The magic of the Outer Hebrides
Now in Glasgow, staying with my Uncle Derek and Aunty Shirley who are here for six months from Auckland NZ. As predicted this is really the first decent chance I've had to access the web for a while.
The biggest thing of the last two weeks began within a couple of hours of writing my last post in Ullapool hostel where I'd been using time waiting for the ferry. The only other cyclist on the ferry was a guy from Sydney called Bluey who'd been working down in surrey for about a year and had just started three weeks holiday cycling around Scotland. He'd trained up to Edinburgh and then Inverness and then ridden a whopping 62 miles to Ullapool the day before - into a strong headwind no less! His first day of cycling for the trip as well! Anyway we got chatting and seemed to have a few other things in common as well both trying to travel cheap with a spirit of adventure not planning too far ahead. We were both heading in the same direction off the ferry so decided to ride together, I was going about 10 miles him about 15 (turned out to be about 20). By the time we'd had three hours on the ferry and 10 miles on the road together we decided we'd meet up in the morning back the turn-off where we parted and check out Lewis together. But a lot else happened before that.
Side note: Also on the ferry we also met Ian, the boss of the lady I was to stay with who gave a few local pointers about Lewis and Harris (the two parts of the largest island in the Outer Hebrides).
So it was quite an amazing little ferry trip. I arrived at my hosts (Jan and Munro Gold) place about 8:30pm hoping I wasn't too late for dinner and wondering how things might work out for meeting Bluey tomorrow but didn't have anytime to think about that, it was drop my bags in the foyer and sit down to a large feast. At the table I also found another servas traveller Bruce from St Kilda in Melbourne and his girlfriend Eva from Berlin (they met on the underground in New York!) who had arrived about an hour before me and Sally who boards with Jan and Mun in their bothy (grannyflat) out the back. From there the evening was just one big party, with everyone getting to know each other. A beer and a few wines with dinner became whisky, which soon turned to music and dancing and then at about 3am (about half an hour after Bruce and Eva had gone to bed) it was announced that we were transferring to the other room. I had no idea what this meant, I hoped it meant bed also as I was over due for it but realised that while music and party continued to rage trying to sleep was pointless so I just followed along. The other room turned out to be a miniature cinema with full sound system and data projector, and loud music became The Incredibles, played loud enough through the surround sound system to keep Bruce and Eva awake upstairs. Sally went to bed about 3:30am but I always enjoy a good movie (even if I’ve seen it before) and watched it through until 5am when I covered up the now sleeping Jan and Mun with doonas and went to bed, the sun about to rise. What.. A.. Night.. !!!
I slept soundly until 10am thankful I hadn't arranged to meet Bluey too early but knew I couldn't face the bike so tried to call Bluey on his mobile but got no answer and went back to bed. Jan woke me again at 11 asking if was going to meet Bluey. I still couldn't face the bike so Jan offered to drive me down to the corner. A good thing she did too because Bluey was no where to be seen so we drove on to the hostel where he was staying, and eventually found him not far from it. He'd been the only person in the hostel and had had to wait until 11am for the shop next door to open so he could get change to leave money in the hostel honest box in order to pay for the night. We picked him up and Jan invited him to stay with them also. So in the end if We hadn't partied until 5am I wouldn't have seen Bluey again because I would have got there at 11am, waited until maybe half past when Bluey still would've been an hour away and then given up. But now we were set for an exciting few days.
At this point I would like to stop and apologise to all the other great people and Servas hosts I've stayed with who I haven't mentioned in this blog and of course say a big thank you for making my trip such a great time. I deliberately haven't mentioned people mainly because I've been giving them all my blog address and want to keep this as true a record as I can not having to talk things up because I thought people might read what was being said about them. So I decided the best way to remain genuine was just to avoid the subject altogether, but with Jan and Mun all that's just blown out of the water.
So we had a few days together. Jan took us all into Stornoway for the carnival, a chance to see the local community having some fun together. Bruce and Eva took Bluey and I and our bikes to Callanish (the second biggest site of standing stones after Stone Henge) and Great Bernera where we had a good cycle around some beautiful beaches and a bit of rock climbing. Then after Bruce and Eva left we had a day cycling around Lewis catching a lift with Jan into Stornoway again and then incredibly meeting Jan completely by chance just as we found our back to the main road, for a lift the last 5 miles back home. We got to herd Mun's few highland cows and a whole bunch of sheep from one paddock to another. (And did you know that Highland cows were traditional black until Queen Victoria bought Balmoral and got a herd of red ones setting a new trend which has led to the black ones being almost completely bred out of existence!?). There were a couple more party nights like the first one, but now I had a bit of an idea what to expect, and I also discovered the Harry Potter books reading my way through no. 2 over the first few days and then through no. 3 in the last 24 hours I stayed, most of it from 1:15am to 6:45am. I just couldn't put it down and I wanted to finish it before I left. They are certainly better than the movies, very readable and the plot to number three has some notable differences. After five nights with Jan and Mun, Sally gave us lift down to Tarbet and we ended up having a days ride and another night down in Harris, actually the more hilly and scenic part of the island before catching a ferry across to Uig on Skye.
But that's for another post, as this is long enough already. It really was a magic time, from meeting Bluey (and Ian) on the ferry, having time with Mun and Jan, meeting Bruce (whom I hope to catch up with again in Melb) and Eva, miraculously finding Bluey again the next day and then numerous other things that just amazingly worked out, the whole time we were on the island (and a bit of 'The Incredibles' and Harry Potter magic thrown in), it was just a most memorable time.
