Remote and Windswept

It was almost as though we had forgotten that we were still in the UK and we had certainly forgotten that we were still on our UniMog test run. The Hebrides had engulfed us and once again we were living in the moment, far away from the stresses and strains of our old, more traditional lives and instead soaking up the beauty and the joy of life on the road

We were hopping from one island to the next, one beach, one historical monument, one distillery – life had become the endless round of fascination that we had so come to love. They say that life is what happens whilst you’re busy making plans and so with no deadlines, no timescales and no-one to tell us that we should be doing anything different, we were simply living our lives as we had been doing in Africa. And it happened without us even noticing.

We dragged ourselves away from the jellyfish peacefully drifting along the waters of Loch Druidibeg and headed to the Kildonan museum. It was an interesting place dedicated to the history of crofting and crafts on the islands. But I have to admit that the best bit was a surprisingly tasty lunch in their unassuming café including a chocolate orange cheesecake which we were supposed to share – but I ate the lot and had to go back and get James his own piece!

Just as we were leaving we noticed a second building which was locked and when we peered in through the windows we saw a large galley inside. I went back to reception to enquire about it and was given a key to the door

This galley was built in 1991 using traditional materials and methods and was the first West Highland Galley to have been built in over 300 years

She successfully sailed the high seas for many years, used not just for racing but for educational purposes, before being retired to the museum about 15 years ago.

On historical roll, we walked down the road to visit the old stone cottage where Flora MacDonald had lived her early years

Flora MacDonald is a very famous name around here but for those not so up on Scottish history, she was the woman who smuggled Bonnie Prince Charlie off South Uist onto Skye and safety after the battle of Culloden in 1746. The geography of that story doesn’t seem to work but apparently the politics did.

We took a quick break from history and wandered along the Kildonan beach for a while, which was as beautiful as ever

It refreshed us ready to be immersed in an even more ancient culture – the round houses of Cladh Hallan, dating back over 5,000 years ago.

We had discovered a new toy – an app that I downloaded onto my phone and which showed you an augmented reality as you moved around the site, depicting the houses as they would have looked all those years ago

Strangely, given that I am generally glued to my camera, I was so taken with the app that I forgot to take any pictures of what it actually looks like today!

We had still not managed to book the Mog onto a ferry to the island of Barra – or rather we could get there but there were no free spaces coming back for nearly three weeks. We were keen to find a way to resolve this problem and so had been very interested to hear from some other motorhome travellers that more ferries sail than can be booked online – some very early in the morning, others late at night.

Our plan was to go to the ferry terminal and try to book in person. The ferry to Barra goes from the next island in the chain – the tiny but stunning island of Eriksay. The drive across the causeway was incredible

We then only spent 5 or 10 minutes driving across the island but it seemed like a very nice, clean and peaceful place to live

When we arrived at the ferry terminal we were confused to find that it was unmanned

So if we couldn’t book online and there was no ticket office at the terminal, how on earth do we book tickets onto these ghost ferries? All of a sudden it dawned on me – we needed to go old skool and ring them up!

Ten minutes later, we were high fiving each other as the delighted owners of tickets to Barra the next morning and, more importantly, tickets back two days later – perfect!

That evening we parked up in the overflow car park of a lovely pub on Eriksay which welcomed motorhomes. I spent the evening organising an ebike to hire on Barra whilst James checked his over and prepped it for its first Scottish outing. We were excited.

Our ferry was early the next morning and it only took half an hour before we were on the most beautiful island yet. Our first stop was the northern peninsula and the Barra airport. That may seem like an odd place to go but it is the only airport in the world that has scheduled flights taking off and landing on a tidal beach and it is a real spectacle

The airport is open to the public for this very reason and has set aside a large car park for visitors to park up and watch the planes coming and going – three a day. The times of the flights change daily with the tides and we were lucky – there was one due to land just half an hour after we arrived.

We watched it come in

Then chatted for an hour or so to other visitors who had come over to see the Mog before the plane took off again

It was fantastic to see but sadly I had accidentally knocked the anti-shake button on my camera into the off position just before filming the plane landing and for some reason the lens decided to randomly un-focus itself just as the plane was taking off – so I have no usable video recording of either event!

