Hebrides Countdown…

 

Sunset at the “Kettle” rock arch - Tigharry

Oh yes - it’s time for one of these posts as we anticipate returning to our cosy little Island “home” on North Uist again! 

We’re returning to an old route up this time - using the ferry from Uig on Skye to get across to Uist. We prefer going from Mallaig to Lochboisdale - a longer sailing but far less time and distance driving on the mainland - but sadly the ferry company serving the Western Isles  (Caledonian MacBrayne or “Calmac”)  simply cannot be trusted to provide a service on that route these days, indeed, we have booked that route for our return and have already seen one change to the booked tickets, with another more tricky to manage one far from unexpected.  The compromise on the way across is to get the ferry from Mallaig across to Armadale at the bottom end of Skye, then drive up through the island to get to Uig - we still get the benefit of less  mainland driving for the relatively low cost of the short hop on the little boat.

There is something comfortable about reflecting on a return to a place you have visited so many times previously - you know the main routes, the good places to grab a coffee and a cake, the best supermarkets for yellow sticker reductions, and the times you need to be somewhere to avoid a crowd straight off a ferry or to ensure that the latest delivery has been unloaded. Even some of the people - over the years we have met a number of folk who even if we may not know them by name always greet us with recognition and “ahh - back again then!” plus others who we do know a little better and who will pause for a chat and a catch up on our respective news.  Then there is the cottage itself too - although it’s fun staying somewhere new of course, returning to somewhere we know means less time needs to be taken to work out how things will function for you there - we just unpack, shove things where we know they live, and we’re settled and ready to properly start our holiday! 

In spite of the above and the amount of time we’ve spent up there over the years, we aways seem to find new stuff - even bizarrely roads we didn’t know existed or have never explored! Sometimes it’s turnings we had assumed just went to somebody’s home, but then we see a mention of a particular bird being sighted from “X” location and realise that no, it’s just a rather less made-up bit of road, and so ripe for exploring. Other times it might be a turning that we knew was there but didn’t think went far enough to be worth looking at - but a bit of a wander proves otherwise, or throws up something interesting at the end. 

Loch Skipport

There are also the places we return to again and again - obviously the old Pier at Loch Skipport, which yes, is still just standing, or at least it was the last time we visited! Traditions like a wander on the Airport Beach on the first full day we are there, assuming the tides allow, while waiting to collect a Chinese takeaway, bizarrely! The circular walk at Loch Sandary - suited to less good weather - where you inevitably see some interesting birds and sometimes something a bit different - like an Eagle on a stick…

Yes, that IS a Golden Eagle casually minding it’s own business on a fence post, and no, I did not have my camera with me…just the phone and a pair of binoculars… 🙄 Of course there is also the walk around the headland that the cottage is situated on - that will get done at all sorts of times of day and in whatever conditions the weather gods throw at us, and is an endless source of fabulous waves and incredible sunsets… 

All in all, it’s safe to say that this year’s trip is being eagerly anticipated - who knows, I may even manage a post or two while we are there, this time! 

Robyn 

Hebrides…DONE!

 

Another two weeks at beautiful Kettle Cottage - and how lovely it was to be back after missing a year last year because we were too slow off the mark to book! 

As usual with any Hebrides trip these days, there was a bit of ferry-related stress on the way up. It was windy - not by Hebrides standards, but windy nonetheless. And the ferry has a stabiliser out of action at the moment which affects the sea-states she can sail in. As a result we actually let our overnight hotel not quite knowing if we would get across, or not. Thankfully by the time we reached Fort William we were able to see that the boat had left South Uist on her way across to the mainland, so a big sigh of relief was breathed! 

The weather this year did leave a little to be desired - especially when compared with our two weeks of wall to wall sunshine and ludicrously warm temperatures in 2023. Nobody with any sense visits the Western Isles for sunbathing weather though, so it didn’t get in the way of anything we wanted to do, although it did mean we adjusted the days we chose to do a few things, and also meant that it was right at the end of our stay before we finally made it up our favourite little hill on Benbecula - Rueval…

The views were as stunning as ever, but oh my was it breezy at the top! 

Coincidence of the trip was finding ourselves by chance sharing a table at The Dunes Cabin for lunch with another couple - we got chatting as you do, and after a while the conversation turned to where we were from… “Essex” said we…”oh, us too” came the response…”which bit?”  Well, it only turned out that they live less than quarter of a mile from our front door! Ludicrous or what? It was their first visit to the islands, so we passed on a few “must sees” and will be keeping an eye out for them locally now we’re back to see if they are planning a return trip!  

Of course we booked for another trip on the boat with the lovely Lady Anne crew - Nye was skippering this time, with new crew member Rosie alongside, and as usual we were expertly navigated into some great spots to see some fabulous wildlife, with the beautiful White Tailed Eagles being stars of the show as always.

