Water, water, everywhere!

If the Western Isles had reliable weather, then they would be swamped with people and would lose all their magic. So, when you come here, you expect wonderful landscape and beautiful beaches, with peace and quiet and emptiness . . . but there is no point expecting good weather as well.

Today dawned showery and extremely windy. Fortunately the house we have has huge windows through which to watch the weather and better broadband access than we have at home, so there is no hardship in staying in until the weather changes. We did get out eventually, but plans to walk were curtailed by the wind, although we did manage a rather exhilarating walk along a wonderful beach.

North Uist is about 13 miles north to south and about 18 miles across from east to west at its widest. What is amazing is that around half of the area is water. Apart from the indented coastline, which provides many inlets, there is a complex system of freshwater lochs. So when driving around the island, which is on a mainly single-track road, you very often realise that you have water on both sides of you. It takes a bit of getting used to!

Very hazy today, in between the showers, so little light in this picture and mist in the distance, but it does give an idea of what much of the landscape is like here.