Callanish Standing Stones

Callanish Standing Stones - June 21st 2015

On the Western Isles, no shops are open on a Sunday, not even the supermarkets in the towns.  We did not need to shop as we were going to see the Callanish Standing Stones, one of the main places we all wanted to visit during our week.  These stones are about 5000 years old - that is very, very, VERY old!  Unfortunately it was raining, but that had not stopped a lot of people having the same idea.  It was difficult for us to take photographs, not only because of the rain, but it almost impossible to avoid people, or bits of people.  Here are a few  of the images that Grannymac managed to take.

These stones are very special.  They are all Lewisian gneiss, one of the common rocks on these islands.  Grannymac is very interested in rocks and minerals and all that sort of thing, so she knows a little bit about geology, which she told me is the word for that kind of science.  The stones are different sizes, the tallest being 4.75 metres.  This is her favourite photograph from that morning - pity about the fence, she says.

This is such a special place that we decided we would come back again another day, at a different time, in the hope that it might be quieter.

We then drove north, with a plan to visit to one of the sandy beaches for which the Hebrides are famous.

Yogi, Lady Helen and Yogi decided to walk out towards where the sea was, quite a long way away.

    Grannymac, Bella and I stayed nearer the car as it was too far for Grannymac on her crutches.  There were quite a few wild flowers, which Grannymac likes.  She enjoyed taking photographs of some of them.

Yogi took some photographs of the part of the beach he, Lady Helen and Mr Apache had walked out to.  He also photographed an interesting rock.

When Lady Helen came back, she told Grannymac that she had found one or two hairy caterpillars on the grassy area beside the beach.  Of course, Grannymac wanted to see them too, especially as she wanted a photograph of a Very Hungry Caterpillar for her Photo 500 Challenge.   When they looked they found lots and lots of them - they were everywhere and, my word, they certanly were hairy!

Time to go back to the car and head 'home'.  There is a wood-burning stove at our house, which Mr Apache and Yogi wanted to light at some point.  In my last photo, Yogi is carrying a broken pallet which was lying on the beach - some fuel for the fire.  I think I will need to write a separate post about the house soon, but not tonight.

Ferry Journey to Tarbert, Harris

Ferry Journey to Tarbert, Harris - June 20th 2015

We had to be up early to be sure we were in time for the ferry, even though the pier was just across the road.  We had time to look around before the ferry came into Uig.  It was a calm, grey sort of morning but the area around the harbour was very attractive.

All of the vehicles intending to go on the ferry were waiting in a queue.  I knew we were going to have to cross some water called The Minch (because Grannymac told me this) and she also explained that to do that, we needed to go on a ship, because cars can't travel on water.  I was looking forward to seeing what this ship, or ferry, looked like.  One thing was puzzling me though - how were all these cars going to get onto a ship?  We would see very soon.  While we waited, Grannymac talked to some of the other people waiting, including one man who had a big, hairy dog, which he said was a Belgian Cattle Dog.  It was very friendly - we watched it go over to say Hello to Lady Helen. 

In fact there were a lot of dogs around.  Maybe that was because their owners have chosen to go on holiday somewhere where it is easy for them to bring their dogs with them. Just a thought.

As it was nearly time for the ferry to arrive, we went to a spot where we could see it coming in.  Sure enough, it appeared round the corner, sailing quite quickly in our direction - very exciting!  It didn't look big to start with, but as it came closer, it did look big!  Now I know what a ferry looks like!

Grannymac explained that Caledonian MacBrayne (usually just called Calmac) ferries are very, very important to people who live on the islands, because they carry people, vehicles and all kinds of things that islanders need between the mainland and the islands.  Some islands have small airports too, but they couldn't do without their ferries.  I think our ferry looks very smart.  Now, how to get on to it?

First of all, all of the cars and people arriving in the ferry had to get off.  Then, no time was wasted in loading it up again.  The queue of cars slowly moved forward.

As we got closer to the ferry, Bella and I could see how the car was going to get on.  A sloping 'roadway' had been lowered from the ferry ( called a ramp, it seems) and big doors opened so that the cars could drive on.  My goodness, this was exciting for two little bears!

Mr Apache drove the car in carefully and went in the direction the man in the yellow jacket was pointing.  (By now Bella didn't want to watch anymore - I think she was a bit scared, but I didn't want to miss a second.)  I gave the man a wave and I think he smiled at me.  The cars have to fit in very closely together so that as many as possible can get in.  In fact some of them had driven on to one area which was then lifted up high so there were two layers of cars.  Everyone had then to leave their cars and go to the upper parts, or decks, of the ferry.  From there we could watch as the ferry moved away from the pier.  We were on our way!

Soon the houses on land looked very small and before long we were away from land altogether.  It was fun to watch the trail the ferry left behind it  (Grannymac said it is called the 'wake') and to look at the swirly patterns and the colours in the water.  Some people saw some dolphins, but we didn't.

One hour and forty minutes later, we started to get close to land again, this time to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris.  These are some of the things we saw.