That is Ronald - one of the pair resident in the area the boat visits. Handsome chap isn’t he! I’ve photographed them a number of times now but the thrill as you first see them never diminishes - and it always takes your breath away seeing such a huge bird so close up as well. It’s just such a privilege - and well worth the cost of the trip. 

As usual the trip was filled with plenty of wandering about, nice food, general relaxing and a bit of exploring too - even after all these years we still find the odd place we’ve not been to before. We were also over for the Tractor Rally this year too - first time we’ve been there for that in a good few years. Always good fun, the tractors set off earlier in the morning to do a circuit around the Island before heading back to the hall and show ground at Hosta. Everyone admires them for a bit, then goes and eats and jolly good lunch of soup, sandwiches and homebaking - and there is NOTHING not to like about that! The Uist ladies really know how to bake as well and they are definitely “never knowingly undercatered” - we were absolutely stuffed. It’s all for charity as well, so feels like a good way of being able to contribute something back, while we are there.

We were also up at the right time for the stunning arrays of wildflowers on the machair - always a highlight of a spring visit, and this year didn’t let us down as Uist had a warm spell at the beginning of May which meant all the flowers were a bit ahead of where they might usually have been. The orchids in particular were both stunning and prolific! 

All in all, another lovely trip. It’s always tough to leave, but then these days not only do we know we will most definitely be returning, we are also coming home to a place we love, and with plenty to keep us occupied between the garden (which ran cheerfully amok while we were gone!) and airshow season now starting properly for me.  

Our 2025 trip is already booked up - so we’d better get saving! 

Robyn. 

Still standing...

 The pier at Loch Skippprt, South Uist, that is! I looked back at our past years holiday notebooks the other day - and reminded myself quite how many years this remarkable old structure had been “just” hanging in there as far as we are concerned - nearly 20 years now!

So there we are - another Hebrides trip done and dusted. We had the usual mixed weather, everything from freezing cold temperatures and howling wind through to several days warm enough for short sleeves and, for MrEH at least, shorts.  Just the one day of pouring rain thankfully - and obviously we chose a walk right round the RSPB reserve that day and got back soaked in spite of full waterproofs! Hebridean rain does have a way of driving in through any gaps or slightly less well proofed points in jackets! 

Some highlights to be found as ever in the astonishing array of wildlife, and particularly birds. Our best year ever for total sightings topping out at a quite astonishing 114 different species across the bit-over-a fortnight. Best sightings would be the largest - great views of White Tailed Eagles from a boat trip - with Nick on the Lady Anne, we’ve done his trips before and they never disappoint - through to two of the smallest - some time spent watching Red Necked Phalaropes, plus one of those oddity sightings that turns up over there from time to time in the shape of a Red-Spotted Bluethroat. 

Yes - a little brown job that’s been let loose with the poster paint, to all intents and purposes! The Hebrides is one of those places where you never really know what birds might show up - stuff gets blown off course on migration and ends up where, really, it shouldn't - the 2016 Black Billed Cuckoo is a great example of that! It certainly adds an element of excitement to things! 

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

 

Not done one of these for a few years...I used to do one a week in the run up - back when I also blogged regularly while we we were up there. I love looking back at those posts now, but equally don’t feel a massive drive to go back to blogging daily while we’re there. Back when I first started doing it it was before all the cottages had WiFi, and the signal across the islands was generally still really poor, so actually finding somewhere I could post from was often an issue - there were a few cafes with WiFi that were happy for me to take a laptop in, and I knew a few spots in the right place to get a decent data signal via the 3 broadband dongle that I had - I’d load it up with enough credit ahead of the trip to allow for whatever internet we planned to use. 

So - to this year’s plans then. Did I already mention that yet again our trip across is to be affected by ferry issues? It’s hardly unexpected these days - with an ageing CalMac fleet usually to blame, this time round it is the turn of one of the newer vessels to have suffered a catastrophic engine failure (that is Calmac’s wording, too!) taking it off the Ullapool > Stornoway run and into dry dock. But how does that affect us? I hear you ask....! Well....*takes a deep breath* this means that the MV Isle of Lewis - the boat that usually serves Barra (confused yet?) has been returned to her old route serving, possibly not unexpectedly, the Isle of Lewis. With no spare boat available, this in turn means that dear old MV Lord of the Isles now not only has to serve South Uist (our crossing of choice going over) but also needs to visit Barra on the way - this means a change of departure port from Mallaig to Oban (not altogether bad as Oban is a lot closer than Mallaig) but also a change of time to three hours earlier - and yes, you’ve guessed it, Oban isn’t THAT much closer! Thankfully we’ve managed to sort things out via an Airbnb booking rather further north than our usual overnight stop, and a planned early start from there to get us on our way in time. 

