Abandoned...

Hurrah! Three days here - it must be time for an "Abandoned" shot! Todays building is the old school at Lochboisdale on South Uist. I had an altogether different building in mind for this until Ben commented how much he'd always liked this one and what a fantastic building it is. Looking at it I think you will have to agree that he's quite right - it's so sad that such a fabulous building has been taken out of use, it's only just over 100 years old but sadly the islands dont require so many schools as they used to - the fashion now is for fewer schools with more pupils in each, so the children of primary age from Lochboisdale now, rather than trotting up the road to their very own local school, have to travel around 4 miles to the primary at Daliburgh instead. As they get older the travelling time gets ever greater.

Bird of the day today would have to be the Short Eared Owl that flew right in front of us earlier on - so close we got an excellent look at him!

Robyn

A day of peaceful walks and high drama!

Well not quite the bird I said you might get, but wildlife, of a sort! This cow was drinking from a puddle at Balranald RSPB reserve earlier today. I had the long lens on the camera and didn't want to change over to a standard zoom, so had to think laterally! There is one of it's eye too - you may get that in due course if I end up with a photo free day!

That was the peaceful walk - a lovely stroll around Balranald earlier on. It's a fantastic reserve with "a bit of everything" - the machair, (google it!) beaches, rocky coastlines etc - and is by far one of our favourite walks when we are here - we will almost certainly go back at least once more yet, maybe more. We followed that with lunch at the Claddach Kirkibost centre (fab lunches!) before calling into the Westford Inn to see Alastair & Elisabeth. The pub has been closed for refurbishment over the winter and my goodness have they done a lot of work to it! It looks fantastic, and will be reopening on Friday this week as - as Elisabeth says - "just the sort of pub that WE would like to visit!" Hurrah! Hopefully the fantastic pub sign will be going up at the end of the week too - as and when it does I will definitely put a picture on here!

Once we finally got back to the cottage I chucked a chicken in the oven for dinner before we headed off for a wander to the roadend, as Ben missed out on a stroll up there the other night and we were hoping to see the otters again. On getting there there was no sign of otters, but we decided to continue walking to check out the stepping-stones which form part of a walk we are considering for later in our stay. They are about a mile past the road end, we had no map but as we knew the path we didn't worry too much. Once we were a few hundred yards short, but still out of sight of the loch the stones cross, we could see people on the other side presumably about to head back, so almost turned back as we figured that they were definitely passable....but decided to continue because as Ben said, it would be nice to see HOW passable. The answer was clearly "Reasonably, but only at low or medium tide - not the high spring tides we have these few days, as the party of walkers (several adults and about 6 kids) were firmly trapped on the other side. On seeing us one of the chaps with their party asked if we knew of a bridge, to which we responded that there wasn't one - nor was there any other reasonable route for getting back to the road. We estimated that it was going to be a good several hours before the tide abated enough for them to cross - the children were already getting cold and frightened and the chap we were talking with was starting to talk about wading across.....we hastily urged him to under no circumstances even try, as the current flows so swiftly there on an incoming tide there would be no chance of making it over without getting swept away. With only an hour or so of daylight left we decided there was no time to lose and pegged it back to the road-end where there is a phone signal, and called through to Stornoway Police who alerted the coastguards. At time of writing (two hours later) the three coastguard vehicles have just returned up the road, followed by the three cars belonging to those who were in trouble, so it's reassuring to see that all has ended well. Us? We're having a well deserved beer!

Robyn

Don't Panic!

It's been a mixed day today - this morning was grey and a bit gloomy, it rained for a while and we were in no hurry to get ourselves ready to go out, however once that had blown over there was clearly some brightness waiting to get out from behind the clouds. it finally made it mid afternoon - and was perfectly timed for a walk on one of our favourite beaches on the island of Berneray - 3 miles of perfect white sands and often not another soul to be seen. (Today there were two other souls, but hey, that's not bad for 3 miles of it!).

A regular feature of many of our beach walks are the huge flocks of various different types of wading birds that can be seen. Today we saw Purple Sandpipers, Ringed Plovers, Sanderlings, Oystercatchers and also a Dunlin, as well as the Turnstones pictured above. Funny little birds - they can be quite happy one moment picking their way along the shoreline turning over bits of seaweed and - funnily enough - stones, to see what tasty morsels they can find. Then, with no warning at all something startles them and they all take flight and land again some distance off down the beach! Sometimes in fairness it is one of us trying to creep up unnoticed with camera in hand that alarms them, but on most occasions it's something completely unknown!



