Our one night and day on Vatersay was over so it was time to
head North and back onto Barra and Croft No2 campsite up at the top end of the
Island. A small site but with fabulous views and a warm welcome from the owner
and his wife. Straight over the road from the site was a path down to the beach
(Hilda thought this was the best thing ever) or you could follow the road round
and up behind the campsite to visit Spagen, the community wind turbine, and
watch the sun go down over the ocean. If you set off from the west coast of
Barra and continued due west you would not reach land until Canada. That's a
long way and a lot of water.
Panorama of the beach at Croft No2
Flock of seabirds take off after Hilda get a bit too close
Our first day on Barra dawned grey and drizzly so I decided
we were going to have a quiet 'touristy' day. We would stroll down to the
airport and watch the planes land and take off, have some lunch at the cafe and
stroll gently back again. It sounded like a gentle day. We got on th beach at
the campsite and as the tide was going out we were able to walk all the way to
Eoligarry before we had to come off and start walking on the road. From there
it was 1.5 miles to the airport where we arrived just in time to see the first
landing of the day. It may sound odd to go and watch planes land and take off
but Barra's runway is the beach. They have the only timetable in the UK that
alters with the tides. Watching planes take off and land here is far more
interesting than anywhere else and is something that everyone does. The next
months timetables are posted up and down the island and the airport has a car
park far larger than you would expect for something that size just to accommodate
observers.
Hilda waiting (im)patiently for the tide to go out
Beach from Croft No2 to Eoligarry
When we got there and had watched the plane land and take
off the plan had been to have lunch in the airport cafe but a coachload of
people got there just before us. The timetable said there were two planes due
that day so we went over the dunes behind the airport and walked up and down
the full length of the beach before returning to the cafe for lunch, to watch the
second land and take off of the day, observer the three different colours of
snail living in the dunes by the airport (blue, brown and almost colourless)
and then retracing our steps back up to Eoligarry and a walk back along the
beach to the campsite (keeping a careful eye on the tide as it was now coming
in). I can't remember the exact distance but our quiet day ended up being just
short of 10 miles of walking.
Brown Snail
faded snail
blue / colourless snail
Bored of watching planes
Airport and plane
Lapwing in flight
Our pitch at Croft No2 with Spagen in the background
Day two on Barra and another attempt at a quiet day. A trip
to the co-op for provisions was needed so, as the day was dry, we would drive
down to Castlebay and potter round there for the day before heading back to the
campsite. For us it turned out to be a quiet day with only about 6 miles of
walking in total. We started out with a boat trip out to Kismul Castle and
spent an hour exploring the tiny island and building on it. After that we found
a heritage walk about the local Herring industry and discovered the local
toffee company which also does food so we treated ourselves to fish and chips
sat on their decking in the sun watching the sea.
Barra from Kismul Castle
Hilda explores the castle
Castle with Barra in the background
Castle from the Church
After a trip to the co-op we made our way slowly back up to
the campsite stopping off a couple of times for short walks on some of the
beaches. that evening we went round to Spagen and watched the sun going down.
We didn't stay until sunset as we were tired and ready for bed and at that time
of year sunset is about 11pm at night up there.
Eriskay and South Uist
Hilda at sunset
Sunset
Green Veined Butterfly on Ladies Smock
