That's our home for the next fortnight - a traditional croft house on the western side of North Uist. Weather will be no concern to us once we're tucked up in here - those sturdy looking walls area good 2' thick!
The journey up went nicely to plan for the most part - some torrential rain on the way up the A1, and then an unexpected set of roadworks closing the road (thanks Highways Agency for NOT telling us about that one!) a little further meant we arrived at our overnight stop 30 minutes later than planned. The weather for the drive through yesterday was good though - the crossing from Mallaig to Armadale on Skye was windy but gloriously sunny, and once there we explored a little more of Skye, called at the Isle of Skye Brewery shop as planned to collect some beer...
...and were waiting at the ferry terminal at Uig in plenty of time for our crossing to Lochmaddy...which was when we found out that MV Hebrides was running rather late and in fact wasn't even expected to arrive at Uig until 15 minutes after we were supposed to have left! In fact she eventually set off very nearly an hour late which was a little frustrating! Unusually for us we spent the crossing inside too - it was raining, not hard but a persistent sort of drizzle, and quite choppy, so we grabbed a prime spot in the Observation Lounge and just relaxed in the warm and dry!
Our first night accommodation was at the campsite at Carinish again - we'd booked a room in the bunkhouse this year and what a good choice that was - the facilities are fantastic and we'd be delighted to stay there again ourselves and indeed recommend to others - Moorcroft Holidays is the name of the site should anyone be looking for somewhere low-cost but well appointed for a short break on Uist. There was one other chap also staying - and in the spirit of bizarre coincidences we discovered after a while of chatting that in fact he used to run a hire company on the Island of Barra, and around 12 years ago we hired one of his cars!
After a lazy start this morning we trundled round to find the house, unpacked the car, then whizzed out again to our very favourite cafe for lunch - the Claddach Kirkibost centre. Not only for lunch though - we'd arranged to meet Twitter friends Jo & Stu before they headed off to get their ferry home - they've just enjoyed a week staying up here and have already expressed a definite wish to return - it was absolutely lovely to meet them especially as we'd thought until the very last minute that it wouldn't be possible. As I type this they're on M.V.Hebrides returning to Uig - also running 30 minutes late!
OK - time now to relax for a bit. Now I know there is a signal here blogging will be easier this year - even if I do have to come upstairs to get a signal strong enough!
Robyn
2 comments:
Wishing you a great holiday, lets hope you get some good weather to enjoy the outdoors. x
Have a wonderful time! xx
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