Hebrides Countdown 2013...

You might recognise the building above...I've certainly mentioned it before and we do seem to spend a fair number of evenings inside when we're in the Hebrides...yep, it's the Pub! The Westford Inn, to be exact, Good Beer Guide listed, purveyor of fine ales and excellent food, and owned and run by our lovely friends Elisabeth & Alastair. They've put a lot of time and effort into renovating and upgrading the building over the last few years...

...there you go - you can see the new panelling to the ceiling, walls and bar, and the far lighter, brighter paint job than the place used to have. The two gas-lamps over the bar are original, and the beautiful wood-burner is just to the left and slightly behind where I was standing to take this photo (note MrEH posing with his pint glass, and Elisabeth trying to pretend that she really wasn't there at all, behind the bar!). Every year when we arrive one of the first things is our "guided tour" to see what they have managed to get completed over the previous winter!

We had been going to Uist for several years, regularly driving past the large imposing looking building you see at the top and mentioning how unusual it was (from head-on, it looks exactly as a small child draws a house, pointy roof with chimney atop and all!) and it wasn't until we can across a copy of the Highlands & Western Isles CAMRA branches magazine that we realised that we had been driving past a pub all that time! It's far easier to spot at the time of year we go now though - you wouldn't find it easy to miss this sign...

Putting a bank holiday to good use!

The Bank Holiday weekend was the perfect chance to give the tent its first outing of the season - and after a bit of debate we loaded the car up on Saturday morning and whizzed off down to Kent. As usual we'd used the ukcampsite.co.uk website to pick our campsite, it's a great site because the reviews generally give a really honest impression of what you can expect to find on the site, and also help you to find out the little bits of information that come in handy. (On this occasion, that the shower cubicles are a bit small, so take a carrier bag for your clothes!)  We ended up at a site just south of Herne Bay - Southview camping - and were extremely impressed - friendly, lots of space, and every pitch has its own picnic bench which was a really nice touch!

We're well practised these days so setting up didn't take long, and just an hour later we were headed for Westgate On Sea, along the coast. We started by wandering along the seafront to Margate - a good old fashioned tacky seaside place with all the trashy arcades you could want! We found a very odd Air-Hockey table - a sort of curved one, which was a bit odd, but did make for a couple of excellent and close games - we're ferociously competitive and as a result have to make sure there are no small children in the vicinity first - it could be dangerous otherwise! The other machines we can never resist in the arcades are the "penny falls" - the ones that take 2p pieces - we allow ourselves £1, and then see how long we can play for just recycling the winnings - as we usually average about a 60% return that can last us quite some time! The walk back to Westgate was a little brisker as it had started raining - but the prize at the other end was a good incentive as we were planning to visit a "Micro Pub" - yes, that is precisely what it sounds like - look...

...I posted this picture on Twitter and lots of people all asked the same question - was it in someone's front room?! No, it wasn't, this is a real, proper pub, listed in the current issue of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide, and serving excellent beer! It has seating for around 18 (standing space for a few more), and is one of the nicest, friendliest pubs I have ever visited.We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would happily return if we're in the area again. (or we might even explore some of the several other Micro Pubs in the same area - who knew, eh?!) Saturday evening was completed by fish & chips eaten on the seafront - can't beat that, eh?

Sunday dawned beautifully hot and sunny - which fitted in perfectly with our plan of heading to Dover to get some value from our National Trust Membership. We parked as planned at the "White Cliffs" car park - right at the very top, as it turned out, it was rather busy! Once we got down onto the main level (a long walk down!) we set out to walk East along the coast to the South Foreland Lighthouse a couple of miles away. The harbour was as busy as ever - you can get an idea of the scale from the picture above by checking out the size of the cars! There was a huge cruise ship in too - you can see it in the background of that shot.