We carried on up the peninsula to Eolaigearraidh Beach where the full glory of the island started to unfold

It was stunning

We wandered down the pier, with the sea safely below us at low tide

And then walked for miles down the white sandy beach, marvelling at the turquoise waters surrounding us

It was picture-perfect

We walked up the hill to St Barr’s church

Where the famous Scottish writer, Compton Mackenzie, is buried

But the views were the best bit

The Mog was parked up by the pier and by the time we got back the tide had come in and we could see the waves now sloshing up over the edge

It was getting late in the day so we dragged ourselves away and drove all the way around the island to the main town of Castlebay

It was quite a pretty town but we were really only there to check out where the bike hire place was and orient ourselves for the next day. So we didn’t do much more than pass through on our way to our final island of Vatesay where we could park-up for the night in one of a few community-run park-up places along the coastline

When we found our spot we were very pleased with our choice – the views were stunning in every direction

The next day we went back to Castlebay to collect my ebike. The owner was lovely, the bike was great and James’ bike had been reassembled and cleaned. We were ready to go

I rode a bicycle to school every day for six years and rode a motorbike regularly for many years up until we started travelling full time. But even so it took me a few minutes to get my confidence back, especially on the steep roads around the town.

But before long we were whizzing up and down the Barra hills with the wind in our hair and huge grins on our faces

We saw the entire island in about five hours, including re-visiting the beach from the previous day and having a fabulous lunch in the café back at the airport

I have never ridden an ebike before and was impressed with just how easy it made the hills. I challenged myself not to use any more than the second level of power even when we were battling quite strong headwinds but the final hill back into Castlebay beat me and I had to push it all the way up to the full boost level.

We free-wheeled down the hill on the other side of town to the Barra gin distillery and I tasted more of their gins than was probably sensible given that I had to cycle back up again! James was far more sensible as he had to drive but we still managed to spend a fortune buying a bottle of possibly the best gin we had tried yet.

With wobbly legs we clambered back into the Mog and drove back to Vatesay and the lovely park-up spot we had used the previous night.

The next morning we took our time making egg sandwiches and nursing our aching legs before heading further into Vatesay island to visit the beaches

There aren’t many roads around this tiny island so it wasn’t hard to find them. We parked up at a place where the island is only around 500 metres wide and walked uphill to the first side and clambered down the sand dunes to the beautiful beach

I took my boots off to dig my toes into the soft, warm sand

Whilst James wandered over to the rocks

We then climbed back up and crossed to the other side where we met a few cows doing their thing

And simply gazed over the sea, breathing in the fresh, clean air

And to be honest, that was about all there was to do on Vatesay and we had pretty much done everything on Barra as well. Our ferry back to Eriksay wasn’t until half past seven that evening so we drove back to Barra, carried on all the way around the island looking for a nice place to park up and eventually found the perfect spot back in our favourite area just between the airport and the beautiful Eolaigearraidh Beach

We put our camping chairs out and enjoyed the views for the rest of the day

Late in the afternoon we packed everything up and headed back to the ferry and, ultimately, Eriksay. We arrived at around 8pm to find that the car park at the pub where we had stayed before was full. So we carried on across the causeway, back onto South Uist, and found the perfect spot in a remote and windswept layby overlooking the sea.

Our Outer Hebridean adventure was coming to and end, our ferry back to Skye was at 11am the next day and it only took an hour or so to get all the way back through South Uist, North Uist and to the ferry terminal in Lochmaddy. It seemed sad as we passed all the places we had so enjoyed on the way down, knowing that – much as we had loved visiting these amazing islands – we were unlikely to ever come back

My sister asked me whether we would consider living here as we had loved it so much but my answer was certain – there is too much world out there and only one little corner of it, a few thousand miles south of here, ever tempts me to stop exploring it.