Accommodation wise we are back in the same location as the past few years “summer” visits - a now familiar little cottage on a wind blown headland. It’s such a fantastic spot we had no hesitation in booking there again - our third time staying there. Many of the “usual” things are planned too - some walks, possibly some hills although that might depend on how my poorly foot holds up. Lots of nice food (and beer!) and hopefully some good wildlife spotting. We also have our eyes on a boat trip - either with Nick who we’ve been out with before on the Lady Anne, or possibly in the rather faster vessels of the newer Uist Sea Tours guys.  All in all it is safe to say that we’re looking forward to getting back across quite as much as always! 

Robyn

Good news!

 

A highlight of our week away was centred on some news from rather a long way away from Cornwall - in fact rather than the extreme south-west of England, this referred to the extreme north west of Scotland. With lockdown easing happening across the UK, many in the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland among others had been bitterly unhappy that while everywhere else was being given at least a rough “roadmap” around what was predicted to happen with travel in their areas, on the subject of travel to Scottish Islands all that was being heard was a deafening silence. t one stage the suggestion was made that the islands could have an earlier relaxation of restrictions around the hospitality industry in exchange for a delayed return to travel - unsurprisingly it was somewhat sarcastically pointed out that there is precious little point in being able to open hotels etc if nobody is allowed to travel to use them... Many island accommodation providers were experiencing existing bookings cancelling in their droves as people, unsure whether they were going to be able to travel, opted for a mainland holiday instead. We were facing similar uncertainty, but fortunately were in the lucky position of being able to book the Cornish trip in part in case our planned Hebrides visit was unable to go ahead - many others aren’t in that position. 

Finally, last week, an announcement was made by the First Minister that on 26th April all travel restrictions would be removed - between Scotland and England AND between mainland Scotland and the Islands - a huge relief not only to us and many others with trips booked, but also to the huge number of islanders who rely on visitors being able to actually visit to keep their heads above water. 

From our perspective, having just returned from one holiday we’re now in the slightly odd position of preparing for another one! It feels rather decadent, but we’re refusing to feel guilty about it - booking the Cornish trip was absolutely the right thing to do, and we had a fabulous time. The last year has been ludicrously tough for almost everyone, and us as much as anyone else, and it definitely feels like the right thing to do to ensure that we grab chances to do stuff now while we can, in part to make up for all the disappointments of so much being cancelled previously. In other “things to look forward to” plans, I have also started getting some more airshows booked - Max and I are teaming up to do another Shuttleworth show, and I have also booked an event at Duxford as well as taking out a years membership there. I’ve got a few more shows in mind to book too, although it does seem unlikely that many of the big seafront shows will go ahead this year. 

Here’s to future plans then - at this rate I’ll need to buy a diary! 

Robyn

Home...and now to plan the next one!

We arrived home in the middle of Monday afternoon having left Uist just before midday on Sunday - all in all the trip back went well. The ferry crossing was stunning - the photo above is arriving back at Uig under the most beautiful skies. With barely a breath of wind the water has this glass-like surface most of the way across, and we saw dolphins and porpoises on the way too. 

This years trip was all in all a really good one. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but there was only two really grim days, and those allowed a slower pace for a while plus time to visit people - great to meet birders Yvonne & Ian properly for the first time  - Yvonne and I have been exchanging comments on social media for years, we finally met when MrEH and I did our autumn visit in 2018 But only briefly, and since then the instruction to pop in for a cuppa when we are in the area has been oft repeated. Me being me, I’m never entirely confident that people mean this, that it’s not just politeness, but when it’s said often enough it helps to convince even me that it’s OK to act on! Then it was on to a Lochboisdale where the ferry was laid up for the day because of the wind levels, and Byron is also generous with his offers of a brew and a natter! On the flip side of the weather we had several days with little wind and in the sun the temperatures were lovely - the fact that one of those days also allowed our first ever Hebrides swim was an absolute bonus! 

We didn’t climb any new hills this time round, although old favourite Rueval got another visit, and we walked from the cottage up Cleattraval too. The walking highlight was finally getting out to Rossinish on Benbecula - far out on the eastern side, this was the location where Bonnie Prince Charlie was reputed to have escaped “over the sea to Skye” in 1746. We’ve been trying to get that walk done for about 15 years I think - first time we tried it was far too wet underfoot, several attempts since have gone the same way, then last year when it would have been dry enough, we got sidetracked by a slightly different path to another lovely spot... It was a tough walk - a fair bit of elevation, only a faintly marked path to follow for quite a bit of it, and some boggy areas, but well worth the effort! 

