Monday – Ady was off ghillying. The kids and I spent the morning tidying and getting stuff ready for the holiday. After lunch Lesley came up with Dougal. He has never really been left before and is very, very upset whenever Lesley leaves his sight. He calms down for Neil (his dad) after a while, but even with Lesley’s brother Ross who he sees daily (also lives on Rum) and her Mum who he sees a lot he never really settles apparently. Fortunately Lesley didn’t really tell me this until later that day…
He cried when she first left so I took him outside and we walked around the croft looking at the animals, playing 1, 2, 3 wheee and generally distracting him. He cheered up fairly quickly and then I showed him the trampoline and he spent about 20 minutes on that loving it. He crawled across chasing a ball and really enjoyed being on there. At one point he also got up and walked across, I am not sure who was more surprised – me or him! He has taken first steps already (just as well, I was really worried that Lesley had missed them!) but is still mostly crawling or cruising round the furniture. Â I eventually managed to persuade him back into the caravan and he settled down after another short bout of being sad, ate loads, played lots, decided he adored Scarlett and stood for ages watching her drawing which even let me do some washing up and start dinner prep.
Lesley came up for for a cup of tea to collect him and the kids did the animal feeding round while I sorted out dinner. Ady was pretty late home but had had a good day.
Tuesday – I was on Dougal duty again in the morning and Ady was off ghillying again so we were both down in the village before 9am. I’d arranged to go and have a cup of tea at Fliss’ both because it meant not having Lesley have to bring Dougal up to the croft (earlier start for her and noise for Davies and Scarlett way earlier than they would normally be up) or me having to be in their house (they have two dogs, one of which I am terrified of!) but also because she was having Dougal the following day so it seemed like a good idea to get him a bit settled in her house. This time he cried when we said goodbye to Lesley but I pushed him along in his pushchair telling him a story really quietly and within a few minutes he’d worked out that his crying was meaning he couldn’t hear the story (about a little boy called Dougal who was very cross!). Then we played 1,2,3 whee with the pushchair like the day before on the croft, this time stopping on 3 to pick something interesting up as we walked along the shore road – a feather, a pebble, a stick, various leaves, a flower… most of them he grabbed and then lobbed over the side of the pushchair, then we picked a bramble and he ate that which totally stopped the crying 🙂 . Fliss was still in the shower when we arrived at hers so we left the pushchair and walked back a little way along the shore playing again and exploring – I had forgotten how slowly you can walk with a toddler and how much to explore there is, it was lovely in the sunshine leaning over a little person holding both their hands as they toddled along. We listened to the birds on the sea, the crunching sound of our footsteps, looked at more leaves, feathers, picked more brambles… then Steve came along so we chatted to him – he has just had a baby (7 weeks old) girl and is equally filled with wonder at the world through a child’s eyes so we got all sentimental together for a bit and then he joined me at Fliss’ for a cup of tea while Dougal and Joss played and we all sat on their hall floor.
Around midday Dougal was getting tired and started pointing at his pushchair through the window so we headed off and he was asleep in moments. I walked up to the fork where we park our cars and sat in the sunshine next to the pushchair for the last half an hour until Lesley finished work then walked back to meet her.
In the afternoon we packed all our rucksacks, made lists of last minute things to do, checked I had all our bookings and arrangements written down, along with directions and postcodes and double checked ferry times and travel distances. Â Scarlett and I did the evening feed and it was so gorgeous with a pink sky, pale moon and a feeling of real peacefulness that we stayed outside for ages as it grew gloomy chatting about the couple of weeks ahead and soaking up enough Rum-ness to bring with us until we came home.
Ady had had another long but enjoyable day. That’s all the ghillying for this year over with as the last stalking guests are this week while we’re away.
Wednesday – Ady and I took rucksacks down to start loading into the Matiz (mainland car) with the intention of taking both the Jeep and the Matiz to the pier and leaving the Matiz there. Except it wouldn’t start. So we left it parked and went to collect Jen from the first ferry. Back at the cars we tried to push the Matiz out so we could jump start it from the Jeep (it was parked facing the wrong way for that) but it’s automatic and we couldn’t get it out of Park so it wouldn’t move. A random tourist walking by stopped to join in too so there were four of us stood around the three cars. We then decided to use the Rangerover to jump it as that was parked close-ish but would need rolling forward and has unreliable brakes. It was all fine and we got it going, then drove the Jeep and the Matiz to the pier, leaving the Matiz there as per the original plan. Jen came with me so we had a catch up chat which was good.