It's a beautiful walk along the cliffs - especially with the weather we had for it - there are several paths you can take - one quite level along the top and then a couple that involve a bit more huffing and puffing up hills and sliding and skidding down them - yes you've guessed it we didn't go for the level option!

 There is a constant stream of shipping going in and out too - ferries, containers ships, and even that big cruise ship left while we were walking along.  Eventually after a couple of miles of walking (and constant stopping for photos to be taken...but that might just be me!) you see this just ahead...

South Foreland Lighthouse - built in 1843 to safeguard ships from running into trouble on the infamous Goodwin Sands, this was reckoned to be the first Lighthouse in the UK to be changed to operating on electricity. It was also the Lighthouse where Marconi received the first ever ship-to-shore radio message (hence the radio masts to the left of the picture!) They run guided tours of the lighthouse every 20 minutes or so when it's open - lasting half an hour or so you get to explore thoroughly and get an excellent view from the top of the tower too - look...

Once the tour was over we decided it would be only right and proper to do some more exploring - this time of the tea and cake possibilities...

...yes that apple cake did taste every bit as good as it looks! All served up on beautiful mis matched vintage crockery too - all sourced from local charity shops apparently! The tea room is in the old Assistant Lighthouse Keeper's cottage and is fantastically decorated in 1950's style.

As we walked back the weather suddenly took a dramatic change...from the blue skies and bright sunshine to a sudden sea-mist descending. By the time we got back to overlooking the docks it was really starting to close in...

Thankfully we were just a short (ha ha!) climb back up the cliffs to the car - and by the time we got to the top we were back above the fog again and the sun was shining!

Robyn

A new camera! (And a walk!)

I recently replaced my compact camera - it had been playing up for some time, and I came to the conclusion a few months ago that the sensor was failing. In fairness to the little Samsung it was over 4 years old, was only cheap when I bought it, and has been well used - I've had my money's worth! A bit of shopping around lead me to the Panasonic Lumix S3 - capable of 14mp, 4x zoom (but with theoption of reducing pixels and increasing zoom) and with a Leica lens - I decided I really couldn't go wrong. What's more, the one Cameraworld had in stock was red...hmmmm, peculiar colour for a camera, red, but I'll try anything once! 10 second review.....feels lovely to handle, buttons where you expect them - VERY sharp pictures, close-up capability seems good, and it's "intelligent auto" mode even seems to work ok.

A strong desire to test this new toy properly, along with a plan (NOT New Year's resolution - we don't do those) to do more walking and getting out and about and generally exploring, lead us to decide to head off for a walk this afternoon. We've had a book of walks in our local area kicking about here for years. There are 50 walks in the book, and when we got it, we agreed we would try to work our way through them. A quick look in the book last night confirmed we still have....ummm....49 to do, so what better time to start! *grin*. Handily one of them starts from just the end of the road, so there was really no excuse, and off we went!

Lots of berries still on the bushes round here - I guess it's not been cold enough yet for our local birds to start really attacking them. These were particularly eye-catching -



- not a clue what they are... Anyway, a wander on and some incongruously tall trees. Most of our trees local are Native Deciduous - Epping forest in particular has masses of Oaks. These gave every impression of being some kind of pine - VERY tall indeed, with perfectly straight trunks, and lots of cones on the ground beneath....



The walk took in the old part of our town, plus one of the villages which borders on to it. It's strange though - how much more you take in of your surroundings when, rather than just walking, as we would do normally, you're following directions. It's almost as though when the responsibility of where you're going is taken away from your brain it says "Oh, OK then - best start looking at stuff instead!". We've found before as well, it's always worth lifting your eyes to above the normal level - it's amazing what odds and ends you find higher up on buildings...





A worthwhile sentiment in that first one, I think! So, with no further ado, we continued...to the pub! (You can't beat a walk with a pub at the end of it, unless of course it's a walk with tea & cake.....)



Robyn

It's our last day, deer....