Still loving every moment
James
The biggest thing of the last two weeks began within a couple of hours of writing my last post in Ullapool hostel where I'd been using time waiting for the ferry. The only other cyclist on the ferry was a guy from Sydney called Bluey who'd been working down in surrey for about a year and had just started three weeks holiday cycling around Scotland. He'd trained up to Edinburgh and then Inverness and then ridden a whopping 62 miles to Ullapool the day before - into a strong headwind no less! His first day of cycling for the trip as well! Anyway we got chatting and seemed to have a few other things in common as well both trying to travel cheap with a spirit of adventure not planning too far ahead. We were both heading in the same direction off the ferry so decided to ride together, I was going about 10 miles him about 15 (turned out to be about 20). By the time we'd had three hours on the ferry and 10 miles on the road together we decided we'd meet up in the morning back the turn-off where we parted and check out Lewis together. But a lot else happened before that.
Side note: Also on the ferry we also met Ian, the boss of the lady I was to stay with who gave a few local pointers about Lewis and Harris (the two parts of the largest island in the Outer Hebrides).
So it was quite an amazing little ferry trip. I arrived at my hosts (Jan and Munro Gold) place about 8:30pm hoping I wasn't too late for dinner and wondering how things might work out for meeting Bluey tomorrow but didn't have anytime to think about that, it was drop my bags in the foyer and sit down to a large feast. At the table I also found another servas traveller Bruce from St Kilda in Melbourne and his girlfriend Eva from Berlin (they met on the underground in New York!) who had arrived about an hour before me and Sally who boards with Jan and Mun in their bothy (grannyflat) out the back. From there the evening was just one big party, with everyone getting to know each other. A beer and a few wines with dinner became whisky, which soon turned to music and dancing and then at about 3am (about half an hour after Bruce and Eva had gone to bed) it was announced that we were transferring to the other room. I had no idea what this meant, I hoped it meant bed also as I was over due for it but realised that while music and party continued to rage trying to sleep was pointless so I just followed along. The other room turned out to be a miniature cinema with full sound system and data projector, and loud music became The Incredibles, played loud enough through the surround sound system to keep Bruce and Eva awake upstairs. Sally went to bed about 3:30am but I always enjoy a good movie (even if I’ve seen it before) and watched it through until 5am when I covered up the now sleeping Jan and Mun with doonas and went to bed, the sun about to rise. What.. A.. Night.. !!!
I slept soundly until 10am thankful I hadn't arranged to meet Bluey too early but knew I couldn't face the bike so tried to call Bluey on his mobile but got no answer and went back to bed. Jan woke me again at 11 asking if was going to meet Bluey. I still couldn't face the bike so Jan offered to drive me down to the corner. A good thing she did too because Bluey was no where to be seen so we drove on to the hostel where he was staying, and eventually found him not far from it. He'd been the only person in the hostel and had had to wait until 11am for the shop next door to open so he could get change to leave money in the hostel honest box in order to pay for the night. We picked him up and Jan invited him to stay with them also. So in the end if We hadn't partied until 5am I wouldn't have seen Bluey again because I would have got there at 11am, waited until maybe half past when Bluey still would've been an hour away and then given up. But now we were set for an exciting few days.
At this point I would like to stop and apologise to all the other great people and Servas hosts I've stayed with who I haven't mentioned in this blog and of course say a big thank you for making my trip such a great time. I deliberately haven't mentioned people mainly because I've been giving them all my blog address and want to keep this as true a record as I can not having to talk things up because I thought people might read what was being said about them. So I decided the best way to remain genuine was just to avoid the subject altogether, but with Jan and Mun all that's just blown out of the water.
So we had a few days together. Jan took us all into Stornoway for the carnival, a chance to see the local community having some fun together. Bruce and Eva took Bluey and I and our bikes to Callanish (the second biggest site of standing stones after Stone Henge) and Great Bernera where we had a good cycle around some beautiful beaches and a bit of rock climbing. Then after Bruce and Eva left we had a day cycling around Lewis catching a lift with Jan into Stornoway again and then incredibly meeting Jan completely by chance just as we found our back to the main road, for a lift the last 5 miles back home. We got to herd Mun's few highland cows and a whole bunch of sheep from one paddock to another. (And did you know that Highland cows were traditional black until Queen Victoria bought Balmoral and got a herd of red ones setting a new trend which has led to the black ones being almost completely bred out of existence!?). There were a couple more party nights like the first one, but now I had a bit of an idea what to expect, and I also discovered the Harry Potter books reading my way through no. 2 over the first few days and then through no. 3 in the last 24 hours I stayed, most of it from 1:15am to 6:45am. I just couldn't put it down and I wanted to finish it before I left. They are certainly better than the movies, very readable and the plot to number three has some notable differences. After five nights with Jan and Mun, Sally gave us lift down to Tarbet and we ended up having a days ride and another night down in Harris, actually the more hilly and scenic part of the island before catching a ferry across to Uig on Skye.
But that's for another post, as this is long enough already. It really was a magic time, from meeting Bluey (and Ian) on the ferry, having time with Mun and Jan, meeting Bruce (whom I hope to catch up with again in Melb) and Eva, miraculously finding Bluey again the next day and then numerous other things that just amazingly worked out, the whole time we were on the island (and a bit of 'The Incredibles' and Harry Potter magic thrown in), it was just a most memorable time.
Still loving every moment
James
posted by James Tonson | 10:24 pm
1 Comments:
Hello from the Outer Hebrides - Berneray to be precise.
Liked your post; entertaining. Glad you had a great time out here.
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