Outer Hebrides part two - Uist

The ferry arrived at Bernera and we trundled our way down North Uist to the RSPB reserve at Balranald, as recommended by Dave and Lorna. We parked in the car park by the visitor centre and walked down to the beach, on the way back to the ‘van we saw some young kids (no older than 11 or 12) razzing a Peugeot 205 down the farm tracks! While we were there 2 ladies walked past with their dog, one waved and told us she lived in a cottage just up the hill, she was really friendly and said if there was anything we needed we should go and knock, what a great welcome to Uist!

We moved onto a campsite the next night, just so that we could put stuff on charge, our mobiles, the laptop, GPS etc were all flat, so we needed electric hookup! On the way we had a brief stop at a smokehouse where we had a look at the exhibition and shop, it smelt of fish and smoke though, so we didn’t stop long! The campsite was at Liniclate with a nearby beach, and we quickly put everything possible on charge before giving the ‘van and Tonks a quick wash to get all the saltwater off after the ferry journey.


We found out that there was a dentist down the road so we walked down to see if he could fit Linda in sometime (for her broken tooth) he said he could do it straight away, put a temporary cap on and she was out in about 10 mins, great! Tonks’ Mot had ran out the day before, so we then went to the local garage, and they could fit us in later on! We moved the ‘van a few miles down the road to a wild camping spot next to a beach at Cill Amhlaidh (as recommended by Dave and Lorna), it was a lovely spot on the beach with a view out to sea. We set up and took the dogs on the beach where we met a local man who was collecting in his lobster pots, he said he used to do commercial fishing here but now just has the lobster pots as a hobby, he was taking them away for the winter, but they’ll come out again next year!
While we were waiting for Tonks’ MOT we took the dogs for a 4 mile walk to the beach, on the way we spotted the RBS cinema lorry set up in a hotel car park so later on that evening we came back to watch a film, we were amazed with how big and loud it was inside! Tonks failed the MOT due to low tread depth on the front tyres, but we were expecting it and the next day he got new tyres and we were on our way again!

We went out for a walk next morning just east of Gramasdail, it was a walk that we had got from a little walking book Linda had bought, and it said that at low tide ‘you will see seals’! Following the instructions we set out on the farm track, past the abandoned car and the sign pointing out which way to the Seals, but alas when we got there all we saw was a lot of pretty coloured sea weed and a few seagulls! Still, Linda did take the opportunity to sit on an abandoned tractor on the way back and pretend she was doing a bit of ploughing!
Later on we moved the ‘van again to an excellent beachside spot further south at Gearraidh ma Monadh, again recommended by Dave and Lorna (thanks!). When we arrived there was already 2 motorhomes set up. We pitched up, making sure that we were out of everyone’s way and went out for a walk along the massive beach in front of the ‘van. We walked for just over a mile and over a causeway onto a little grassy island where there is a jetty used by a couple of fishing boats, we watched one of the boats come in from its mooring to unload before carrying on back to the ‘van. Had a brew sat outside in the sun, and two more campervans showed up, it was like a caravan site! Later on a local man drove up the track in his car. Not one to turn down a chat, Phil went over and passed the time with him. He had lived on the island all his life and did a bit of fishin, farmin and taxi drivin. We talked about the weather and a dislike of cities before he carried on his drive along the rough track!

We left the ‘van where it was the next day, and drove over the causeway to Eriskay, the southernmost island of Uist. We parked by Am Politician pub and did a 2.5 mile walk which was in the guide book Linda had bought. It took us over a lovely beach and up to the ferry port where we saw a ferry come in and unload. We then headed up onto the moor where we spotted a couple of the “Famous” Eriskay ponies (as it said in our book). Walking back to the car, we had a great view of the village of Bhalla, which because of its multicoloured roofs and moorland situation looked just like a scene from Iceland. Once back in the village we put the dogs in the car and went in the pub where we had our lunch looking out to sea. Am Politicean is so named because a ship of the same was wrecked nearby in the 2nd world war. Its cargo was Whisky and there were many stories of the locals plundering the spoils and having many a merry day! The pub still has some of the original bottles from the wreck, one of which is still full of Whisky!


Out walking on the beach the next day we thought we saw basking sharks. We ran down to the end with the binoculars and saw lots of triangles poking up out of the sea, they turned out not to be sharks, but a pack of nosey seals! An old chap came wandering up in a suit jacket and wellies, said hello and started telling us all sorts of interesting stuff. He lived in a house just up the way, which he pointed to, they don’t get sharks here very often, but lots of seals, porpoise and dolphins, the guy who runs the old seaweed processing plant is a bit of a rogue, the locals campaigned for a road to the beach and built the picnic area we are staying on to force the council to build the road and now some of the locals are complaining about the campervans using it! There used to be a graveyard near where we were stood and a human skeleton was found not long ago! He once found a metal cylinder washed up which turned out to be a bomb, bomb disposal had to come and remove it! We also asked him why there were so many abandoned houses on the islands, including old crofters houses, he said some people build new houses and just leave the old ones to fall to ruin, and the shrinking population on the island doesn't help either. After a while another couple bounded up and the man announced that they had just moved into the area from Greenwich in London, he told us about the seals and announced that he was now a local before finally wandering off! We carried on our chat with the old guy for a bit and then his mate came and said hello so we left them to it.. We hitched up the ‘van and headed off towards Loch Druidibeag where we had seen a car park on the map. The lane was very narrow and when we got to the car park 2 motorhomes were already there and we had no chance of turning round, we said hello to the wild ponies that were wandering around there before deciding to risk carrying on in the hope of finding a turning spot. At the bottom there was thankfully a house with a drive big enough to back the ‘van into, so we trundled back along the lane. On the way we passed a young couple of backpackers who we had seen on the way down, and he stuck his thumb out hoping for a lift, we didn’t have room because of all the stuff on the passenger seats, then Phil said “what about the ‘van?!”. Linda opened the ‘van up and settled them in on the sofas, and we continued our way up the road! They got out at the end of the road and said it was dead comfy, especially after their night in a bothy! We then carried on up the main road to Lochmaddy, where we decided to stay at the port. We found a spot on the car park and booked our slot on tomorrows ferry back to Skye. We took the dogs up with us into the ferry this time rather than leave them in the car, and we sat in the lounge reading a newspaper for the trip. Once we landed in Uig we drove down to the site at Portree where we had stayed before.

Back over on Skye we had our first visitors for months! Jane and Neil were on holiday in the area and we arranged to meet up. First Phil went over to Sligachan with his bike. Once the heavy rain stopped the sun poked through and Phil set off on a 9 mile out and back route took him between the Black and Red Cullins mountain range over some great rocky terrain. Jane and Neil (and Floss and Nell the collies) had called at the ‘van in the meantime so we all had a cuppa and scones while we caught up on each others news. They then went off to the Talisker distillery and we arranged to meet up later in Portree. After a walk with the dogs, in peat bog and rain, we dried out and set out to meet up with Jane and Neil. First we went into The Isle, a great pub in the centre of Portree we had a couple of pints in there while the locals were getting ready to watch the Man U v Rangers game in 3D, they all looked like Eric Morecambe in their 3D glasses! As it got noisier and noisier, we headed off to find somewhere to eat. We went to the licenced café up the road and had a delicious meal. We had a lovely time and it was really good to have visitors, we reluctantly said bye and headed back to the ‘van, ready to move on to Morvich the next day.