St Kilda (work party 3) June 2006 Day 1

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Day1
I arrived at York station to catch the 6.37 train to Edinburgh to find it was delayed by 20 mins(good old GNER !!) due over-running signaling work.By the time the train reached Edinburgh the delay was 30 mins and I was starting to sweat that I would miss the plane to Stornoway ,however the bus connection was fine and I was able to have a glass of beer after checking in for the 11.20 flight.
The small plane took myself and 11 other passegers just over 40mins to touch down in Stornoway.I was met in arrivals by Hugh Barton,our team leader for the next 2 weeks along with Terry and Sue Russell from Hoylake, who had arrived earlier on a flight from Glasgow.
After introducing ourselves over a coffee and paninni we loaded Hughs Volvo and set off down The Long Isle for a misty ride to Leverbugh where we were to meet up with the rest of the team at the An Bothan hostel.This was to be our base for the night before catching the boat to St Kilda the following morning.
The weather by now had turned into a clear spring afternoon and having met James King we all set off for a walk to Rodel 3-4 miles away.The coastal path had beautful views and on reaching the Rodel Hotel we thought it would be rude not to have a drink. We took our pints of Guinness outside to sit on the sea wall as the bar itself was a souless place.Our journey back was taken along the road which was the more direct route but not as spectacular.On reaching An Bothan more of the party had arrived in time for us to go to the local resturant for dinner.Fish was the order of the day at the Anchorage, all freshly caught,I had Langoustines which were very good but a little messy!!
A stroll back to An Bothan found the rest of the team assembled along with Susan Bain of the National Trust for Scotland.Before turning in for the night,we witnessed a good veiw of the setting sun and Hugh explained what was and what was not expected of us for the next 2 weeks and so it was off to bed dreaming of what might be in store over the next fortnight.

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