There's no such thing as bad weather...

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Just the wrong coat!  :-))

We headed north to Port of Ness today, in glorious sunshine and shirt sleeves, with a plan to carry on to the Butt of Lewis, which is  the most northerly point of Lewis and known for being the windiest place in Europe (photographers are warned not to get too close to the cliff edges for fear of sudden gusts of wind blowing them over!) 

Arriving at Port of Ness we drove down to the lovely little harbour.  I was keen to get out with my camera as the boathouse at the harbour is the scene of the murder in Peter May's book The Blackhouse (if you haven't read The Lewis Trilogy you must!  Brilliant books) but David had spotted the little cafe at the top of the hill called The Breakwater (if you are in the area we can recommend it.  Friendly service and delicious soup :-) and wanted to stop there first.

Whilst in there we got talking to a local man who was keen to tell us about the view before us and explained that when the distant mountains on the Scottish mainland are visible, it means it's going to rain.  When they're not visible, it's already raining :-)))

And as if by magic, his words came true as we sat there gazing at the stunning view of sunshine and blue seas out the east facing window of the cafe, with the south west facing window showing a completely different picture.  Approaching black stormy skies, moving at quite a pace, almost like a blanket being pulled over our head.  

We had planned to stay for coffee but I knew if I wanted a decent photo of the harbour in the sunshine, I only had a few minutes left to capture it.

We got outside the cafe, I moved the to the vantage point I had identified earlier and had just put the camera to my eye when a bloomin' mini bus reversed in front of me completely blocking the view!  He was only dropping a passenger off and it only took a minute but by the time he pulled away the storm cloud had rolled over and the first heavy drops of rain started to fall.  Argggghhhh!

We were literally four steps from the car and in the time it took to get to it, the heavens opened and we got absolutely soaked!  I have never experienced anything like it.  Bright sunshine, blue skies, warm air to skies as dark as night, bringing a deep chill and the heaviest rain I have ever seen.  The change happened so quickly it was as though someone had flicked a switch.

We got in the car and turned to look at each other, completely stunned and dripping wet and I could not stop laughing!  We must have sat there for at least five minutes completely incredulous and trying to make sense of the experience.  Tears of laughter running down my face mingled with the water running from my soaking wet hair to drip off my chin.  Weirdly the whole situation felt fantastic.  One of those it's good to be alive moments :-)))

Once we'd regained our composure we decided that perhaps visiting the windiest and wildest place in Europe in these conditions was probably not the best idea, so headed south towards Stornoway.  

Of course twenty minutes later the sun was out again and it was as though the storm had never been (see extra) 

Yesterday on our way to North Tolsta we passed a football ground at Coll and, much to David's delight, I spotted there was also a golf driving range.  He went along there this evening while I chilled with a G&T and dozed off edited some of my photos. 

A perfect end to the day :-))