Narrowboat Thuis is back at the marina in Stone for the winter and we are back in our house in Lancashire. As always, we are a little sad at the end of this year’s adventure, but we will be back on “the cut” next year, and can look forward to the next few months of bricks & mortar life.
And I can engage in my favourite pastime of making plans. I get bored very easily and the idea of a quiet retirement fills me with dread. So we will have a couple of weeks at home, seeing family and friends and doing jobs around the house, and then we will be off to North Uist for six weeks.
North Uist is a small island in the Outer Hebrides. We have stayed there before and it will be very peaceful at this time of year. The tourists will have left and restaurants & attractions will have closed. But what will be left for the locals is simply stunning scenery and amazing nature. The weather will either be sideways rain, in which case our cottage with the open fire will be very welcome, or it will be clear and sunny with the best light in the UK. My brother in law is joining us for the first week and he is unconvinced. I can’t wait to take him to see some of the beaches and see what he says.
After the Hebridean trip it will be Christmas and maybe skiing in January. And then, all too soon, it will be February and we will be back on the boat. Come the end of this year I will have been retired for five years. Is it time to go back to a job? Not yet!
We are coming to the end of our month long visit to North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and it seems to have gone so fast. I would very happily stay for another month or even longer. In some ways I do not want to encourage more tourists because the island might become spoilt in the same way that Skye and the North Coast 500 routes have, where locals are squeezed out and the tiny roads become blocked with queues of camper vans. Nevertheless, it is such a great place that I really want to share eight short reasons that I love these islands.
1. It is so peaceful. Particularly in North Uist, the population density is tiny, with a few little villages, and most people living in crofts, situated in small landholdings.
2. It is so beautiful. I have previously shared beach photographs. The beaches are simply amazing. But the moorland, lochlets (baby lochs) and mountains are equally stunning. Awesome views await around every corner.
3. The history is incredible. Not quite as jaw dropping as Orkney, but there are still multiple standing stones, chambered cairns, and ruined cottages. I have been particularly moved by so much evidence of the clearances between 1750 and 1860, when thousands of crafters were thrown off their land by largely English landlords, who wanted the islands for hunting and shooting.
4. There is no-one here. In the summer no doubt the islands are busier, but at this time of year there are very few tourists, and most days we find a space with no-one around. Maybe a deserted beach. Maybe a walk in the woods. Maybe at the end of one of the windy single track roads.
5. The food is very good. Although many of the restaurants are closed for the season, we have had some really delicious food. I recommend Langass Lodge, where we had a wonderful Halloween themed evening; the Hebridean Smokehouse, which makes unbelievably tasty smoked salmon and smoked scallops; and Kallin Seafood café, hidden at the back of a chandlery for trawlermen, next to where the fishing boats come in. We had the most perfect lobster one lunchtime, fresh from the sea, served with chips and a Marie Rose sauce.
6. The skies are so clear. I don’t mean they are cloudless. As well as sunshine, we have had days of sideways rain. But we are so far north that the skies have a lightness about them, the same light through the day that in most places you just see at dawn or dusk. When it is sunny, the skies are a deep blue directly above, and fade to almost white at the horizons.
7. Nights in the cottage are cosy. There is no light pollution here so it gets very dark. We have an excellent multi fuel stove. So most nights we have hunkered down with the warmth of the stove, and watched a film on Netflix or Disney Plus. Despite the remoteness, mobile broadband means that we have surprisingly good internet here.
8. Being here has been so good for my mental health. I don’t know whether it is the peace, the light, the quietness, but it has calmed everything down in my head, and tomorrow I will be returning to the mainland feeling properly refreshed.
We are nearly half way on our Outer Hebrides adventure. Two weeks in and two weeks to go. We have already seen all weathers, from torrential rain, to bright sunshine; from gale force winds to total stillness. I have been out every day and have been astounded by so many brilliant beaches, most of them completely empty.
I think the sun being so low in the sky helps, giving a dawn/dusk light throughout the day, and giving the seas a lovely turquoise colour. I love the peace. All you can hear are the waves, and an occasional bird. It feels as if being here is just perfect.
West beach on the island of Benbeluca is so perfect that a photograph was once used in a Thailand tourist brochure. It is a little colder here though!
I wonder what new vistas are in store for us in the second fortnight. I love these islands.
Near LochmaddyWest beach, BernerayHougharryThe isle of Vallay (only accessible at low tide)Barry Airport runway (yes, really!)VatersayAskernishEriskay, where the AM Politician was sunk in 1941., inspiring Whisky GaloreCreagorry
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