Factor 50 still required!

*written on Sunday 27th, but posted later* Another day of beautiful sunshine. Both of us are a little sunburnt, in spite of the Factor 50 cream, and you’ll notice from one of the pictures in this post that my feet are showing distinct signs of tan-lines! We’ve been mostly meandering today. Our favourite café for late breakfast/lunch, followed by a drive up one of North Uist’s hills - Cleattraval - formerly a stronghold of the military, but now accessible by the public almost to the top. It’s an ideal spot to admire the view…

… or indeed to get a broadband signal via a handy dongle….which was why I was there! The view was very good indeed though - right across to St Kilda and right across North Uist itself to Benbecula, South Uist and over to Skye. This is looking roughly west…

 

…and looking slightly further to the south you can clearly pick out the pub, the water tower at Balivanich on Benbecula, and today even the hills of Skye clearly visible.

From there it was on to the beach at Hosta - a lovely quiet sweeping bay with some interesting rock formations at each end…..

The rocks at the other end appear to be Lewisian Gneiss - the same stuff that the standing stones at Calanais are formed from - it’s distinctive with its definite striping…

…and also has the advantage of having a stream running down through them from up on the machair behind the beach - on a day like today as this is warmed by the sun it becomes a sort of natural foot-spa - we sat there luxuriating in the wonderfully relaxing sensation for quite some time!

 From there we wandered to the RSPB Reserve at Balranald - lots of Corncrakes calling but as per usual none to actually be seen, and then on to the Westford for beer and grumbling. (I drank the beer, Ben did the grumbling as he was driving!)

Robyn