So, here I sit as we are getting packed up ready to leave first thing in the morning. The fortnight here has, as always, been fantastic. We've been blessed with the most astonishing weather for this time of year - friends up here had professed themselves amazed as until the weekend before last it had been generally grey and dreary for what seemed like months. We've had some excellent walks - the highlight of which was climbing North Lee. Burrival is firmly on the agenda for next year, but I remain resistant about Eaval for now! Bird-wise we have seen over 80 different species, including of course the Snowy owl. We have heard Corncrakes calling and Snipe drumming. We've seen deer, seals and otters. We've met up with old friends and made some new ones, generally over a pint or two. In some ways it feels like we've been here forever - there is certainly no question that we could both happily stay - we've had two job offers of sorts over the past fortnight as well which is a great sign for the future!

The car boot is now packed, I can hear Ben sorting out the pots and pans in the kitchen to ensure they fit better in the drawers, and once this post is written and uploaded the laptop will be going into its bag ready for the journey back. The fridge is groaningly full of peat-smoked salmon & trout, a selection of cheeses, black, white and fruit puddings, kippers, pate & crab. There is oatcakes and other biscuity type goodies stashed away in various bags as well as in our rather cheery wicker hamper, and there is a full box of beer and some extras tucked into a gap in the boot. Ben comments that we seem very organised, which is worrying.....

Next update to this will be from home. For now though, food and the pub are calling.

Robyn

MV Hebrides again...

...but from a slightly different angle. it is effectively the polar opposite of one of yesterdays pictures, which was looking down on Lochmaddy pier from North Lee, at MV Hebrides coming in to berth. In the picture above you will notice the point we were sitting when yesterdays shot was taken can be seen just above Hebrides port side bridge...!

We came to be there to meet her this evening as the handpump problems at the pub turned out not to be immediately easily fixable, and parts were required. The parts of course were on Skye at the brewery, but a simple call to the brewery confirmed that they had the right bits, and a method was found of getting them brought across on the ferry this evening meaning we simply had to meet the ferry, collect the bits, and then take them to the pub to complete the repair job. Ahh, but things are never that simple are they? You're anticipating a story of how it all went wrong! Do you know, it didn't - over here, things like that are surprisingly simple. Sadly the days of Calmac being happy to take stuff on board to go over without prior arrangement and forms in triplicate are long gone, but there is usually a friendly van driver coming across who is happy enough to have one more item added to his load. People here are used to such things, it's the way life is, and how things continue to function. We usually bring across any bits and bobs from the brewery for the pub - we'll be going there in any case so it's no hardship, and it saves the risk of them getting mislaid by a courier. (The pub is currently missing a door - it's over here *somewhere* but nobody seems quite sure where at the moment. It'll turn up though.... eventually.) From our perspective, we had a nice meal while waiting for the ferry, met people we knew whilst waiting for her to arrive and had a good chat, then collected the bits and got given beer a reward! What more can you ask?!

Robyn

Clear skies...

It's been another lovely day - apart from one brief shower around lunchtime, we've had sunshine for pretty much the whole day.  The skies are still mostly clear now - resulting in me being able to take the moon shot above. (Click on the shot to see it full size - much more detail) With no light pollution to worry about, it's remarkably easy to get nice clear shots of the moon - your only real obstacle being the intense shivering caused by the outside temperature, coupled with the fact that as you've just grabbed the camera for a quick shot, you've dashed outside with only a thin fleece on rather than the coat which would have proved so much more sensible!

I could have posted another bird pic today - as we've been to the RSPB reserve at Balaranald. Highlight of the day was a snowy owl, albeit seen at a hell of a distance. No photos of that though as it was just too far away. Apparently he's been seen a few times over the past few days so he might be there if we go back.  We also called in at the Westford Inn (Our "local" - Dad, look it up in the Good Beer Guide!) on the way back through and have been invited to go and see the blackhouse that Alastair has renovated so there may be a picture of that on here in due course.....

Robyn