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.