And now in spite of hardly being back any time, the winter ferry timetables are about to be released and we are able to book our next trip. This will be our first winter visit taking the car across, and will also be the first time that we’ve been across for more than a week in the winter months. Having done so little mileage in my car this year though, plus the issues with flying or using the train in this age of COVID-19  it seems sensible to utilise the car/ferry option. Cheaper too - saving the cost of a hire car and reducing the journey cost to diesel/ferry only. 

So, let the planning commence! 

Robyn

Found it! And a bucket thing...

 

Some background - Kettle Cottage, where we are staying, is named for  nearby natural rock arch and cave which forms a “blow hole” in the cliff - called Slochd a’Choire or “the spouting kettle” as with the right weather conditions and high seas it shoots water high into the air! Last year we looked repeatedly for this feature but were entirely unable to track it down. We consulted maps, guides and even the Scottish registry of caves and mines which provided a grid reference - all to no avail and we had to leave, defeated. 

This year we’re back and, undaunted, decided to have another go. We’ve already been out on the headland several times and must have scoured every inch of the coastline in the area of the grid reference numerous times now - but this morning headed back at low tide for another go - with the lower water levels meaning we could examine more of the rocky areas and hopefully see it from a new angle. In spite of this, still nothing. We began wondering whether maybe the maps and grid references we’d seen were wrong - whether perhaps because of the “official” nature of the site providing the reference, others have just copied it without checking, thus underlining the incorrect information simply by further repeating it. So we looked for something different - and sure enough found a reference in a book to a different way of approaching it....and FINALLY, we found it! It turned out to be on an altogether different part of the headland - no wonder we couldn’t track it down before! Once we had found the new information it proved surprisingly easy!

So that was the first thing ticked off the wish-list for the day. The second came this afternoon when the wind dropped and as a result the temperature increased a bit...and we decided that it was time to don swimming gear and have our first ever Hebridean sea-swim! We were undecided as to where until we began to walk towards the beach we thought might work...then looked down into Bàgh Hogha Glan (Hoglan Bay) just below the cottage, and it looked SO enticing...! The water definitely felt cold when we first waded in, and it took me a good 10 minutes of edging a little further...and a little further...and shrieking when waves splashed me much to MrEH’s amusement, but once actually fully submerged it wasn’t too bad at all and I had the most GLORIOUS half an hour swimming up and down and bobbing gently in the waves. It’s SO long since I’ve swum at all thanks to this wretched virus, which made it even better. Swimming with a view of St Kilda way off the the horizon, being able to see straight through the water to the white sand below me, with birds flying overhead and at one stage being mildly startled by a large leaping fish just a few metres away (a salmon, probably?) really was very special. I did manage to get stung by a jellyfish, annoyingly, in spite of keeping a sharp eye out for them - not badly, but it still feels rather stingy and prickly several hours later! In spite of that though undoubtedly one of the very best things I have ever done on trips over here - jellyfish notwithstanding I’ll be hoping to repeat that at some stage! 

Robyn 

Neglected...

 

Oops - sorry! Those of you who follow me on Instagram as well will be aware that we are now, FINALLY in the Hebrides for the first time since Christmas. It’s truly about time, and even at the last minute fate had one last go at “making life difficult” with the cancellation of our planned ferry (high winds) and the need to change to a different route involving a hundred or so miles more driving AND a 2 hour earlier departure time. This is turn also meant an even longer journey as a diversion was needed to avoid a road closure on the A82 in the Highlands - up there diversions tend to be a lot of additional miles. Sigh. In the event the weather stepped in again delaying our sailing from 0940 to 1300 - one of the few times we are grateful for a delayed ferry! We came across just over a week ago, spent 2 nights in a “glamping pod” at the campsite we usually use the bunkhouse at (closed this year due to Covid restrictions)  then moved in to our usual cosy cottage on a wind-blown headland last Saturday. Since then we have walked, eaten, drunk lots of beer and wine, and enjoyed fabulous views like the eagle above. 

Life here is none too different in spite of C-19 - small differences, the face coverings obviously, and social distancing. Greeting good friends earlier today with no hug was strange. Hopefully by the time we are next here that one may have been relaxed a little! Winston the dog had no truck with social distancing though and greeted us as usual including an exploratory jump onto laps - no pesky virus getting in the way of THAT tough terrier! Places we usually find second hand books for sale are bare of them - thankfully I  brought a good supply so we will probably manage without running out of reading material - phew! The jigsaws that we had planned to leave here after doing will find their way to a second hand shop though as currently the cottage is bare of any books and similar. 

Other than that life is much as normal. Seasonally we have noticed differences though - this is our first summer visit and birds that we usually take for granted are nowhere to be seen, and the flowers on the machair are beautiful but quite different to those we see in the Spring. This year harebells, ragged robin and the purple of heather abound, plus blue scabious and the vibrant yellow of ragwort and hawkweed. Generally speaking everywhere is far greener than we are used to, but bizarrely temperatures have been lower - with a chilly wind blowing these last few days. When the wind drops, the midgies appear of course! Conditions underfoot are far drier than we are used to though, meaning that already one walk we have been putting off from necessity for many years has been ticked off the list!

