. I wan’t particularly bothered about visiting that mainly because of access issues but also because I knew I would buy some and then I knew I would drink it. But we also saw a sign to the “Oyster Shed” which the sign said was by the distillery. I was expecting to be able to buy oysters on the Outer Hebrides but did not see any anywhere so didn’t want to miss this opportunity so we went there.

They had a great choice of oysters, crab, lobster and other seafood type items. They also do takeaway meals containing their produce – a bloke came in and ordered lobster and chips while we were there – but we’d not long since had breakfast. So I bought some items including 10 oysters. They actually do mail order from this web site – not sure how well the oysters would last in transit but presumably they know what they are doing.

We finally got underway and were rewarded with some great views of Skye. The sun was not out but it was clear in most places.

We stopped for lunch in a picturesque spot. As I was walking Ellie in the layby, I heard a drone and a BMW Z4 with top open and youngish couple in it pulled in and stopped. He was using the auto-tracking ability of the drone to film them driving. I was really envious – we’ve not been able to get any drone footage because a couple of batteries failed just before we set off and we had no time to get new ones. I said to him that he was a braver man than me trusting the drone to stay with and he showed me the footage. It looked great. Must get the Bebop to do that some time.

The satnav told us that the journey was 105 miles but we realised as we got to the coast of Skye that it was going to take us on the ferry – just like it did on the way in. We headed instead to the Skye Bridge which, when the satnav recalculated, added another 30 miles. The bridge is toll free but it used to cost £11.40 which, when you consider how relatively short it is, was a lot money. History of the bridge and the toll here.

We needed a shop and I was originally planning to re-visit Morrisons in Fort William but we passed a Co-op while still on Skye (complete with a Co-op petrol station which I’ve not seen before) but I saw it too late to stop. So I was relieved when we got over the bridge and there was another Co-op almost straight away. I did the shop there which saved us messing about when we got to Fort William.

We approached the viewing area for Ben Nevis where we’d stopped on the way up. Ellie had been cooped up in the MoHo for a long spell so we stopped there to give her a walk. Unfortunately, as clear as the rest of the journey had been, the top of Ben Nevis was shrouded in cloud so we got as bad a view of it as we had previously.

Fort William must be a bit of a traffic bottleneck because we hit queueing traffic and it took us about 20 minutes to crawl through. I remembered someone telling me when we were at Invercoe that it had taken them an hour to get through.

We got to the Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Bunree at about 17:00. It looked very busy and there were only a few pitches left. The site is alongside Loch Linnhe and a row of the pitches look out on to the loch. The woman in the queue in front of us got the last loch-view pitch so if we hadn’t stopped to let the airedale pee, then we may have got that spot. As it is, the pitch we took is still good (aren’t all CAMC pitches good?).

Tea was pizza – another second time round meal.

The weather is ok but still intermittent rain so we could not get Dud out for a walk but Ellie and I managed a couple of walks in the gaps between showers.

One thing we noticed later on was that it was dark around 22:30. That could have been due to heavy cloud but it is a lot earlier than we were seeing in the Outer Hebrides.

Today is, effectively, the last day of the holiday. We’d originally planned to take as long going home as we took coming up but we’ve changed our mind and, instead of making 2 overnight stops to this point, we’re going to do Carlisle tomorrow and then home from there on Monday. Those are drives that I would not even blink at in the VW but they are relatively long for the MoHo.

Breakfast was the last of the Flodebay eggs and they were as delicious as they have been previously. Scrambled egg will never be the same with shop-bought eggs.

We chilled a bit and the sun came out a few times – quickly followed by more light rain. Looking at the news and what is happening in Wainfleet, we’re still doing ok compared to England.

Eventually we got what looked like it would be a slightly extended spell of sunshine so we got Dud out for a walk around the site. It was very pleasant and we ended up sitting on one of the benches alongside the loch. We had about 30 minutes there and then you could see the rain clouds gathering so we headed back to the MoHo and got there just as the rain started.

I wanted to video my skills of oyster-shucking and so did that and had a couple of the Skye oysters. They were delicious but I soon started to feel unwell. That’s the risk that you take with shellfish, unfortunately. I didn’t tell Dud at first 1) being a bloke and 2) thinking that it would pass – but seeing as though I thought I would either throw up or expel from the opposite orifice, I decided to tell her.

That was, thankfully, as bad as it got. We delayed making tea for an hour or so while I just laid down and then I started to feel ok and so made the tea.

Tea was supposed to be a risotto (surprisingly, the first time this trip) with the langoustines that I bought from the Co-op on Benbecula. I really cocked it up – which surprised and disappointed me since risotto is something that I do successfuly on many occasions.

I weighed out the arborio rice (which I always do) but remember thinking that it looked far too much and it was. I don’t know if that is an issue with the scales that we keep in the MoHo or some lapse of attention on my part given my wounded state.

