A Boat Trip to the St KIlda Isles...Not!

One of our planned highlights for this trip was a day-trip by boat to the St Kilda Isles...about 40 miles out into the Atlantic from Harris. Always weather dependent, we were booked for today with tomorrow as a back-up. When we rang last night to check, things were not looking too good with the final decision to be made in the morning. So we were up early and, after a light breakfast, heading down to Leverburgh.

The wind was blowing a gale, you could have surfed on the inland loch we drove past and it was pouring rain by the time we arrived at the dock...no prizes for guessing...trip cancelled for today...ring tonight to see it they would be going tomorrow. So disappointed that we weren't going...and relieved we weren't going in such terrible weather...we headed back to the B&B for some tea and toast.

With the day ahead of us still, we weren't going to sit in the B&B all day so we set off to visit the Harris Knitwear and Harris Tweed shops. After getting thoroughly drenched each time we got out of the car, we decided that we needed to do something different. In the hope of finding some slightly better weather, we set out for Lewis. After crossing the mountain range that defines the north of Harris, we found a spot where we could pull off the road and have the picnic lunch that was prepared for our boat trip. Not that we could actually get out of the car...the wind was still howling and the rain was coming down in bucket loads.

After our lunch we continued north, crossing into Lewis for the first time. It was only now that we could see a significant difference between the two parts of the same island...Harris is predominantly hilly and rocky whereas Lewis is flat and fertile. As we drove the north the weather was improving slowly...it was still raining, just not as heavily. Eventually we came to the Callanish Standing Stones and we stopped at the Visitors Centre just to have somewhere to get out of the car.

For the first time that day, our luck was with us. While we were there, it actually stopped raining. So off we went, along with everyone else, to slush around in a paddock and inspect the stones. The lull in the rain didn't last long so it was back in the car again. Feeling rather fed up, we decided to call it a day and head back to the B&B...after all, we had booked in for dinner and didn't want to be late for another round of Allan's marvellous cooking. Unfortunately we also got the bad news...the boat wouldn't be going tomorrow.

The Callanish Standing Stones