Once safely back on Skye we made straight for the same campsite where we had stayed on our way out

We spent another day doing our laundry, filling up with water and cleaning the Mog – another test of our equipment, the telescopic ladder had its first successful outing helping James clean the solar panels

We had one last thing to do on Skye before returning to the mainland and that was a tour of the Talisker distillery that we had popped into two weeks ago on our way through – they get booked up so far in advance we had had to wait until now to be able to do it

The tour was fascinating

Although the guide was a bit scatty and in the tasting afterwards James hated the whisky

I thought it was hilarious watching the guide watching James as his face contorted into increasingly deep scowls with each whisky variety – she wasn’t to know he just doesn’t like whisky, I think she was worried he was a connoisseur and their whisky wasn’t passing muster!

After the tour and the tasting I tried a shot of port whisky at the bar just to see what it was like. Not good enough to spend £70 buying a bottle but I was well and truly drunk again by midday – this was becoming a habit!

With James still sober he drove us across Skye

Over the bridge and back onto the mainland

We headed straight for the same park-up place at the Plockton airstrip where we had stayed on our way in. We remembered feeling completely isolated and remote last time, this time we could barely squeeze in between the dozens of other motorhomes – what a difference two weeks makes in the Scottish holiday season!

It felt as though life had slowed down to an almost standstill in the Hebrides and now, back on the mainland, I looked at where we were on the map and how many little yellow stars of things we still had marked to do on Google Maps compared with how many we had deleted as done. I wondered whether we were actually going to be in Scotland forever

Where we were and the fact that it was now the middle of May also meant that the number of motorhomes in the airstrip car park with us was just the start of a trend – we were approaching the famous North Coast 500 route over the top of Scotland and we were going to have to do battle with rather a lot of other tourists for a while.

It felt strangely solid and comforting to be back on the mainland and with no more worry about ferries we could travel to our own timescales again and not have to think about planning ahead.

Our first stop was Rogie Falls. It was just a short walk from the car park to the falls and over a suspension bridge for great views

We then took the slightly longer walk back through the woods

From there the drive to Ullapool was breathtaking

And Ullapool itself really took us by surprise. Far from the noisy, dirty port city I was expecting, it turned out to be a lovely, quaint little town

Although maybe a little spoilt by a rather large expedition truck arriving in the middle of it!

We wandered around for a while, smiling at the pretty houses

And admiring the views across the harbour

A cruise ship was in dock and it looked huge sitting next to the little fishing boats but apparently this was just a small one

Nevertheless that afternoon the town was full of tour groups and many shops had welcome signs in their windows trying to get their business.

I bought a mountain of cheese-related stuff from a local delicatessen and James ate an equally large mountain of ice cream. We then treated ourselves to dinner at a local restaurant which was very nice indeed.

After our exploits we parked up in a church car park on a quiet street and spent the evening eating cheesecake and chocolate and sampling some of the gin we had bought along the way.

Ullapool felt like a very comfortable town that we could have stayed in for a while but we had a lot to do so we hauled anchor the next day and headed towards Achmelvich Bay. The views along the way just seemed to get better and better

We suddenly seemed to have travelled a long way in a short time and were perched high up on the north coast. This was real Highland country – few people live here, Gaelic is more prevalent than English and nature is king. It was wonderful

We stopped enroute to wander around Ardvreck Castle, an old ruin dating back to the 1490s, perched on a promontory sticking out into Loch Assynt. We walked across the small causeway and poked around for a while before continuing our journey

The last few miles to Achmelvich Bay were some of the most stressful driving we had done yet in the UniMog – the road was far too narrow for us with a steep drop down one side and passing places so small that we couldn’t fit into them. At one point, as we were trying to pass another van, I was sure our wheels were going over the edge and wanted to be anywhere else but there.

But we made it in one piece and the drive had been well worth the effort. It was spectacular, even by the standards of Scottish beaches

We wandered along the thin cliff path from one bay to another

And as we rounded the corner we could have been transported to the Seychelles

After a quick lunch in the truck we pressed on to a viewpoint over the Quinag mountain range

And a little further on we found the Allt Chranaidh waterfall

Although the waterfall itself was not really the main attraction. The walk down a gorge to find it was great fun, picking our way over rocks and trying not to slip into the water

From there we marvelled at the endlessly beautiful sights all around us as we slowly drove onwards

We eventually reached our final stop for the day – the small town of Kinlochbervie where there was a lovely aire for motorhomes overlooking Loch Clash

The town was quite industrial and after a short walk we found there was little to do there, but the aire itself was picturesque and the weather was glorious

One of our fellow campers even decided to jump into the loch for her evening swim – no part of either of us felt the need to follow her in!

