Arriving at the Isle of Harris! - First trip to the Outer Hebrides

27 May, Monday.  Woke up to a different world!  The sun was shining and it was gorgeous!  

Corncrake

We took Kenzie directly to the beach and also walked along the road, where we heard, and then saw a Corncrake!  Once we returned, Alan went out for a  while to see if he could see any more birds before leaving this wonderful area. We are already trying to come up with various ideas how to come back.  Yes, this was one of the best locations yet!

Watching our ferry to Leverburough arrive

We got the ferry from Berneray to Leverburough and this is listed as one of the most scenic sea journeys in the UK and for good reason! There are islands and sealife every where you look. The ferry has to go in a zigzag route due to all the little islands.  The journey doesn’t look that long on a map, but the evasive action required makes it last an hour.  The ferry was full too!  I have never seen that, no seats available inside and of course, the car deck was crammed.

Seals

Sea Eagle

Guillemot

We spent most of the time outside just watching and this rewarded us with seals, lots of birds, even a  diver that Alan had complained he had not seen AND a sea eagle just sitting on a rock!

Arrival at Leverburough and the Isle of Harris!  

We had not booked anywhere on Harris since everywhere I contacted was fully booked, with the exception of Horgabost. But Horgabost does not take reservations and has no amenities!  However, it gave us direction and we headed off that way.  This was a very difficult journey due to the abundance of eye popping scenery.  Everywhere we looked was more beautiful than the last. We did find Horgabost though and it was crowded with so many campers and kids and bicycles and nothing to keep us there.  So we forged on.

Good example of a single track road!

We then decided to wild camp!  Why not?

Seilebost

So we pulled over the side of the road overlooking Seilebost beach.  We were essentially on a cliff and it was fun to watch the sheep negotiating the steep edges just under our camper!  Kenzie was very puzzled by them.  

There was a photographer just ahead and when I went out we stuck up a conversation. He suggested staying over night where we were would be noisy with traffic.  He told us about the West Harris Trust campsites that are placed around Luskentyre Bay.  He was staying at the schoolhouse just at the bottom of the hill but there were no spaces there.

He advised us to drive around Luskentyre Bay and there were some campsites supported by the West Harris Trustt.  You could send £5 through paypal and pay, essentially for a wild camp. There was nothing there except a place to park, at a very scenic spot in Harris!  We drove and drove and all these spots were full.  We did begin to wonder what we were going to do when we hit the end of the road. The end that leads to  path to the famous Luskentyre Beach.  We got to the dead end and discovered another spot supported  by the West Harris Trust.  

Oh, another reason we left the original place was our fridge got stuck shut, our heating and all things related didn’t seem to work and we felt very vulnerable.  We are not actually used to wild camping and didn’t want to be all alone.  When we arrived at the very last place we could stay, there were already some motorhomes there and it didn’t look like we would fit.  One of the men came out and offered to let us block him and the next motorhome in, if we left early enough to let them out. He then asked the neighbour and he agreed.  How nice. But we managed to find a place and settled in for the night. There is a public toilet there and a notice from the Trust that a donation of £7 to stay there was required. I love supporting things like this so that was ok with me.

Luskentyre Beach (the next morning)

Alan went on a walk and discovered we were about 50 yards from Luskentyre Beach itself! But I waited until the next morning.

Boy was it worth it!  But since I seem to be doing this day by day..... more will be shared later!