So yes - it’s great to be back. It already feels like we’ve been here forever yet we have another week to go yet - bliss! Will it warm up enough for me to swim, is my current big question. This is probably my best opportunity- it’s unlikely we will get another summer visit very soon, so I’m keen to get in the water if possible! 

Robyn 

Day 68...

Today, we should have been travelling from North Uist to Barra for our last day in the Hebrides. Although we have re-booked our trip for later in the year, I currently have no confidence that we’ll be able to get across even then. Worse, it feels entirely uncertain whether visitors to the Islands will be welcomed even when we are allowed to return - there is a huge amount of hostility from some currently towards those who are expressing that they want to visit when it’s safe to do so. We absolutely will NOT go over until we are assured it is safe - but it appears as though even then there may be those who will try to take the law into their own hands where visitors are concerned.

It’s going to be an issue from both sides - there are many on the islands who rely on tourism to make their living. This year is already going to be a desperate struggle for them. It’s going to be a tricky tightrope to tread - balancing the risk against the need to return to a degree of normality “at some point”. Making those who are regular visitors and have been for many years feel as though they are not welcome to return simply means more space for new ones - those who don’t understand how serious the virus could be in small islands with no ICU facilities - they are the people to be scared of encouraging, not those of us who understand the dangers.

We’ll wait and see. In 2 weeks time we will have clearer view I think - both how the easing of lockdown is going in Scotland, and also in terms of the general feeling around re-opening.

Robyn

Islandey planning...

This year is feeling a bit upside down on the Island front. Of course we were in the Hebrides for Christmas which was wonderful - we had a glorious week in a lovely little cottage right next to a beach - can't be beaten, that!  Normally at this time of year we would be beginning to think of all the things we need to do ahead of our main fortnight trip up there - but not this year as we've been invited to join a big group of pals for a trip to Lundy again instead at the same sort of time - so the main Hebrides holiday has been postponed until later in the year. It feels very odd that we are only now booking our accommodation for that fortnight!

Lundy - The view of the Old Light from the graveyard - May 2015

We've decided to re-book for the lovely cottage at Balranald where we stayed last year - it suited us well and we loved the location. Being within walking distance of our favourite RSPB reserve was a definite bonus and it makes a lovely circular walk on a day when we don't want to take the car out - we always try to avoid using the car at least one day while we're on the Islands. We did have somewhere else in mind to book as well, so a decision had to be made. We reverted to our old planning method of a Pro's and Cons list for each place, and then discussed that between ourselves to reach a conclusion. While there are some things that are really a "must have" for us when we're away for a fortnight now (a real fire, and a nice location close to beaches) there are others that are negotiable and we have found that writing a proper list of the advantages and disadvantages can really help to clarify things. This time around advantages included "A bit cheaper" on one, and "All electric included" on the other, which kind of balanced each other out a bit - but we decided in the end to book the less expensive one with limited electricity included, but to politely ask whether a bit more electric could be added in for us as we are booking for a fortnight at a less popular (and colder!) time of year - the answer came back "Yes, we can do that" right away which we were appreciative of. It's always nice when people will go that extra mile to thank you for repeat business, and this just confirmed that our decision to return is the right one.

The views from that sunroom out over the machair are fabulous!

While we were discussing our planning for this year's trip, it also suddenly occurred to us that if we want to switch our weeks back to our usual time of year for next year, we'd need to think about booking that pretty soon to so as to be sure to get the weeks we want in the accommodation we chose - and for that we've decided to take the plunge and book the other property that we were looking at for this year. A quick look revealed that for the different time of year that one was actually going to work out a little cheaper, and as none of the other "Cons" on that one's list were anything substantial, we've decided that a change will be good, and if it works out well it will give us another option for choosing our accommodation for future trips. It's in a beautiful location a little further around the west coast - and still has glorious walking right from the door in all directions. It's also an area we've said before that we'd like to explore better, so hopefully being right there will enable that. Yes, it does seem utterly crazy to be thinking about booking a 2019 trip already, but with the tendency of people re-booking for the following year directly after their current stay we really will have to get cracking on this within the next few months if we don't want to miss out.

Definitely a "Room with a view" at the top of the Old Light!

