The Bois and Read Families' trip to Scotland

The Outer Hebrides are a series of islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.  We visited only the largest, the Isle of Lewis and Harris

The road from Lewis to Harris goes through a valley that probably has a name but Al and Sarah referred to it only as Dinosaur Valley.  With the rocks and boulders lying where the glaciers left them, it's easy to imagine a T-Rex come screaming over the hill.

We went south to Tarbert to visit Al's grandmother and Uncle Billy, and of course Cap the dog.  We got there just in time to see the ferry leaving port for Uig.  Those mountains in the distance are on Skye, about thirty miles away.

Al's grandmother's name is Louisa, but everyone called her Gran.  At 90, she's more delightfully spry and vivacious than some 30-year-olds I know.  I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of her.
 

We chatted for about half an hour, said we would return in the afternoon and then continued south to a beach called Luskentyre.  I snapped this picture from the car.  It's a graveyard far from any village, with West Loch Tarbert and the mountains of Harris in the background.

Billy Connolly, the Glaswegian commedian, says that every Scottish family has pictures of their holidays at the beach with everyone bundled up in raincoats and wellies.  He's right.

 

	Behind us is the Isle of Taransay.  It had been unpopulated until recently when a television program called Castaway 2000 put several people there for a year in order to film how they formed their own society.  The American program Survivor is based on it, though - typically - the American version involves figuring out who among the castaways are superior to the others.
	Anyway, You can almost make out some of the Castaways' buildings on the shore of Taransay.  Al reckonned that if it weren't for curiousity created by the TV show, we would have been the only people on the beach.  As it was, there were half a dozen others.

I never imagined there would be jellyfish in Scotland, but there must have been a hundred of them washed up on the beach.  The water is warmer than you would expect this far north due to the Gulf Stream.  We didn't see any dolphins but apparently they're common here too.

 

It may look like a tropical paradise, but all the bathing beauties are wearing parkas.

 

We walked along the beach for a while, and then turned towards the sand dunes.  There are dunes back home in Florida but they're not this big and you're not allowed to walk on them.  That may be because there's thousands of people on the beach in Florida, and only a handful at Luskentyre.  Besides, people won't do any more harm than the sheep.

 

Always the good sport, Al carries Sarah up the sand dune.  This was probably harder than it looks because the sand is soft and steep.  It keeps sliding out from under your feet.
	Is it any wonder she loves him?

 

Al and Sarah found a place out of the wind and soaked up some sun there while Adam, Danusia and I continued through the dunes. Adam tried sliding down this one but the sand was too soft, even though the dune was steep.

Everyone, that is, except for Sarah who was busy keeping Cap at bay. Anyway, the peat is cut out of the ground in blocks which are laid out to dry.  It's then burned for heat or to dry barley for whisky.

Two sides of Cap:  frisky sheepdog and master of all he surveys.

One of Cap's charges.       Cap and Adam became fast friends in no time.

While we sat on the shore of a pond contemplating, Adam and Cap went for a walk around the fields.  That's Adam on top of the hill, Cap is running around somewhere.

Gran's house, as seen from the bluff above the shore.

After saying good-bye to Gran, Billy and Cap, we went back to Stornoway.  When Alice came home from work, she offered us a dram and we were not so rude as to refuse.  Besides, we needed our strength to walk into town.  Patrick and Alice are devoted walkers.  Sarah claims their "wee walks" closely resemble five-mile forced marches, but everyone has their own perspective on things.

Anyway, we walked to an Indian restaurant in town and filled ourselves with spicy food.  Adam had a vindaloo that nearly required asbestos gloves and goggles, and he loved it.  He had had his first vindaloo last year after hearing about it on Red Dwarf.  The waiter kept calling Adam, "Master."

On the way back, the Reads walked together at their regular pace leaving Danusia and me in their dust.  We still got to the house way before nightfall - around 10:00 PM.

Next:  June 16, 2000
 
 

June 8 & 9, 2000		Florida to London: Danusia's side trip
June 10, 2000		London to Edinburgh: Grey Mare's Tail
June 11, 2000		Edinburgh to Luing: Edinburgh Castle, the ferry to Luing
June 12, 2000		Luing to Aviemore: Hill climbing, grey weather
June 13, 2000		Aviemore to Foyers: Glenfiddich distillery, Loch Ness, Falls of Foyers
The morning of June 14, 2000		Foyers to Glen Sheil: More of Loch Ness and Falls of Foyers, Urquhart Castle, Glen Sheil
The afternoon of June 14, 2000		Glen Sheil to Stornoway: Eilean Donan Castle, ferry from Uig to Tarbert
June 15, 2000		Stornoway, Luskentyre and Tarbert
The morning of June 16, 2000		Callanish
The afternoon of June 16, 2000		Dail Mor
The evening of June 16, 2000		Ceilidh on the lawn
June 17, 2000		Stornoway to Inverness: A quick good-bye, foggy ferry ride, bus to Inverness
June 18 & 19, 2000		Inverness to London: Hot Hamlet, Floridians get sunburned