The langoustines where whole and I’d prepared them for inclusion in the risotto but when you pull off the head and pincers and then remove the shell and tail, you don’t actually end up with a lot.

Anyway I ploughed on still not feeling good and I put in all of the rice that I had weighed out but it was clear that there was far too much rice. I dished out very small proportions but, whilst I ate most of the langoustines, I didn’t eat much of the rest. Usually, there will be risotto for lunch the next day but this was so poor that I threw out the rest of it.

As the evening wore on, I felt better and better. We needed to top up fresh water and drio the grey waste so we set off for the MoHo service point at aound 22:00. Unbelievably, there was another MoHo on the point but we didn’t have long to wait. The intention is to set off as soon as we get up in the morning. We have 200 miles to cover.

I was up around 8:30 and Dud surfaced around 9 so we managed to get away for around 9:30.

The weather was dull and there was some low cloud but it got clearer as we got closer to Glencoe. We were pleased about that because we’d had such a crap view of Glencoe on the way in. There is some spectacular scenery and there must be some good walking because all of the parking areas were full of what were presumably walkers’ cars.

We got through Glencoe and found a good parking spot at the Loch Tulla viewpoint which overlooks that loch and we had breakfast. If we have a fair distance to cover, then I prefer to get going and have breakfast once we’ve set off. I would not relax if we had it before we set off.

The rain was becoming quite heavy. As we sat breakfasting, we heard a coach pull up and then we were surrounded by Japanese tourists who all took pictures of the loch – in spite of the poor visibility and the rain. Within a couple of minutes, they all cleared off and another load of what I think were Spanish did the same. And then another and then another and so on.

As we were finishing breakfast, there was a knock on the door and a Scots guy asked if we were planning on being there long because, he said, the area becomes “rammed” and we might be blocked in. I think he was from the catering trailer that was parked in the viewing area. I think he was being kind but, on the other hand, he may have wanted us to move so that potential customers could use the space that we had parked in.

I set the satnav to show elevation but the highest we achieved was around 1,100 ft so it looks like the A66 will win the award for the highest we’ve been this break.

We pressed on and soon came to the road around Loch Lomond that had been stressful on the way in. There were a few squeeky bum moments when larger vehicles were coming the other way but, generally, we had a good run and that tricky stretch was soon over.

We saw a good registration plate on a Range Rover with 4 exhausts – SH15 HOT. Ok, it’s not perfect but the number plate anorak that I am thought it was a good one. Unfortunately, we did not catch it on the dashcam for some reason.

We got round Glasgow and ended up on the M74 or A74(M) and headed to Carlisle. We had a lunch stop and filled uo with diesel in a service station – never the most attractive of places but they serve a purpose. I actually missed seeing the “Welome to England” type sign that I had been expecting because I must have been concentrating on something else but that was captured on the dashcam.

The satnav took us off what was now the M6 just as we got to Carlisle and we were directed down some fairly narrow roads. But we soon arrived at the Englethwaite CAMC site.

We’ve been here before and I knew that but I had another of the Lake District sites in my mind. When I checked that previous visit on the blog, I remembered that I still had my monthly report to the directors to do. I do not miss being in that situation at all. We parked up in what was pretty much the same place that we parked in before.

Tea was cod fillet, chips and peas. Being from Grimsby, fresh haddock is readily available but I still enjoy pre-packed battered cod fillets.

After tea, I was looking out of the front windscreen and I saw some wildlife. I quickly realised that it was a red squirrel. I mentioned this in the blog of the previous visit but we didn’t see one then. We used to see loads of grey squirrels where we live but recently we’ve not seen any. The greys have all but annihalated the reds so it was good to see a red. I took photos but the lighting was not great and the photo does not clearly show it as red. I’m tempted to do some photoshop work to bring out the red – but that would be cheating.

Weather after tea was rain, rain and more rain – which is a regular feature of this break. I took Ellie out for a walk in what I thought was a break in the rain but it started again – and quite heavily so we ended up running back to the MoHo – well, I was running but Ellie thought we were playing some kind of game and she ended up attacking my legs.

Home tomorrow – had the weather been better, I may have been sad about that but, since we have not once got out the comfy chairs or extended the awning, then I’m ready for it.

Monday 17 June 2019 – Carlisle to home – 229 miles

True to form, when we got up, the weather was dull but there was no rain.

I’d forgotten that this site has an excellent dog walking area just behind where we were parked so Ellie and I went on it. The walk takes you through woods and there is a red squirrel viewing hide that you can use. There is also a fenced-in grassed area where you can let the dog off the lead – which I did. They are good facilities.

