Five Favourites...

This time round, five favourite beaches, unsurprisingly these all seem to be in the Hebrides - whoever would have guessed that, eh?! In no particular order...

Luskentyre. This gorgeous and huge beach on Harris is a regular in "Worlds best beach" type features so it seemed only right that it should feature in mine, too! Access to the beach itself is via a long, twisty, turny single track road, not for the faint-hearted, but well worth the drive. A regular stop of ours as we drive from Lewis to get the ferry back across to Berneray. The view above, by the way, is taken from the main road...

Clachan Sands, North Uist. Often a first, or last day beach this one - we do like to start and end our holiday with sandy feet, and this wonderful stretch of beach ticks all the right boxes. Manouevering the car to the parking area can be a little interesting...through the field with the cows, up a badly rutted track...there's always a slight concern than one day, we might get stuck!

Balranald, North Uist. This beach features on our regular walk around the fantastic RSPB reserve. (As an aside, it's always entertaining when in conversation at reserves down here to be asked which is our favourite one to visit....when we reply with "Balranald" jaws frequently drop and phrases like "OOH! I've always wanted to go there!" get uttered!) This fabulous sweep of sand forms part of the waymarked walk round the reserve, but also makes a lovely walk on its own, right round as far as you can see on that photo - wind in your hair and waves crashing!

West Beach, Berneray. Now we're in good company with counting this one as a favourite - apparently HRH Prince Charles feels much the same about it. There is a full three miles of sand to walk along should you so choose - and we have! We've also walked a good stretch of this beach, AND all the way back again, without seeing another soul!

Finally, Hosta, North Uist. I know I said that these were in no order, but this one might actually be our absolute favourite beach of the lot, and I think this panoramic shot (remember you can click on it to see it larger) might show why. Over the the right is an area of lovely flat rocks, just perfect for sitting on to eat lunch. The rocks also form an area of rockpools, cleaned constantly by the stream flowing through them. On a warm day this is a spa-like place to paddle - with the water warmed by the sun and trickling over your toes... when you're bored with paddling, then there is a nice curve of sun-baked sand to wander along - leaving your shoes discarded where you were, they'll be perfectly safe.

There are so many more I could have mentioned - the almost tropical-looking bay on Vatersay, Shawbost on Lewis, Kilpheder on South Uist. Culla Bay on Benbecula is beloved of many keen birdspotters, and Uig sands (Lewis) is great for watching kitesurfers. Maybe I should do another "favourite 5" on the same theme?!

Robyn

Short trip north...part 2

The second day of our “trip North” didn’t look too promising at the start – lots of cloud hanging around although it was warm enough.  By 10am though – just as we were packed up ready to leave the campsite – the sun did its job, burnt through the misty cloud and it was clear we were set for a lovely day! We popped to Stornoway to buy all our favourite goodies – black, white & fruit puddings from MacLeod’s butchers, kippers and smoked cheese from the smokehouse, and Stag Bakeries biscuits & Oatcakes, plus beer – slightly less attractively from Tesco but there you go! Then back round to the West Side of Lewis – we’d heard about “40 North” - a rather wonderful little deli/shop selling superb sandwiches etc so we decided to pop there to get lunch sorted – it was so good I’m going to blog about it separately at some stage!  So, onwards – to Carloway, and an absolute treat to see the place in sunshine!

We left shortly after the minibus full of overexcited teenagers turned up. One of the grand things about these sorts of places up here is that you can (carefully) explore them – Dun Carloway still has some of its staircases in place inside the double-skinned walls, so you can get a really good look at the place inside and out, as it were – but these were taking that freedom rather to extremes we (and the majority of others there) felt – Swinging on stone lintels, clambering up the walls etc…not great. We headed on to another wonderful place – Calanais…

The stones looking gorgeous in the sunshine, there! I’ve blogged about the history of the place plenty before – so if you’re interested, look back via the tag. To sum up though – ancient, they don’t quite know how old but it was there when the builders at Stonehenge were still scratching their heads over how to do their fancy tourist-friendly version, and predates the pyramids.  Due to the (for the Hebrides) quite high numbers of visitors getting photos can be tricky – I tend to be quite methodical – sort out the shot, get it all set up and the camera focused, and then just sit and wait for the right moment to press the shutter.

We left just as a minibus of overexcited teenagers arrived in the car park….good timing, that! Time to turn south again – with a stop at Seilebost for the annual “postcard shot” over the white sandy bay at Luskentyre…

…would have been a grand day for paddling I should think! No time to stop there this trip though sadly – we had a ferry to catch. Another glorious crossing too – sunny and even quite warm – unusual when you’re out on the water up here at this time of year. The Black Guillemots seemed to agree as they were sunbathing on the channel markers we passed…

…Fashion conscious little chaps too – they clearly understood that the red markers would complement their colouring far better than the green ones!

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown 2013...

Amazing to think that these stunning patterns are made simply by the waves and the winds - it almost looks as though a sculptor has been at work, painstakingly carving out the design of his choice! This particular work of art was on the beautiful beach at Luskentyre, Harris. The first time we saw this astonishing sweep of white sand was in 2003 - we had some time to kill before going on to Leverburgh for the ferry to North uist so got off the bus at the "Luskentyre turn" and walked the couple of miles down the side road to a point that overlooked the beach where we could sit and eat lunch - the view that greeted us was just breathtaking. We always try to go back now each year - there is no better place to sit and eat a sandwich, and it's a wonderful beach to wander around on too, although you do have to be cautious of "soft spots" in the sand. The RAF jets fly over from time to time - we suspect for sightseeing purposes as much as anything else as they invariably circle around and come back over for a second look!

Robyn

In the sand....

Sorting through last year's holiday photos I came across almost a whole days worth I'd never remembered to process.  The shot above was one of them, and one of the first I set to processing as there was just something I liked about it. Quite often I come across a shot that really grabs me at thumbnail size, but almost as often it stops grabbing me quite so forcefully when I get it into PhotoShop and start playing. This one continued to grab, I'm pleased to say, so here it is. Luskentyre Beach, Harris. Possibly one of the most beautiful places you could imagine.

Robyn