Compass Buster #3: The Isle of Harris to Skye

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Not a great night's sleep, so I was pretty tired when I hauled myself out of bed. I enjoyed a quick breakfast before it was time to leave. I had really enjoyed staying in Stornoway and would love to come back and explore the area so more. But today we were off to the Isle of Harris and then making our way across to the Isle of Skye, so it would be another busy day. We did a quick Tesco stop to pick up some supplies as we wouldn't really be stopping in many places with civilisation. As we were driving out of town, I noticed that a lot of the shops were religious ones, charity shops and bookstores selling religious texts. We asked our guide about this and she told us that the Outer Hebrides is still a very religious, conservative society. Pretty much everyone goes to church and Sunday is a total day of rest. The locals apparently kicked up a right fuss, when CalMac (the ferry company) started doing Sunday sailings. What shocked me the most was the Tesco doesn't even open on a Sunday!

We headed to the Isle of Harris, we stopped at the point where the two island join. I think technically it is one island, but the two parts are referred to as different islands so it is somewhat confusing. It was cold and rainy again this morning (seems to be the theme of this trip so far) but we hopped off the bus to get some pictures at the point where the two meet. There was a gorgeous stream running down to the sea. The area looked pretty bleak with the grey clouds but I still loved it. We took a quick pit-stop in Tarbert, the local craft fair was on so we took a look around that and visited the First Fruits Tearoom. The tearoom was great, they make a crackin' cup of coffee and all the lads working there are really friendly. Then it was on to our first major stop of the day, Luskentyre Beach.

Luskentyre Beach is famous for being consistently named one of Britain's top beaches. The beach is a short walk from the carpark, which is next to the graveyard. What a place to be buried if you die, such gorgeous surroundings. We took a short walk down to the beach, careful not to step in the stream that was heading down to the sea. The weather was cold and cloudy, typical British beach weather. The beach is really big and as the tide seemed to be out. plenty of space to walk around. We decided not to walk on the beach first, but head up the hill on right side instead. The hill was a little steep in places but not too bad. It was worse trying not to get your feet wet as you crossed the stream, which had widened considerably as it got closer to the sea. The views from the top of the hill were amazing, looking along the beach. I only wish the weather had been nicer as then it would have looked even more spectacular. We then took a walk along the beach, that was nice but it would have been better if it had been a few degrees warmer. I would love to revisit this place on a sunny day.

Since there had (and would be) a few birthdays on the trip, our lovely guide, Mahri, had bought a couple of cakes at Tesco. We had pulled over a bit further along the road and we all got out to take some photos with the Scottish flag while Mahri sorted out the cakes. When we got back on the bus we sang 'Happy Birthday' and ate the cakes. While we were there, an almighty clanger occurred. The funeral procession that were heading to graveyard at Luskentyre Beach. Now, judging by what we had been told earlier about how ultra conservative and religious the people of the island are, we didn't think they would take too kindly to see our big bright yellow bus parked on the side of the road. To make matters worse, the side of the bus is emblazoned, in red, with the hashtag 'Wild and Sexy'. We just had to sit it out and wait for all the cars to pass. It was quite interesting (amusing) to watch people's reactions, some of the old dears were thoroughly appalled, most of the blokes didn't know what to make of it and I'm sure the vicar was suppressing a slight smile. I hope the person looking down from above saw the funny side, it would have certainly made their funeral more memorable.

St. Clement's Church was built in the fifteenth century for the chiefs of the MacLeod clan of the Isle of Harris and was dedicated to Pope Clement I. The church isn't used anymore, I think, but is open for visitors to take a look around. We took a wander into the church, it was fairly small and pretty cold. There wasn't too much light in there. There were some burial tombs for deceased members of the MacLeod clan. The church has two floors so we headed upstairs to take a look around inside the tower. There was a ledge that was filled with coins and other offerings that people had left. Since it was quite dark inside the glistening coins made a nice contrast. I took a wander around the exterior of the church. I liked the style of architecture, squat and square. Our guide had told us an interesting tidbit of information about the church to look out for the stone effigy on the far side of the church, on the tower, if I remember correctly. the woman is in somewhat of a compromising position as her vajajay is hanging out. It is thought that the carving is of a 'Sheela na gig', a woman with an exaggerated downstairs department and is, more importantly, the goddess of fertility, and life and death. Not what I was expecting to find here. I took a wander around the graveyard. There were gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside. The graveyard proved quite interesting one man with buried with his two wives (he had remarried after the first had died). There was also a headstone for a young child that had died by falling through the ice and drowning, a very sombre remind of how precious life is. We took a bit of a walk along the road near the church. It is situated in a small place called Rodel. There were quite a few sheep happily wandering about here. The Isle of Harris seems a lot quieter than the Isle of Lewis, there didn't seem to be as many people about as we had seen yesterday. No one else visited the church while we were there and only a couple of cars drove along the road. This place feels a lot more desolate. I am still undecided on which one I like better, Lewis or Harris.

We arrived in Tarbert, where we had stopped earlier in the morning for a coffee (I think, but at the other end of the small town). We had a bit of time so we wandered around. The Isle of Harris Distillery is there, which produces gin. There didn't seem to be any samples on offer or tours to take so we just had a look around the shop. Unfortunately, the bottle of gin were all out of my price range, I think it would have tasted nicer than the whiskey we had sampled yesterday. There were a couple of other souvenirs shops that we had a look around, I think we spotted a few people from the funeral procession earlier, judging by the amount of black they were wearing, hopefully they didn't recognise us as we were now busless. We took a walk to the War Memorial, which was a nice statue to commemorate the town's war dead. It was in a beautiful location, overlooking the water. We still had some time to kill so head down to sit at the dock. The ferry had arrived so we watched as the front opened and vehicles and cargo were released, it was pretty cool to watch. We boarded the ferry, it was the same procedure as last time, we had to board as foot passengers. The ferry was huge and we found a place to sit and chill. I think we were all knackered as we didn't talk too much, just read and napped instead. The journey took around two hours and the sea was calmer than it had been on our way over to the Outer Hebrides.

From the port at Uig, we still had about an hour's drive to reach Portree, the largest town on the island. We were staying at Portree Independent Hostel, a bright yellow building in the centre of town. This hostel was pretty big and there were lots of other guests staying there, too. The host, Gordon, was a really nice man, very friendly and chatty. We decided to take a look around the town. We wandered along its pretty little streets.The houses are very cute here. They are painted pretty colours and well cared for. The view looking down on the small harbour was very pretty and a good omen for the beauty that I anticpated to see when we would explore the island more the following day. Since we had got there in the early evening, a lot of the shops were closed, but we did find a couple that were open so we browsed through them. For dinner we had decided to get fish and chips, so we headed down to the take away by the water. I can't say I was too impressed with the service, the blokes working there were pretty gruff, the food pricey and to make matters worse, no mushy peas! Since you (well me) can't have fish and chips without mushy peas, we ended up walking to the Co-op in the town to buy a tin. We ate back at the hostel, they have a really nice, big, clean kitchen with lots of tables. We chatted to some other guests that were staying there.

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