I mentioned Lundy above - well that isn't our only visit there this year as we have been invited to spend Christmas on the Island - with the same group we're going with in the Spring. Availability of accommodation on the Island for Christmas and New Year can be a bit of a nightmare as the regulars tend to snap it up - our group have a couple of folk not able to attend this time and so we've been asked if we'd like to take their place - needless to say we jumped at the chance! We seem to have slipped into a bit of a pattern over the past few years of spending Christmas on an Island - with the last two years being on Benbecula of course - I'm vaguely hopeful that MrEH might avoid giving me a streaming cold for Christmas this year though - that would be rather nice!

Robyn

An ambitious trip...!

Last week I made my first trip to the Hebrides without MrEH in tow as well - and also my shortest ever visit, as I was in the Western Isles for a grand total of 22.5 hours! Those of you who follow my Instagram or Twitter accounts already know that the reason for this trip was to see those RAF Red Arrows displaying in Stornoway - only their third ever visit to the Hebrides and the first time they've been there since 2001.

This one took a LOT of planning...right from when Red 10 first mentioned on Twitter having done the site survey back in March there was never any real question in my mind that I wanted to do it, the question was always how it was going to be possible. Flying straight up & back just proved too expensive and had to be dismissed straight away, it would also have meant that I would have had to lose two days work rather than just one - increasing the cost of the whole escapade even more. Thankfully as you know I do enjoy a bit of travelling so the thought of doing it in lots of stages wasn't as daunting as it might have been, and a bit of lateral thinking later and I settled on the following plan of action:

In flight on a Ryanair 737-800 o the way up...

On Saturday MrEH dropped me off at Stansted airport - it's at times like this that living close to a major hub airport comes as an advantage. I flew to Glasgow, where lovely Fay picked me up and drove me into the city to spend the night with another ace lady - Laurie, being able to combine the trip with seeing those two was a total bonus! Much wine was consumed and I confess to feeling a little delicate as I set off for Queen Street station and the next phase of the journey on the Sunday morning. Thankfully a large bottle of water sipped gently between there and Inverness sorted out the worst of that, and a fast-food lunch killed off any residual doubts as to whether my innards were going to behave or not! Good thing too as the next stage was one of my least favourite modes of transport - the bus across to Ullapool to catch the Ferry over to Stornoway itself. All went like clockwork and by 9.30pm I was happily settled in at the cosy B&B I'd booked, with a cup of tea and a book. Monday morning dawned with heavy grey cloud and light drizzle - just the sort of weather we really didn't want to see but with the boys not due to arrive until 2pm and the display not until 5pm there was time for it to change. Over breakfast I got my first surprise of the trip when I discovered that the display site has changed from the Airport to the town - all sorts of questions came rushing to the fore at that point - notably how on earth I was going to get through there in the first place, and then back to the airport afterwards in order to check in in time for my flight back to Glasgow - which was due to be shortly after 7pm! I know from experience that these things have a habit of working out though so stuck that one onto a mental back-burner for the time being.

Circus 2, aka James, aka "The short grinning Geordie" ;-) 

A few weeks previously I'd emailed the airport at Stornoway to enquire where they were planning on putting the jets while they were on the ground there - as I was hoping to be able to spend some time taking photos of the Circus guys at work I was hoping that they were going to be close to a fence-line where I could at least shoot through the fence. The reply came back asking me to call at the end of the week before, so on the friday beforehand I duly placed the call and spoke to the Airport Manager who proceeded to inform me that what they'd like to do was arrange airside access for me so that I could be on the ground to see the team arriving and get my groundshots too. Absolutely amazing - I definitely didn't expect anything of that sort and once again it reinforced my knowledge of just how fabulously hospitable Hebridean folk are. As such I reported to the airport at 1pm as agreed, was duly given my pass and taken across to the tower where it was agreed that the lovely Iain would drive me over the far side of the airport to the Hangar where the jets would be parked. It was also agreed that he would drive me into town for the display as well - which was fantastic!

Discovering the challenge of fitting the jets & fire crews and appliances into a photo... 

Bang on time as always the jets appeared - unusually in two groups rather than the more familiar "Big battle" V formation of 9, or the standard poor-weather fall-back of 3 groups of 3, and in short order they taxied round the airport and arrived on the pan in front of me. First to come over was Red 10 (Lingy) - he already knew I was there as I'd tweeted him when I arrived the night before (His reponse an astonished "You haven't...?!") and it was as always nice to see his cheerful grin! I took the chance to ask quickly if there was any chance I could grab a lift back from the airport with him after the display too and he agreed that he thought it was unlikely to be a problem but to go and find him and Martin when I got into town and he would confirm. Time then to deal with the official stuff - some photos of the team with the local Air Cadets, and a few more for the Airport fire crews, then time for getting stuck in to my first proper "Circus At Work" shots of the 2015 season. Fantastic to catch up with pals from last season Nicky & James, and to meet some more of the new guys on Circus for 2015 too - seems like we have another lovely bunch this year! After a couple of hours hard work...and a wee bit of time to play...