We had breakfast and, before setting off, we took on some water. One of the wardens was painting the white lines at the MoHo service point. They didn’t really need it but that is an indication of the high standards of the Caravan and Motorhome Club. I know that I mock them by referring to the wardens as commandants but the majority of them are ok and we have to admit to a comfort factor on Club sites in that you know you are going to get high quality.

The satnav took us back on to the M6 but soon did a recalc because of a blocked road. It became obvious that it was going to take us down the M6 to Manchester so that we could take the M62 across the Pennines. I’ve mentioned before about when we ignored the satnav in Germany, it cost us 90 minutes in standing traffic so I followed its advice.

I’ve done this M6 route a few times in the car and it takes you through some impressive scenery as you skirt the Lake District. We made decent progress but it was very windy.

We stopped for lunch on the M61 just before we got to Manchester and we had our first “eating-out” experience of the break – I got a couple of warm sausage rolls from Greggs in the service station and we ate them in the MoHo.

We eventually got on to the M62 and made our way back home. The M62 is another route that I did so many times prior to retirement that I remember every bit of it.

We arrived back home and did the usual routine of getting Ellie out first and letting her go mad in the back garden. Roll on the next trip.

Mileages and costs

	Distance	Average mpg	Average mph	Time
28 May	120	26.5	42	2hr 50min
29 May	157	29.6	48	3hr 13min
To date	278	28.2	45	6hr 04min
30 May	114	27.1	32	3hr 31min
To date	392	27.9	40	9hr 35min
1 Jun	149	29.0	35	4hr 11min
To date	540	28.2	39	13hr 47min
2 Jun	12	17.7	9	1hr 14min
To date	552	27.9	36	15hr 01min
5 Jun	71	26.2	23	3hr 00min
To date	623	27.6	34	18hr 02min
6 Jun	10	19.7	12	0hr 46min
To date	633	27.6	33	18hr 48min
7 Jun	46	27.6	25	1hr 49min
To date	679	27.6	32	20hr 38min
9 Jun	94	26.5	26	3hr 35min
To date	773	27.4	31	24hr 13min
10 Jun	45	26.8	23	1hr 55min
To date	818	27.4	31	26hr 09min
11 Jun	56	26.5	24	2hr 16min
To date	874	27.4	30	28hr 25min
12 Jun	26	26.5	22	1hr 11min
To date	900	27.4	30	29hr 37min
13 Jun	79	28.2	26	2hr 55min
To date	979	27.4	30	32hr 33min
14 Jun	131	27.9	31	4hr 09min
To date	1110	27.4	30	36hr 42min
16 Jun	205	26.8	44	4hr 39min
To date	1316	27.4	31	41hr 22min
17 Jun	229	27.6	54	4hr 11min
To date	1544	27.4	33	45hr 33min

	Fuel	Site fees	Shopping	Other	Total
28 May		£26.10			£26.10
29 May		£30.10	£13.75		£43.85
To date		£56.20	£13.75		£69.95
30 May	£90.80	£54.00		£9.35	£154.15
To date	£90.80	£110.20	£13.75	£9.35	£224.10
1 Jun		£19.00			£19.00
To date	£90.80	£129.90	£13.75	£9.35	£243.10
2 Jun		£30.00		£60.50 Ferry	£90.50
To date	£90.80	£159.20	£13.75	£69.85	£333.60
3 Jun		£30.00			£30.00
To date	£90.80	£189.20	£13.75	£69.85	£363.60
4 Jun		£30.00			£30.00
To date	£90.80	£219.20	£13.75	£69.85	£393.60
5 Jun		£19.00	£55.94	£28.25 Ferry	£103.19
To date	£90.80	£238.20	£69.69	£98.10	£496.79
6 Jun		£19.00			£19.00
To date	£90.80	£257.20	£69.69	£98.10	£515.79
7 Jun		£20.00	£29.32		£49.32
To date	£90.80	£277.20	£99.01	£98.10	£565.11
8 Jun		£20.00			£20.00
To date	£90.80	£297.20	£99.01	£98.10	£585.11
9 Jun		£20.00		£28.25	£48.25
To date	£90.80	£317.20	£99.01	£126.35	£633.36
10 Jun	£92.34	£20.00			£112.34
To date	£183.14	£337.20	£99.01	£126.35	£745.70
11 Jun		£48.00	£42.24		£90.24
To date	£183.14	£385.20	£141.25	£126.35	£835.94
13 Jun		£26.00		£60.50 Ferry	£86.50
To date	£183.14	£411.20	£141.25	£186.85	£922.44
14 Jun		£52.20	£87.51		£139.71
To date	£183.14	£463.40	£228.76	£186.85	£1,062.15
16 Jun	£117.71	£18.10	£1.60		£137.42
To date	£300.86	£481.50	£230.36	£186.85	£1,199.57

 

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