Van Life Day 14 - Barra

We had such a peaceful night at our wild camp (except for the cuckoo waking us up early.)

On the way down through South Uist there was a wonderful sight of a red deer posing beautifully on a rise on the opposite side of the road from me and we couldn’t stop as it was single track road with traffic around. Blip lost

We reached Eriskay early for our ferry just as one was about to depart - but there was room so we got over to Barra early. Mr C remembered a beautiful place on the west coast that we’d cycled to on our last visit 10 years ago. This is the blip. The machair is just beginning to flower though the crofters tell us everything is 3 weeks late and the grass hadn’t grown enough so the sheep are struggling to get enough food inside them to provide milk for the lambs.

This place in the photo would have been ideal for a wild camp but friends had told us they’d not found anywhere suitable last year so we’d booked on a site - £22. You can imagine Mr C’s distress.

On the way to the site on the north tip of the island we stopped at the airport to watch the Logan Air plane arrive from Glasgow. Barra has the only airstrip on a beach in UK. Obviously the flight times are dictated by the tide. It is fun to watch. 10 years ago it was possible to get a cheap flight onwards to Stornoway and back if there were spaces. The day we had free there were none and now the airline no longer goes on to Stornoway. It’s Glasgow or nothing.

Our site is really nice - almost at the end of the road, only 4 other vans and the crofter owner tells me I might see a corncrake. I doubt it - one van had a yappy dog.

The sun was shining and the beach opposite looked sheltered from the wind so we took our chairs down. And some wine. I went for a dook (swim). Though it was hard as it was miles to out to get to deep water.

We are going to have a walk round the top of the island before bed. I can’t believe the weather - Ingo is now in Stornoway and says it has rained all day