My morning training did not go well as we had found our first crop of midges – something Scotland is as infamous for as it is for cold and wet weather. We had seen very little of either up until now but today I was besieged with the pesky little creatures and finished my training covered in tiny little bites all over my face, neck, ankles and hands.

That was soon forgotten though when there was a bit of commotion at the end of the pier amongst some of the campers and we went over to find that an otter had been spotted. I ran to get my camera and big lense and was thrilled to get a fleeting view of it a few minutes later

There were sadly to be no further sitings but the excitement lead to us befriend another couple who had been watching and who we chatted to for hours on the pier – he being in construction and she being a very impressive lady who was a consultant pharmacist, scientist and all round lovely person.

When planning what to see in a country I often come across craft villages that are recommended to tourists and I very rarely include them in our itinerary – James is not a fan and I have to agree that few have anything much that interests us. But I did quietly put the Balnakeil craft village into our plans for one very good reason – it is the home of the Cocoa Mountain chocolate shop.

When we finally pulled ourselves away from our new friends and arrived at the craft village, most of the outlets appeared closed and those that were open offered little to distract us. James was making his usual jokes about being dragged around craft places when I dropped the chocolate shop casually into conversation. His eyes lit up and off we trotted.

We were not disappointed, the hot chocolate was amazing and we treated ourselves to a selection of little chocolates and a brownie to go with it. It was barely 11am and we were already on a bit of a sugar high!

The friendly guy serving the hot chocolate recommended the nearby Balnakeil beach that he said was quieter and more beautiful than the one we had been aiming for. So, always keen to take local advice, we headed straight for it.

And we were so glad we did. We parked up near an old church and had a potter around the graveyard – always a fascinating insight into local history

Then we took our boots off and wandered down the sweeping beach

We were in Senegal last time we saw cows on the beach but this one is apparently quite famous for them

High up on the hill above us was a military base which our friend in the chocolate shop had said we could walk to so off we set, up the sand dunes

There was an even more beautiful bay around every corner

And stunning views everywhere we looked

We walked for miles, all the time chatting about aliens and whether they were likely to come to earth – it was the best afternoon of our trip so far and even now, a few weeks later, this beach and our walk through the gorgeous, windswept, remote sand dunes stands out as a highlight of Scotland

Eventually we made our way back to the truck and drove across the peninsula to the more famous and touristy Sango Sands. It was only a couple of miles away but could have been in a different country.

The views were still lovely

But there were a lot of people here as well as a large caravan park.

We found a fantastic kiosk called ‘Cheese and Toasty’ which served the most delicious toasted sandwiches which we ate whilst James chatted to a couple of bikers about motorbikes and I chatted to a Polish couple about cameras.

Our day had not quite finished with us yet though. There was one more thing nearby that we wanted to try – Smoo Cave.

Those of you that know we well enough will understand that caves are not likely to be my favourite things although I have, more recently, made valiant efforts at keeping my claustrophobia in check and really enjoyed a couple of caves over the last few years of travel. They go one of two ways for me – great or carnage! We hoped this one would be the former so we parked up nearby and walked down to see.

It was a short but beautiful walk down the cliffs to the cave and in the end it was fine – the cave was easily accessible and lovely to look at

Pot-holing tours were available at low tide but I wasn’t going to go that far!

We wandered back to the truck and started chatting to the owner of the car park who also serves ice cream from a kiosk. James indulged and we chatted to him whilst the ice cream was finished off – he was quite fascinating and seemed to have done an awful lot in his life. He was born on Orkney and highly recommended visiting the northern islands. We were still unsure at this stage but he certainly made it sound tempting to battle with ferries just once more.

That decision was for another day. For now we drove a couple of miles down the road to another beautiful aire with fabulous views over the sea and settled in for the night

We were nearly at the northern most point in the UK and if anything the landscapes of the north coast exceeded even those of the west. Everywhere we turned took our breath away and it seemed as though Scotland’s beauty and remote tranquillity had no end…