Harris

[janey_m]

harris2, originally uploaded by Janey M.

Well, I was writing about the Hebrides, then got a bit slack. I should persevere though...

The ferry to Harris leaves from Uig in Skye, where there is a ferry terminal, and nothing else. The crosing is a bargain, as it's a road equivalent tariff, though how long this will last, I don't know. It takes an hour, and the weather was good enough to stay on deck. We saw our first seabirds - a few puffins, out at sea now their breeding season was over, and gannets. Set down in Tarbert, where there is a ferry terminal and not much else, we headed south down th ROAD OF DEATH to Lingerbay. The roads on Harris are interesting, particularly after dark, winding through the rocky landscape, perilously narow across lochs, recklessly acsending to blind summits where you hope there will beat least a passing place on the other side.

We spent the rest of Saturday walking in the local area, the scrubby grassland littered with malevolent sheep, the deserted crofthouses, some still with discoloured net curtains hanging in windows. We admired the local collections of rusting cars and farm machinery that seem to be compulsary for island inhabitants to own.

On Sunday - a day on which, on no account we were informed by the owner of our house, we should ut out washing, we went for an undulating run, and then headed out for a walk on Scalpay.

We took a wrong turning on the way there, and ended up driving through the Harris hills, as the clouds came down to meet us as the rain began to spot...