Then to the croft for some lunch, a tour to introduce Jen to Kira, the new pigs, the new birds and the sheep and go over feeding and watering everyone. All of that done we left her to it and headed down to the pier to sit in the sunshine for an hour or so before the ferry came in. It was just a bit odd all hanging around watching the clock at the croft. Steve arrived pretty early for the boat too, followed by Lesley and Dougal and then a couple of SNH staff who had been over visiting so it was all quite sociable down there. Ady and I sat with Steve and Lesley on the boat for a smooth crossing and a straightforward drive to Fort William. A quick Morrisons shop, dinner in McDs and baths and an early night all round.
Thursday – which meant we were all awake early! I woke at 7 and Ady had already been awake for a while, the kids were awake by 730am so we decided to head away earlier than originally planned – I’d been allowing us to be on the road for 1030am and had booked us on the late ferry from Uig to Tarbert. I’d anticipated a slow drive across Skye with stops for lunch and food shopping and hadn’t wanted us to feel rushed. As it went we were in Portree before midday and at the ferry port before 230pm, having only really just missed the 2pm boat (not that we were booked on that anyway) with various faffing about stops and a long lunch in the CoOp carpark that we could easily have hurried through.
We looked in the various shops at the port – pottery, brewery etc. and then sat in the car chatting and playing Top Trumps that we’d found in a charity shop for 20p. The ferry was also running 35 minutes late which added even longer to both the wait and the arrival time the other end. Never mind.
I’d been hoping we’d be heading west to Harris for sunset on the way out and east to the mainland for sunrise on the way back but it was already dark by the time we boarded in the end – hoping we’ll get that sunrise experience tomorrow still though. Too dark for wildlife spotting but the ferry on that run is so much bigger than the LochNevis calmac we are used to at home that it kept the kids entertained going off exploring. Ady sat with his phone near a plug point charging it up. The drive across the island to the cottage was straightforward and we found it ok. It was nearly 10pm, we were hungry and tired and the cottage was pretty cold with the heating long since gone off for the evening (its on a timer for an hour morning and evening and can be topped up again if needs be), the oven was unfamiliar and took ages to heat up, then burnt our pizza and the wifi is very patchy. It wasn’t a great start despite Ady’s usual running around trying to please everyone but an early night and a good sleep for everyone meant we were fine again by the next day.
Friday – We have four full days here and my plan was for being back at the cottage before dark each evening to allow for plenty of time vegging out watching TV, having long baths and not too late dinners but to get out and see something every day too. I wanted to go to the very bottom or Harris, the very top of Lewis, visit Stornoway, see the Butt of Lewis lighthouse (which I had not realised was the same as the very top of Lewis), some of the famous Harris beaches, go to the Callanish standing stones and have a hot chocolate as when I’d been before I remember loving the hot chocolate I had there. Friday we decided to go to Stornoway as it would mean we could stock up on food for the stay aswell. We listened to Popmaster and then headed off. We couldn’t get signal on the phone for satnav so just headed north, as it goes we took the two sides of a triangle rather than the one, slightly adding to the drive but that was fine as it meant we got our bearing better for the rest of the time. Stornoway was way smaller than I was expecting. About a third of the island population live there – around 7500 people so I was anticipating a fair sized town. What struck me most was the balance between high street shops (Boots, Superdrug, CoOp, Tesco, Argos, M&Co) and all the independent shops – butchers, bakers, fishmongers, DIY store, newsagents, pharmacy and gift shop which I really liked and made me realise how much high streets in the UK generally have changed in just the 30 odd years since my childhood when that was a normal mix. There were a fair few charity shops and so we picked up various things – a pair of jeans for me, a butter dish, some soft toys for Scarlett, a cd to listen to in the car. Â We popped into the Calmac office to collect our tickets for Tuesday and then went to Tescos for a food shop. I really kicked myself afterwards for not going to the CoOp instead – there is a large store just outside the town and I would rather support CoOp than Tesco plus we have a members card for there. We had done our previous days shop for lunch, breakfast and first dinner in the CoOp on Skye at least.