Very soon, all drivers and passengers had to return to their cars, the ferry stopped at the Tarbert pier and we all had to drive off.  The road signs again had the place-names in Gaelic as well as English.  We now had to drive for about an hour to reach the house we had rented for the week.

Unfortunately, as the road climbed over the hilly part of Harris, we found ourselves among such low cloud that we were unable to see any of the scenery!  Soon we were on lower ground again and we could see where we were going.

It was interesting to see the area where we were going to spend the week.  The most interesting sight we saw was a man cutting the woolly coats off his sheep (shearing them, Granny said) but we didn't stop.  A bit further on, we had to stop while a small flock of sheep went past.  We were going to see a lot more sheep during the week.

Soon we came close to our house.  You can see the kind of area it was in - it is one of the white houses you can see.  I am not going to write more in this post but may write more about the house later, as well as about some of the places we visited.

A Day on the Isle of Skye

A Day on the Isle of Skye - June 19th 2015

Nobody would tell me about the surprise last night - it was very frustrating having to wait.  I was so excited that it was hard to get to sleep.  In the morning, when I got up, I saw what the surprise was - another little bear made by Lady Helen which she had brought to keep me company during our holiday!  If I could, I would have shouted out a huge, very loud and very happy WOW!  She was sitting beside Mr Apache's book about the Outer Hebrides.  I sat down beside her to say Hello.  Wasn't that the biggest and best surprise ever!  Thank you so much, Lady Helen!

Grannymac has already told you how hard it was to find a name for me, but it wasn't difficult at all to think of a name for my new little friend.  It could only be Bella, because that means 'beautiful' and she is really, really beautiful!  Don't you think so?  It's going to be wonderful to have her here to share our adventures.  Now I'm more excited than ever!

Today we are going to spend the whole day on Skye, then tomorrow we will be going by ferry on the last part of our long journey to the Outer Hebrides.  I don't know what a ferry is, but I'll find out tomorrow.  Grannymac thought it would be a good idea to look at a map to see where we are and where we are going.

We live right down in the south of Scotland, very close to the border with England, in the bottom left-hand corner of the border line in the small inserted map.  You can see that we have come a very long way already and tomorrow we are going to the white island on the map, out in the sea above and to the left of Skye.  Today we are going to go north from Uig (pronounced Ooig) where we have stayed overnight and where the ferries sail from, right round where it says Trotternish (funny name!) on the map, and then down to Portree, the main town on Skye, and then back to Uig.

I was able to stand on the dashboard again but Bella had to sit beside me as her feet are too ..., well, let's say, not the right shape for the slots I stand in, but that was fine.  The first interesting stop was to have a look at some of the kind of houses people here used to live in a long time ago, very different from today's houses.  I'm not sure if I would have liked living there, although maybe it would be very cosy.

 After that, we drove through beautiful landscapes, heading for a beach where there were dinosaur footprints that could be seen at the right state of the tide.  Dinosaurs?  In Scotland?  Well, well!

It is interesting to see how spread the houses are, not close together as they are in a town. As we were coming close to the beach, it became obvious that Bella was going to keep falling over - poor Bella!  We will have to do something about that.

You can just see the dinosaur sign on the left.  We spent a little bit of time on the beach, but, even though we looked, we didn't find the footprints.

You will notice some very strange-looking words, which are difficult to pronouce and to understand, if you don't speak Gaelic.  This is the language that about a third of the people on Skye speak,  as well as English.  We don't speak Gaelic so it is just as well there is an English version of the text too.  There were some very unusual little shelters that must be to shelter the boats in stormy weather, perhaps even to prevent them being washed away.   Whoever built them didn't have to look far for big stones - they were lying everywhere at the bottom of the small cliffs.  There was also a little stone building built in the same way.

 

When we moved on, we solved Bella's problem by putting her in front of my arm in the hope that this would stop her from falling over.  I hope it does as I didn't like to see her falling.

Another house a long way from the nearest neighbours.  You will notice that the road is narrow, with passing places for vehicles to pass each other.  Our next stop was the viewing point for two tourist favourites -  Mealt Falls and Kilt Rock.  And just look at that sign!  I'm glad we didn't go anywhere near the edge!

Just imagine people climbing on that rock!

After stopping here we were on our way to Portree, passing through more beautiful scenery.  It is a pity the weather wasn't a bit better.  We passed a rock called the Old Man of Storr and also passed close by one of the many, many sheep we were going to see this week.

Grannymac has been to Skye and Portree several times before, but she is always pleased to be back again.  Portree is a small town with a population of about 2300.  It has the only secondary school on the island.  This time we concentrated on the harbour area,as harbours are always interesting and this area of Portree is particularly colourful.  Here are a few of the photographs Grannymac took, including a couple of some hopeful gulls looking for an easy bite or two from the people eating their fish and chips!

After some very necessary (and some not-so-necessay!) shopping, we headed back to Uig.

Lady Helen and Grannymac had a quick look at the small Uig Pottery shop, where Grannymac bought a small dish and a vase.  Nothing exciting for the rest of the day - just getting ready for tomorrow's journey by ferry to the Outer Hebrides.  I wonder what a ferry will be like?