Summet Holidays - Part 4, Eriskay

The next morning was grey and rainy and also time to, reluctantly, move on. I hadn't booked the ferry over to Eriskay deciding to go for the second ferry of the day at 09:30 (the first being at about 07:00), the idea was that if it was full we could explore the area and wait for the next one. As it was there were 3 cars, a campervan, half a dozen bikes and the bin lorry on there so there was plenty of space for us. According to the regulars you sometimes see whales on that journey. Not today, all we saw was rain and dark grey clouds.

Otter Sculpture at the Ferry Terminal

By the time we landed in Eriskay the rain had stopped and there was a hint of sunshine but a brisk breeze was making its presence known.

We drove round to Balla and parked the car. What was going to be a short walk round the headland turned into round the headland, onto the beach and all the way round the bay ending up back at the ferry terminal. And then we had to walk all the way back again! We bypassed the car and carried on up the road to the Eriskay Post Office and General Stores to pick up some bits for a late lunch.

Looking back to Croft No2 and Spagen

On the beach with Ferry Terminal in the background

Arctic Tern

Once lunch had been eaten the tide had gone out enough for the beach at Balla to appear and Hilda had a great time chasing her ball on a rope up and down. But eventually the breeze drove us back to the car and we made the short trip up and over the causeway to South Uist and the Kilbride Campsite where we were booked in for 3 nights.

EriskayPhotos

Summer Holidays - Part 3, Barra

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.

Click here for a Video of Take off and Landing

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

Barra Photos

Summer Holidays - Part 2, Vatersay

We had arrived on Barra but that was not going to be our first island of the trip, after a quick halt in a layby for Hilda to use a patch of grass we were back in the car and heading south to Vatersay. There are no campsites on Vatersay but Wild Camping is permitted and for a donation you can use the facilities at the Community Centre, so this is what we did. The community centre is on the narrow spit of land between two fabulous beaches, Taigh a Bhaigh and Traigh Shiar, this second one featured in The Times top 10 UK beaches to walk your dog on. We parked and pitched our tent just below the sand dunes and after dinner had an evening stroll along Traigh a Bhaigh beach as far as the outgoing tide would let us. We saw plenty of birdlife both in the air and feeding on the tide line plus a grey seal out hunting for it's supper.

A sheltered dip

First Beach of the holidays

First piece of seaweed

Grey Seal out hunting

The outer and inner doors on my little 2-man tunnel tent have multiple zippers allowing me to get thoroughly confused when half-asleep about which one to pull in which direction to get out. But lying snug and warm in sleeping bags and extra blankets (just in case) I unzipped the top part of both doors so we could look out at the sky. Despite the late hour it was still too light to see any stars but there was a lovely moon.

Moon from the tent

Tuesday was a gloriously sunny day, we started with a walk on Traigh Shiar. The sand is crushed shells meaning it is white rather than yellow and the sun shining on the sea turned it a deep turquoise colour, the temptation was too high and within a couple of minutes shoes and socks were off, the trouser legs rolled up and I had joined Hilda paddling in the sea. I may be a Born and Bred Yorkshire Girl but I do draw the line somewhere and did NOT put a knotted handkerchief on my head.

One of the Sunday Times top ten beaches to take your dog to

The tide was going out so there wasn't much beach so we made our way back up and over the dunes to Traigh a Bhaigh and then down and over to the third beach on the island, Bagh A'Deas. We had lunch here and then the shoes and socks came off once more for another paddle. Rather than retrace our steps we continued clockwise round the island following the marker posts that show a circular route starting and finishing at the Community Centre. We stopped plenty of times along the way to watch butterflies and inspect the brightly coloured wildflowers growing everywhere. We detoured off the route to avoid walking through a field full of cows and calves who showed great interest in Hilda over the fence. We ended up back on Trigh Shiar and this time the tide was out and we had the whole of the beach to ourselves - magical!

Bagh A'Deas beach

Crystal clear waters

Proof of Paddling

Splish, Splash, Sploosh!

The car is on that narrow spit of land in the centre

Traigh Shiar again - heaven!

Vatersay Photos

Summer Holidays - Part 1, the journey up

As I was having a spring clean of the computer I discovered that I had written about my and Hilda's trip to Scotland in May this year. On checking I never got round to publishing it so, slightly later than planned, here are our adventures.

The 2017 expedition was once more off to Scotland but this time to the Southern end of the Outer Hebrides to go island hopping. As we were going to be moving on every few days I bought another tent. I wanted one that would have space to move around in but not be excessively heavy and time consuming to put up or take down. After some research I settled on the OlPro Abberley 2-berth tent. The small 2-man tunnel tent got packed as well for those one-night stops.

Meadow Pippit watching us pitch the tent

We set off bright and early on the Sunday morning and took it nice and steady for the nearly 300 mile journey to our first stop at Strathfillan Wigwams. This was just a one-night stop as we were booked onto the Oban to Castlebay ferry the next day. I was woken early on Monday morning by Hilda telling me she was cold, Hilda is a tough hairy dog so if she says she is cold it must be. I realised that I too wasn't as warm as I would like to be so we got up for a quick pee break and to grab an extra blanket from the car. When we got out of the tent we discovered there was a layer of frost on the tent, car and ground. Inspection of Hilda's water bowl revealed it to be frozen over too. Brrr. Back in the tent and wrapped in the extra blanket we both dropped off to sleep for another couple of hours. When we got up again the sun was shining and all traces of frost and ice had gone so it was time for a leisurely breakfast before the short drive to Oban to catch the ferry.

