Day 12 -- Monday, the 7th July
Final breakfast of our stay at Lingay House. I choose the scrambled eggs, since that is what they do best, here.
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| We all do. |
The atmosphere is no warmer than the other days. We do exchange a few words with the cycling ladies at the table. When we have loaded the car, if I did not explicitly walk to the house to salute our hosts, there would have been no goodbye whatsoever. Whatever!
We stop for petrol, then enter the queue for the ferry.
Despite it being a a book-for-any-time-and-show-up thing, we are told the ferry is fully booked. The CalMac lady asks us to book tickets online (soon the only way to obtain a ticket, it seems) and she will put us on stand-by for the next sailing, in a couple of hours. Five minutes later, she is back to confirm we are on the one we are queueing for. "You can also buy your tickets on the boat," she adds. Just as we knew from the beginning. Talk about clarity. Ah well.
During the zig-zagging crossing from Harris to Berneray, we see gannets and shags, sadly no eagle. They are supposedly often patrolling the sky here. We also spot the Belgians from yesterday at the hide, a couple of snifflers, a crying dog and car alarms going off. The lounge we are in is increasingly hot. Other than that, it is uneventful.
Off the boat, we cobble together a quick tour of Berneray -- or the south and east, since the road does not loop all the way north and east.
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| One of the first things we see is... |
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| ...this bad boy |
We have to trace back our tracks to where we disembarked, and elect to stop at the Berneray Shop and Bistro. There, we find the legendary forecast stone and bump into the Belgians again.
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| Dedicated to Psycho, to whom we sent a postcard of this, ooft! seventeen years ago? |
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| Fried battered halloumi (me) |
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| Buddha bowl (JS) |
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| Buddha bowl (adc) |
We have an excellent lunch before driving to North Uist. We take the northeast side of it. Beautiful road, though it is full of cyclists!
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| Pesky cyclists |
We stop at Scolpaig for a minute. On the horizon are islands: I assume St Kilda and get very excited. They are, in fact, the much-closer Haskeir and Haskeir Eagach. Much closer yet is Scolpaig Tower as a bonus.
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| Scolpaig Tower in the foreground. Haskeir in the background (right) Haskeir Eagavch in the background (centre) |
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| Scolpaig Tower |
We continue to Balranald and its Nature Reserve.
As I open my door, I hear a corncrake. Ha! We will never see one, but just hearing it is quite a joy, seeing how rare the bird is. Surely, it nests in the field near the visitor centre. During the walk, we see gannets, gulls of all kinds, ringed plovers... It is a good, non-challenging walk that we enjoy a lot. The weather is even dry and bright.
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| On the way, these murmurations make a big impression. Looking through binoculars, we spot two raptors (harriers?) probably having lunch |
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| Free-roaming cattle |
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| Free-roaming rabbit |
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| adc fears no coo, wo! |
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| JS is probably not aware just how close this coo is, absorbed as she is in her photography |
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| A family of shellducks |
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| Close to the end of the walk, we come head-to-head with this goldfinch |
After that, we head up the hill to St Kilda Viewing Point. By now, the weather is less clear, and we cannot see past Haskeir, really. The Monach Islands are almost discernible further south, but Kilda is not in sight.
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| On top of the hill is an RAF radar |
We drive back up to the Berneray causeway to Otternish Pods, our accommodation.
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| I unload the suitcases wearing only socks, for some reason. In that gravel, it is a little bit of a challenge! |
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| Just to remind us that we could not go to St Kilda... |
The girls do not fancy another meal at Berneray Shop and Bistro. Instead, we have cheese and crackers rounded off with Scottish tablet (and a dram).
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Orkney crackers with |
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| Arran Cheese Smokey [sic] Garlic Cheddar |
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| Devil's is happy with the cushions, in this place |
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