Duck! ;-)

...there was just time to grab a quick cuppa before Iain and I headed off into town where I bid him farewell with many thanks! Off to find Lingy and Martin then - which I duly did at the ferry terminal cafe - and confirmation that my transport back to the airport afterwards was sorted which came as a real relief! All that was left then was for the weather to play ball, which it REALLY didn't - all day it had been brightening up then clouding over again, and right on cue 15 minutes before display time the cloud descended again and visibility dropped right back to outside the limits - absolutely NOT what was needed!  Even five minutes before it was still looking doubtful whether we were going to get any display at all - but thankfully Hebridean weather did it's thing of changing in a heartbeat and the decision was made that at least the jets could come in for a first-half...in the event the clouds cleared back enough that we got an entire flat display much to the appreciation of the crowd! Standing with Martin for the display it was interesting to see how he worked - as Circus 10 his role at displays is to film the display so the team can use the footage to debrief later - without someone in place to film the display can't take place so he's a pretty important part of the operation! The unexpected positioning of a massive cruise-ship at the pier caused some difficulties for both of us AND the team - datum (the centre point of the display) had to be relocated slightly to take account of it!

Circus 10 (Martin), me & Red 10 (Lingy) on return to Stornoway airport after the display.

Once the display was over we wasted little time in getting packed up, the taxi duly arrived and the three of us hopped in and returned to the airport, all that was left them was to say my goodbyes and check in for my flight home - which ran slightly late ironically enough due to the aircraft being delayed earlier in the day due to the arrival of some Little Red jets...! From there everything ran like clockwork again which was a relief - the airlink bus to the city centre arrived as planned and my National Express bus back to London left dead on time. All in all it was a truly superb few days and I'd take the risk of undertaking a similar trip again should they display in the Hebrides in the future - of course it may well be that by the time they do, any journey would be substantially shorter!

Robyn

Island Hopping...

We’d hoped to be able to make a trip to one of the uninhabited Islands of the Hebrides this time round, and sure enough word came from Nick – who runs trips on his boat the “Lady Anne” – that he was planning on heading off to the Monach Isles, or Heisgeir, on Friday. You might remember we did a wildlife watching trip with Nick when we were here last year – seeing all sorts of birds including a close encounter with a White Tailed Eagle, so we knew we’d not be disappointed.

There were 10 of us in total  including nick and his crewman Duncan – plus the adorable Ruby, a black Labrador belonging to Fergus, the owner of the North Uist estate, a lovely chap universally known simply as “The Laird”. The trip across to the Monachs took just over two hours from Kallin Harbour on Grimsay and was a fabulous chance to see various areas from a completely different angle to the usual – including the North ford causeway…

…very strange to be passing underneath something so familiar from above!

The Monachs consist of 5 main islands – the tiny Stocaidh, Ceann Ear, Sibhinis, Ceann Iar and Seillaidh. All 5 are uninhabited now and have been since the 1940’s when the last residents left – previously they had had a sort of “lifeline” provided by the regular visits of the Lighthouse Board to the lighthouse on Seillaidh (Shillay) but when the lighthouse was turned off during the war those visits ceased and they felt it was just too difficult to maintain a life there with no contact with the mainland. The village now lies abandoned and derelict…

…although a couple of the buildings – the Schoolhouse and the Mission Hall – have now been restored. The schoolhouse is still used by fisherman who put in to the islands on occasion and visitors to the Island join the select band who know where to find the key! 

We walked across Ceann Ear and around Sibhinis – and could happily have spent longer than the 5 hours we had there. There was wildlife aplenty, and in common with the rest of the Hebrides glorious white sand beaches to be enjoyed.

Robyn

Just me...

Go out. Walk for 2 hours. See not another soul..

Robyn 

Abandoned...

Loch Druidibeg, South Uist... 

Robyn.

Today...

Was a "2 Corncrakes in the garden" kinda day...

So, it seems Corncrakes are like buses - you wait all year and then two come along at once!

Robyn

We're here!

I...having arrived on the ferry on Friday evening, a little later than planned due to delays but after an uneventful journey. All good. We're back staying in the same place on North Uist as last year having decided it suited us to be within walking distance of a beach...this beach... 

...to be exact. And as regular followers will be unsurprised to hear that is exactly where we ended up on Saturday afternoon having unpacked and settled in to the cottage. (For those new to this blog there is a long standing tradition of a "first day beach"). It was astonishingly clear - so much so that St Kilda was clearly visible on the horizon - we'd already had a good view of it from Cleattraval earlier... 

...but seeing it from down at beach level was unusual enough to make us take notice. 

The other reason we love "our" beach so much is that you can find these...

...pretty, aren't they! 

Robyn 

Hebrides Countdown 2015...