Brrrr! Frost on the outside of the tent

Hilda remembered the ferry port from last year and had a fun time exploring and meeting people as we waited to get on the ferry and also when we were on the ferry. The crossing was 5.5 hours and the first part of the journey was good, it wasn't too cold and there was a gentle movement but nothing to make you (me) feel ill. Once we were past Coll and out into the open water the temperature dropped significantly and the movement picked up. There were two options, stay outside where I could watch the horizon but feel incredibly cold or go indoors where it was nice and warm but there were no windows in the designated dog area so after a while I started to feel a little ill. We alternated, 20 minutes indoors and then 20 minutes out on deck. Once we spotted Barra we stayed out and were joined by quite a few others watching it grow larger.

More Photos

Agility Fun

In June 2016 Hilda had her first go in an agility competition, we entered the All Sorts class which is for dogs who are still learning (we had not mastered the seesaw or weaves at that point) and is sometimes combined with veterans which is for dogs who are retired from competing but still love to take part.

The rules of agility are similar to that of showjumping. You go round a set course and get points for knocked over poles, refusals or being outside the course time. If you go round the course in the wrong order then you are eliminated.

We got eliminated in all our runs at that first competition in June 2016 but we still had a great day out.

By the autumn we had mastered the seesaw and also the weaves so, with some encouragement from the trainers, we entered a competition in December. It seemed a good idea in the warmth of the late September sunshine. It didn't seem like such a good idea when the alarm went off at 5am on a cold wet December morning. We were entered into four classes and again managed to get eliminated from all 4, but for our first ever 'proper' agility competition we had a great time especially as it was an indoor arena so a new experience for us both.

Fast forward to the late spring and more encouragement to enter competitions. The next competition was in early April and again it was 4 eliminations out of 4 classes, but we really enjoyed ourselves and the eliminations were handler error. A few weeks later and we were off again 4 more classes entered but this time only 3 eliminations! We managed to get round one of the courses without getting eliminated and only picking up 5 points for a refusal. We ended up fourth in the class but no rosette, I was so very proud of Hilda.

In June this year we were back at the same show, one year after our first ever visit to an agility competition. We were there for two days and a total of 6 runs. I was hoping that we might get one or two runs without getting eliminated, we managed three. I was even more surprised when we finished one of the runs and got a round of applause from the judge and ring party. Clapping from the judge at the end of a run only happens when you get a clear round. We had just got our first ever clear round, I was grinning from ear to ear. When the results were posted I thought we had come second and was thrilled with that result. When they announced the results over the tanoy for the presentation of rosettes I was a little confused when the second place was awarded to someone else. I decided that I had read the results wrong and we hadn't been placed but I was still thrilled with a clear round. The thrill turned to absolute amazement and joy when Hilda and I were announced as the winners. When I had read the results I had only looked at the times, I had not looked at the penalties, there was one dog who went round faster than Hilda but had picked up points. A win with a clear round within the course time meant we progressed from Grade 1 to Grade 2.

We managed a second win in June, two more in July and two more in September. One of the ones in September was clear but not within the course time so we remain at grade 2 for now.

Hilda and her June Rosettes & Tumblers

Hilda and her July Rosettes

The equipment shaped trophy's for her July win

Hilda and her September Rosettes

What I did in my Holidays

I am just starting to put the finishing touches to the plan for this years main camping trip and have realised I never wrote about last years trip. I wrote about some off days out and about but not our week on a slightly remote island.

Last year I booked a couple of weeks off work at the beginning of May with the idea that we would go camping. I have always wanted to visit the Giant Causeway but the Scottish end appealed to me more than the Irish one did. So after some research I decided on Mull as our destination. Ferries and campsites got booked, the car got packed and on a slightly grey morning we set off.

We took things nice and steady and stopped off at Sallochy Campsite on the shores of Loch Lomand on the way up for an overnight stop (after successfully navigating round the Glasgow by-pass roadworks & diversions). Then the next day it was on to Oban to catch a ferry over to Mull then a drive across the island to Fidden and the campsite that is part of the farm.

The next 5 days were lovely and relaxing and spent walking and exploring and we did fit in an excursion to Fingals Cave on the tiny island of Staffa. Sadly the stay came to an end far too quickly and once more we made our way across the island to catch the ferry to the mainland. This time we avoided Glasgow and it's roadworks and made our way over towards Edinburgh and Linwater Campsite where we had an overnight stop on our way home.

We both had a fabulous time, from the tent we were about 25 paces from a lovely white sand beach which looked out towards Iona where we could watch the sun set every evening. Lots of photos were taken, mostly of the huge variety of wildlife that surrounded us. The only two things that we saw that I didn't manage to get photos of were a cuckoo and a nightjar.

If you are interested in seeing any of the photos click here Hannah & Hilda's May 2016 Scotland Camping Trip Photos

wiggle wiggle wiggle

When Hilda turned one we started doing agility. I had wanted to go to the fun agility classes but they were on at a time when I am at work so we ended up going to the competitive classes.

I enjoy going to agility but compared to Hilda my enthusiasm is just a passing interest, she loves it. We have advanced to the point where, after a year's worth of classes, she could do all the pieces of equipment including the weaves!

Hilda practising weaving in the local park

So in December last year we were talked into entering a competition, we had a great time but were eliminated in all four of our runs, the same happened at a competition at the start of April this year. But I don't care it's great fun and a certain hairy little girl thoroughly enjoys herself and that is the most important thing.

But having said that it would be nice to get round without getting eliminated.

At the end of April we achieved this! We got 3 eliminations but one run where we made it round and just picked up 5 faults.

Next challenge get round without getting eliminated and without picking up any faults.