Phil and Dee's Travels

Friday, October 6, 2023

How Many Ferries?

How many ferries have all three of us been on, here is the final list - quite a few!

1. Cairnryan to Larne in Northern Ireland

2. Larne to Cairnryan in Scotland

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3. Ellenabeich to Easedale island

4. Easedale island to Ellenabeich

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5. Oban to Craignure on Mull

6. Foinnphort on Mull to Baile Mor on Iona

7. Baile Mor on Iona to Fionnphort on Mull

8. Craignure on Mull to Oban

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9. Scrabster to Stromness in Orkney

10. Kirkwall to Lerwick in Shetland

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11. Toft on the mainlend to Ulsta on Yell

12. Gutcher on Yell to Belmont on Unst

13. Gutcher on Unst to Hamars Ness on Fetler

14. Hamars Ness on Fetler to Gutcher on Yell

15. Ulsta on Yell to Toft on the mainland

16. Leebitten on the mainland to Mousa

17. Mousa to Leebitten

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18. Lerwick to Kirkwall on Orkney mainland

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19. Kirkwall to Pierowall on Westrey

20. Pierowall to Papa Westrey

21. Papa Westrey to Pierowall

22. Pierwall to Kirkwall

23. Houton to Lyness on Hoy

24. Lyness to Houton

25. Kirkwall to Shapinsay

26. Shapinsay to Kirkwall

27. Kirkwall to Stronsay

28. Stronsay to Eday

29. Eday to Sanday

30. Sanday to Kirkwall

31. Kirkwall to Rousay

32. Rousay to Kirkwall

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33. Stromness to Scrabster on mainland Scotland

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34. Ullapool to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides

35. Leverburgh on Harris to Bernery on North Uist

36. Eriskay to Ardmhor on Barra

37. Ardmhor on Barra to Eriskay

38. Lochboisdale on South Uist to Mallaig on mainland Scotland

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In addition to this list:

- Boat trip to see the Corryvreckan without Purdy

- Phil ferry from Stromness to Moaness on Hoy

- Phil ferry from Moaness on Hoy to Stromness

- Wildlife boat trip from South Uist with Purdy

Arriving on the mainland was a bit of a shock to the system as we thought it would be - loads of big motorhomes, locals who don't like them and us! Plus very expensive campsites, many run down and mostly full. 'No Campervan' signs everywhere. We stopped at Arisaig for a walk and ended up having delicious fish and chips. We had hoped to visit Knoydart but with nowhere to stay near to Mallaig (where we would take the ferry on foot) and parking an issue we continued on.

So many laybys were full of vans but we managed to find a spot to wild camp by ourselves away from the main road. From there we continued south via a brief stop at Fort William for some hiking shoe shopping, we carried on to Glencoe where we stayed for a night. The next day we visited the Scottish National Trust visitor centre.

A reconstruction of a traditional Turf House

Beautiful drive through Glencoe

We stopped at a great pub, The Drovers Inn, serving customers since 1705! We could park in a large carpark at the back free if we had dinner - a no brainer! It is a quirky old pub with a Victorian collection of stuffed animals.

A bear at The Drovers Inn!

We stopped in Moffat for a few days which is a friendly, small town in Dumfries and Galloway. We hiked up to the Grey Mare's Tale waterfall - or series of waterfalls really. One of the UK's highest.

Loch Skeen

The following day we had a bit of an outdoor shop fest from Keswick to Ambleside to Kendall to try to find some new walking shoes and to take a pair back. Then we found a great stopover at The Ashes Caravan Park where we stayed on an emergency pitch for the night (as again, it was full)!

Our last day was spent at Fountains Abbey near Ripon, another National Trust property.

I hope this doesn't become a habit!

After a stop overnight in Lincolnshire, we were home and back to 'normality'!

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

The Outer Hebrides - Barra and Vatersay

A short ferry journey took us from Eriskay to Barra. It's a small island with another smaller island, Vatersay, connected by a causeway at the south. We stayed at Scurrival campsite on the north recommended by a few people we had met - a very good choice it was.

The view from our pitch - above and below

We demounted again so we could explore in the truck. Barra is famous as it has the only airport in the UK where planes land on the beach - the beach is the airport!

This was the beach in front of our campsite

Kisimul Castle, Castlebay

At the southern tip of Barra a causeway took us to Vatersay, the furthest south we would be going in the Outer Hebrides.

A lovely swimming beach at Vatersay

A nice view from a walk just south of the campsite.

The cows on Vatersay like it on the beach - eating seaweed! We were told that the Royal Yacht Britannia moored off a secluded beach near here so the kids could be taken ashore to play on the beach.

Weather not up to our usual standard!

Vehicles here don't need an mot unless they travel to the mainland but they do need insurance and tax. There used to be a vehicle crusher on the island every so often but this was stopped, probably when the price of scrap fell - leading to more vehicles just being abandoned. We have seen this everywhere on all islands.

We have found abandoned cars in all sorts of places!

Whipping up a storm on the west coast

We have enjoyed Barra and Vatersay, especially due to Scurrival campsite with its lovely location and generous host - Angus. He even brought us free range eggs (including a doubler he delivered especially after we were talking about them) and freshly dug potatoes - no charge, just happy to help.

Dee peeling the spuds!

However, we both found the Uists our favourite of The Outer Herbrides with Barra and Vatersay a close second.

One last swim in the calm before the storm!

We spent our last night adjusting our position (we were mounted up) on the edge of a storm force anti cyclone trying to keep head on into the wind - gusting to about 65mph - in our very exposed location! Gale force goes up to about 46mph on the Beaufort Scale and is Force 8. 65mph put us in Violent Storm Force 11 - Hurricane is Force 12!

In the end we put all 4 x legs down to try to stabilise us and had very little sleep. Various ferries were cancelled but luckily our short journey back to Eriskay and South Uist early the next morning was on because the wind, although still very strong, had changed to a better direction for docking.

We were in that middle purple bit!

We returned to South Uist for a night back at Kilbride campsite before heading north for another walk in the mountains before we left. This is the view from a hill behind the campsite at sunset.

We travelled back to Lochskipport for another walk in the foot hills of Hecla - turned out to be very boggy and also shared by a few midges on a windless day!

Our last night on Uist was a cracker - a wild camp beside an MOD firing range, beside the sea and all by ourselves and with local farmer's permission. We watched Hen Harriers hunting nearby and enjoyed a sunny afternoon.