It's creeping up on us now. It always does to a degree, but with having only been over there a few months ago this year it seems to be more than usual. Oddly enough we found that this happened when we were getting ready to go at New Year, too!

I'm undecided as to what I'm going to do as far as blogging while I'm there goes this year - while I do enjoy doing it, a sporadic internet connection can make it a bit tricky at times, and I'm veering towards probably only doing very simple posts this year - a photo or two and a brief description, probably.  I will be posting pics on Instagram & Twitter though - links to my accounts there are over on the right hand side. The internet connection over there gets ever better - those with fixed broadband are now reporting something close to the kinds of speeds you can get on a standard connection on the mainland, albeit generally at a higher cost. Connecting via a dongle though tends to rely on a direct line to the mast and the wind being in the right direction...and any sort of mobile internet connection on the phone is pretty much a dead loss.

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

Well yes, it appears to be that time of year again! Thoroughly looking forward to going back - having only been there a few months ago hasn't dampened enthusiasm in the slightest!

We're staying in the same place as last year, the familiarity is good on several levels - firstly knowing your way around a place means you don't waste time on settling in, working out where to put things, where to find other things and how to work a further set of things. Secondly we loved where we were last year - the location was great and being within walking distance of a rather fine beach was just superb. We spend a fair bit of time around the West of the island, so staying on that side actually makes a lot more sense for us. Add to that the fact that we've actually saved money on the places we stayed previously, and it really is a win-win situation!

Robyn

Well goodness me...

... *she says brightly* - it's been a while, hasn't it? Everyone OK I hope? All present and correct? I've been mithering for a while on what I should do with this. I mean, I think it sort of lost its direction, but that's a bit daft after all, it's had a change of direction or several in the past and always survived the experience, hasn't it? Maybe the answer is just to let it meander along to itself for a bit and see where it wants to end up. I've always kind of felt that without pictures there's no point in posting - after all it *did* start life as a photo blog...but chatting with some very smart, sensible and lovely chums over the weekend, we all reached the same conclusion - that actually first and foremost we write for ourselves...NOT FOR ANYONE ELSE! So here I am, ready to ramble about...well, whatever. I think there will more often or not be photos...I mean, more often than not I've been taking them, so it seems silly not to show them to you, too!

So - after my fabulously exciting summer, where did I go from there? Well, quite predictably I think everything went a bit flat and empty feeling for a while. It wasn't just me - a good pal had a simultaneous "isn't life shit" few weeks back in October/November too - which would have helped mightily if we'd done the sensible thing and actually talked about it...but of course we didn't.  Of course the bottom line as both of us have since realised is that really, life isn't shit at all, it's jolly good fun mostly, but after the sheer amount of fun and fabulousness we both had through the summer, it was inevitably going to feel like nothing exciting was ever going to happen again when it all finished! Ah well, you live and learn, and then you start all over again with plotting and planning exciting things! The winter has certainly had some fun crammed in to it as well - lots of time spent with lovely friends both in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. MrEH and I went up to the Hebrides for a week over New Year - just amazing to see the islands at a different time of year and we planned our travel to incorporate the "beach landing" on Barra, too.

Bit of a dream come true that - it's been on our list for a LOT of years! Also confirmed 100% for me that I love flying regardless of the size of aircraft too - this little 15 seater was the smallest thing I'd flown on but I loved it! Half the reason for going over was to ascertain how we found  the place in the winter months - we were wary about lack of daylight ion particular, but in fact it proved to be none too bad. The light during the day on a bright day is just incredible - absolutely beautiful, so you can forgive the fact that there's not much of it until 9am!

The weather bothered us a lot less - albeit we experienced a good mix in the week we were there from snow, beautiful sunshine as you see above, and some very heavy winds. (That's very heavy winds of the "don't go out in this unless you actually need to" type - which up there really means that you should avoid going out!) Interestingly though there was no weather during that time worse than we've encountered before with one exception, which was icy roads - something we were greeted with on arriving on Uist. We know already about the potential for days and days of strong winds and driving rain, so that came as little surprise, and snow is actually relatively unusual. All in all it was a successful visit, confirming to us that actually, in the long term, the Hebrides would suit us quite nicely.  We're off up there again soon, too - looking forward to a fortnight staying in the same place as last year. There is also another "Island" trip to look forward to as we're joining a large party of friends on Lundy for a week. They've been after us to go with them for years but this is the first opportunity we've had.

Once back from both of those trips I will be back into the thick of the airshow season again pretty much immediately - lots planned again this year, Claire and I have had our heads together plotting trips pretty much since the Reds released their display schedule last month. Looks like once again we will each be doing a few shows that the other can't manage but hopefully the vast majority we'll be together. All in all, we're looking forward to another fun-packed summer, whatever it may bring!

Robyn