The Isle of Barra Day 1 - First trip to the Outer Hebrides

My first glimpse of the Western Isles!

After living in Scotland for over 30 years and being intrigues by the Western Isles, we finally got our act together and headed out for them.  It helps to have a motorhome, but with all the warnings about how difficult it is to get ferry bookings and campsites, I was extremely worried it wouldn't all work out.  However, we did manage to get our ferries booked ok. We chose Calmac's Hopscotch 28, starting at Oban and ending at Stornaway.  Even only 3 weeks in advance, we only struggled with a few ferry times.  Due to a family illness, we had to postpone these dates for 2 days and Calmac was amazing with this.  We did have to leave at a 7am ferry instead of a 2pm one and stay an extra night in one place, but considering the short notice of these changes, I was very impressed with their customer service.

Campsites were a different matter though.  This took days and days and many phone calls and we still left our house not knowing exactly where we would be on a few days.  It also didn't help that our first weekend was a Bank Holiday!  The last weekend in May when everyone seems to want to be away from it all.

Kenzie giving commuters in Glasgow a good laugh
during rush hour

We left our house bright and early at 6:45am and arrived on Barra at 6pm. It was a long day! The drive to Oban was uneventful and then we boarded the Isle of Lewis Calmac ferry. This was much larger than the Arran ferry and had 3 dog lounges!  The main one was nice and big with large windows so we could watch the progress.  5 Hours on a ferry was quite stressful for Kenzie and she didn’t really settle, She is now fast asleep while we cook dinner at our campsite. 

We thought we were level!
But this is our view for the night.

Barra is already beautiful although we have not seen much. With it being such a long day, we just parked and will cook a nice dinner and relax the rest of the evening. But what a place to relax, the view from our table is the Atlantic ocean!  Does it get better than this?  

Castle Kisimul just outside Castlebay
and near the ferry dock

It was difficult getting a campsite with electricity but eventually about 10pm the night before we left, I managed to secure one at Borve Campsite, for one night only, we will have to wait to see if we can stay another night. Wild camping is very popular on the Western Isles, but I like having my batteries charged, if nothing else, and that is only possible with an electrical hook up. I asked if we could stay another night, but the manager has to wait to see since tomorrow begins the holiday weekend.  We will see what happens tomorrow. 

Apparently, the name "Borve" is everywhere in the islands so that could be very confusing. This this one is the furthest west campsite in Britain and is right on the Atlantic coast. What a great way to begin our adventure!