Back to the cottage for baths and telly. We’d accidentally left the lounge heater on but it did mean it was toasty warm in there all evening.
Saturday – Off to Harris. Quite a long day of driving but we got out lots. To take photos of us at the border signs for Harris and Lewis, to visit a little Harris tweed shop and buy some wool, to get a picture at the very southern tip, to visit a small shop and buy some syrup for pancakes in the morning, to visit the bigger tweed shop I’d been to before and buy some more wool, to go into the Harris distillery and try the gin. It was delicious but at £35 I thought it too frivilous really so walked away. Ady pretended to need the loo and double backed in and bought me a bottle with his ghilly tips money. Bless him 🙂
Back to the cottage for more baths, telly and food. Started to feel really properly relaxed and holidayish.
Sunday – We’d been told everything, but everything closes on the islands on the sabbath and I can confirm that is true. We’d decided to do the Butt of Lewis lighthouse having realised they were one and the same place. I remember seeing a poster with a photo of the lighthouse in a storm somewhere as a kid and the image staying with me so I was really keen to see it. It was quite a drive, through some fairly uninteresting (sorry Lewis lovers!) landscapes. We stopped on the way at Carloway Broch – which was really interesting. Even though it was a nice, fairly still by Hebridean standards day it was still very blowy by the lighthouse. The sky was very lovely, all pink and yellow streaked so we overshot the cottage to go to the Callanish standing stones for some photos just incase it was not as nice on Monday.
Baths, telly, food…. it would get boring but four nights is still a novelty!
Monday – our last full day. We went back to the Broch to go inside the wee visitor centre which has some interpretation and a few gifts for sale, then to the Blackhouse village  at Gearrnnan, which was only partially open as they are hosting the Mod (gaelic choir) soon so they were preparing the space for that. So we got in to look around a couple of the houses for free which was good.  Then to the standing stones again. On the way we pulled into the Hebridean Soap Company as it was the turn off next to ours (and infact is at the end of our road as it’s a loop), got to watch some soap being made and had the process explained to us and then bought a few bits. Then to the stones visitor centre. We bought a card and tea towel as a thank you gift for Jen and had a hot chocolate in the cafe there as I’d been bigging them up to the others. Davies had a white chocolate one and said it was lovely, the others had normal with cream and marshmallows and declared them nice but not amazing, I had a spiced one which was really nice. It’s been showery today so we didn’t go back up to the stones, they seemed pretty busy anyway.  We drove to the nearest petrol station and wee shop to fill up with fuel and get some sliced bread as we’d discovered a toasted sandwich maker in the cottage kitchen and Ady and I were craving one.
Which takes me to where I am now. A few really long days ahead – tomorrow we’re on the 7am ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool, still hoping for that sunrise and maybe some wildlife spotting… then a drive down to Fort William for the dentist, then Ady leaves us to hang around for the late train to Mallaig and a night in the fishermans mission before the ferry home on Wednesday. Meanwhile the kids and I are heading for Glasgow to shave a few hours off the drive the following day before heading all the way south on Wednesday. Scarlett is in the bath, Ady and I are enjoying last real day of the holiday early drinks and we’re psyching ourselves up to packing the car up now so we don’t have too much to do at 5 oclock tomorrow morning which is a time that none of us are used to, except perhaps Davies, still awake from the other side!
We’ve enjoyed the trip. My take home with me memories of Harris and Lewis will be the smell of peat on the evening air, the overwhelming lack of much at all as you drive mile after mile with nothing. The complete absence of pubs which I’ve never noticed anywhere else. We had a sneaky feeling we might fall in love with Harris & Lewis, it is after all something we seem to do… but we have not at all. I don’t like the bleakness without beauty which is how it feels to me. The landscape feels flat and endless without the jagged hills and trees. I don’t like the human touch every single place you look – endless pylons and electric lines, proper roads, streetlights, scruffy townships of grey houses and rusting tractors without the charm and vitality that lots of people bring. I like the lack of chain stores, fast food, everything closed on a Sunday, I like the tangible feeling of history and groundedness and connection, the remoteness and the beaches… I think it has all of the good bits of Rum while Rum has none of the bad bits of here. Hmmm.