There you go - just for Auntie D - West beach, Berneray. Now wouldn't you just LOVE to be walking along there?!

Robyn

The End!

The end of the road, that is. A few years ago some local artists got involved with a project which was called the "Roadend Sculture trail" - so there are now 5 or 6 of these rather unexpected sculptures to be found around the islands. The common theme is that they are all supposed to reflect the landscape & community in some way, so for example one is a bench in the shape of a wave, tiled in blue/green tiles which were created by the children at one of the local schools. Another is caled "The Listening Place" if I recall correctly, and features a semi circle of seats all of which are made from old tractor seats. When you sit there and listen what you hear is perfect, amazing silence, so loud it is almost deafening.... The one above is our favourite - it can be found at the end of the road we stay on, and this evening after we had unpacked, been shopping, had a chat with Alasdair (owner of the cottage) and made a fuss of his dog, (Who thinks her name is "Sheila-get-down"!) Ben collapsed into a well deserved heap on the sofa with a book, and I went for a walk up the road to clear my head, enjoy the peace and quiet, and reaquaint myself with the surroundings.

We're crossing our fingers for some good weather - it's been very grey and dreary here over the past few months apparently but the general opinion is that the incoming high pressure should mean a change now - certainly at the moment the forecast for the week to come is amazingly good so please keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way! Regardless though, we have a cosy cottage with amazing views to stay in, beer in the shed - and the fridge - and are thoroughly looking forward to our time here.

Tomorrow's plan is a beach walk, so hopefully the first beach photo of the trip to come....

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown....

A picture from back in 2007 for you this time - remember the Old Pier at Loch Skipport? One of our favourite spots and I have posted shots of it before - it's always fascinating seeing how it has changed from our last visit as the weather is battering it badly these days. This is a slightly different view of it though, as it was taken from the opposite side of the Loch.

This walk is one of several we have a fancy to either re-do, or have a go at for the first time this year. My lovely other half has at long last convinced me to possibly have a crack at one or other of the "significant" hills, so dependant on conditions underfoot we might climb or other of the Lees. We'd like to do that walk from North to South Glendale again - this year I intend to try not to end up to my knees in boggy mud!

The next time I update this will be from the Hebrides - so if you have any requests of things you'd like to see photos of then leave a comment and let me know. Auntie D has already told me "lots of beaches" so I shall do my best on that front - no doubt there will also be some birds, although we're still not birdwatchers. Nope. Definitely not.

Robyn

A flash of colour...

I spent Friday morning over at our local RSPB reserve watching the kingfishers. There are currently a pair of them over there investigating the available accommodation with great interest, so we are all hopeful that they will breed again. It's a fantastic place just for a walk, with several options depending how far you feel you want to go, and lots of different hides with different species of birds to watch - and from nearly all of them you can occasionally see a brilliant flash of bright blue passing through, yes, the kingfishers like to explore! At the moment though the Kingfisher hide itself is the place to be, and on Friday we were lucky enough to see behaviour like this:





And, possibly my favourite although technically not the greatest I know...



I have a mental note that next time I go I will take the tripod and 1.4x Teleconvertor and see what results I can get using those - on the 300mm F4 that little TC makes quite a difference, and I can still use the autofocus on the camera too, which helps.

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

A shot from 2008 for you this time - in fact, I had a feeling I'd posted this before, but can't find it now so perhaps not!

This is the road out to Huisinis on Harris - someone on Flickr describes this as "12 miles of some of the most challenging single-track roads in the UK!" and I can't really disagree. This road is my Mum's worst nightmare - with blind summits, hairpin bends and sheer drops with no warning whatsoever. It also presents the very real prospect of meeting a bus coming round one of the corners as the village at the end is served by a regular service. I'm a pretty confident driver, and coped with this one OK, however, the one and only road I have EVER encountered that I flatly refuse to drive ever again is also on Harris - known as the Golden Road due to the high cost of building it, it is a truly terrifying prospect with far fewer passing places than you usually expect of Hebridean roads.

There is a lot less single-track now than when we first visited back in 2002 - then the main road from Berneray to Eriskay was single track for almost its entire length. Now, they are gradually changing the whole lot to "normal" roads - which whilst more practical (particularly when you find yourself leaving Lochmaddy just as the ferry has come in!) are far less characterful. Here and there the old road remains, as a footpath, or parking place for peat-cutting locals and dog walkers. In places you can even still drive on it although as it's no longer being maintained this won't apply for much longer.

Robyn