L2L Day 90 Borve (Berneray) to Hergabost (Harris)- 10 miles

Up before 6 to walk to the harbour, without breakfast for the 07:00 ferry to Leverburgh (Harris).




We reckoned this must be the best value hour's entertainment as the ferry slalomed between the channel marker buoys and the low lying submerged rocks to arrive safely in Leverburgh.





With no facilities for breakfast, we were starving by the time we arrived so it was straight to the ButtyBus on the harbourside for a breakfast sandwich and coffee.




Chris had been a Navigating officer in the Merchant Navy for 20 years before running a business exporting Hebridean crabs to the Far East. He explained the challenges with Spanish middlemen who'd always try to outbid the locals and pay in cash.

While waiting for our bus, we chatted about SNP, Keir, pensions and Andy B. A great way to start the morning!

Having run the ButtyBus - "with 4 Michelin tyres" - for the last 16 years, Chris now has the perfect work-life balance, spending the Summer months in the Hebrides and the winter months in Thailand. Brilliant!!

Again, because of the challenges of the length of the walk to Tarbert and the times of busses, we decided to walk the first section from North to South - from Hergabost to Leverburgh so with little time to spare after our breakfast roll, we caught the W10 bus. No sooner on board, we got talking to the driver. Calum had also been in the merchant navy and travelled all over the world as a ship's cook. He described cooking for a multi national, multi ethnic crew. After the merchant navy, he moved to Ontario where he drove Kenilworths. He also met and married his wife there.


Calum retired back to Harris in 2000 and drives the local bus now, as he said, to 'get him out if the house'

At Hergabost, there must have been 20 camper vans, parked up on a headland overlooking the sea. Each to his own!

The trail from Hergabost, climbed gradually up to about 300 ft and then rose and fell for the next five miles. 



Checking on your flock in this terrain before quad bikes must have been tough.


The going was boggy and we had to take many diversions to keep out of the deeper stuff. As a consequence, progress was slow - only a little over 1 mph.

We stopped for a flask of coffee accompanied by the beautiful song of a wren only a few metres away.


and distant views of the island of Taransay and Scarp beyond.


The trail eventually dropped down to Sgarasta beach where we walked across the sand dune meadows 


before reaching the almost blindingly bright white golden sand.




Though we'd had an early start, the slow progress forced us to change our plans for the afternoon. We caught a bus for a few miles back to Leverburgh and enjoyed a chilled afternoon with a walk around the inner harbour,



hearing the plaintive call of a Sandpiper on some floating seaweed


visiting a Harris tweed shop with displays of the various colours that are available



and a very relaxed visit to the local Harris Brewery. Ideal!







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

L2L Day 1 Dover

Image
While waiting for the 09:14 from Arundel to Dover Priory , I had a perverse exchange with a driver on the taxi stand who I thought was cleaning out his coffee machine. After a brief, rather one-sided discussion over coffee blends and flavours greeted by his puzzled expression, I realised he'd actually  been cleaning his vacuum cleaner and the detritus from the floor of his taxi. Ah well!  Here's to more enlightening conversations over the next few months!! £37 gets you two tickets from Arundel to Dover Priory in comfort in just about 3 hours which at a rate of about 10p per minute, I reckon is pretty good value. Alas, on arrival in Dover  and checking-in to the hotel, the smiling receptionists told us they had no mains water supply. Catastrophe!!!! While looking for alternative accommodation, we were also struck by the intriguing instructions on their key-cards. With the prospect of no showers or flushing loos, we checked in to Dover Travelodge - cheap, cheerful and with...
Read more

L2L D5 Rye to Hastings - 13 miles

Image
With the prospect of a longer walk today, we had an early breakfast and were out to enjoy Rye in bright sunshine and a gentle breeze. There were few others around and we almost had the streets to ourselves. Our route for today. My apparel for the day now includes Barrie and Sheila's oyster shell from Whitstable. After  leaving Rye, we walked along the Royal Military Canal and came across a Stanton shelter dating from 1942. These were of prefabricated concrete panels that could be bolted together. This one was used to provide shelter for the men organising a Starfish decoy - made up of lights and fires set up in the middle of fields - a long way from habitations to mislead and confuse Luftwaffe pilots into believing that they were flying over a burning town and thus drop further bombs - out of harms way. Along the Royal Military Canal we came to the ruins of Camber Castle.  Commissioned by Henry VIII, he realised that the location could defend the whole of the estuary. Today, a...
Read more

L2L Day 2 Dover to Folkestone - 11 miles

Image
The weather forecast for the day was promising full sunshine all day but a low temperature combined with a keen wind from the North resulting in a 'feels like' temperature of 2 degrees. It was going to be a cold walk. Despite the forecast, the bright sunshine gave us a welcoming start to the day. Before heading out of town, our eyes were caught by a shop selling an alternative form of transport which might well become more attractive as the days go on. The 'Savvy Defender' had an air of indestructability and at a mere 6 and a half grand seemed to be a mere snip. We soon realised that the route was not going to be flat. The King Charles III coastal path as it heads West rises steeply out of Dover with open views back towards Dover Castle, the White cliffs and the harbour. The route westward passes the Drop Redoubt, built in 1804 to fend off any French invasion. The walk along the clifftops was a delight   with hearing our first skylark of the year, gorse coming in to f...
Read more