pebblesfromheaven: Western Isles Holiday ... Part one

We've been on holiday!

We'd been talking about going up to Lewis and Harris for ages; for stone-hunting reasons of course but also because of my good memories from the very brief trip I took up there with work a few years ago. I had to go back - And this time I had a new camera to play with, and someone to show it all to!

We flew up from Glasgow to Stornoway on my birthday, to stay for three nights at Leumadair Guest House.

I have to comment on the travelling bit, I'm afraid, because it's as much an enjoyable part of the holiday for me as the getting-there.

We were flying out mid afternoon so had lunch in the Food Village upstairs, in a little place that does freshly-squeezed orange juice and real healthy meals, not your usual airport fare - nice! (Just go past all the tartan toys, over the bridge and it's on your right in the far corner.)

The plane was a little Saab number with a beast under the bonnet. Unfortunately it was cloudy for most of the 1-hour journey, but when we descended we were travelling low over the sea so I entertained myself trying to spot dorsal fins or interesting birds. I'd been to Lewis once before and travelled by ferry from Ullapool and there were loads of twitchers on the upper deck with their binocks trying to spot - I dunno, an albatross or something.

The airport in Stornoway is fantastic! At first, we taxied past a large green hangar which I was joking was the terminal building - well the real one wasn't much bigger! It was all so personal. I love these little places. As soon as we were off so were the bags and it wasn't long before we were seeking out the car hire woman. A Clio! Perfect! Just like home.

Somehow, the hire-car woman left without giving us the folder containing maps, leaflets, emergency contact details etc. I've no idea how this happened - one minute she was talking us through it, the next she was driving off and we were sitting there in the drizzle wondering which way to Callanish!

Luckily, the roads aren't that complicated. I guessed a road and guessed it right. I recognised it from last time - turn left before the hospital. Easy!

Soon we were driving onto the moors of Lewis. Lush! I love this countryside; the peaty, heather landscape feels so homely and familiar. As we drove onwards it wasn't long before we saw signs for Callanish - or actually Callanais in big letters with Callanish underneath. Driving through the Western Isles is like driving through Wales in many ways. There were times when I felt like this was a foreign country, but then I'd remember that this is Scotland, isn't it?

A vivid memory I have of this part of the trip was the music playing on the radio - it was Stuart Maconie talking about Laurie Anderson's reissue of Big Science and he played bits from Walk the Dog, O Superman and Let X=X. Brilliant! I had a smile on my face the whole time, fantastic! :D

It took three drive-bys to get the right gate for Leumadair guest house - first impressions were slightly Deliverencesque, but we got a fine welcome from both humans and cats and the room couldn't have been nicer - gobsmacking view from the window over to the standing stones of Callanish - and my first photo!

(It was to be the first of many...)

We quickly got changed and visited Those Stones (how could we resist it any longer?), then on to Dun Carloway before stopping at the Doune Braes Hotel, to have a warming plateful of lamb hotpot.

Did I mention that the weather was officially "bloody freezing"? I shouldn't complain too loudly - the rest of the UK to our south was experiencing all that horrible rain and flooding - the rain stayed away from us thanks to the northerly winds blasting down; but this meant that the two fleeces, two hats, waterproof and glove ensemble I donned for most of the trip wasn't really cutting it!

Oh yeah and did I also mention that our room had no TV? I mean - shock horror, how would we cope?! Well we did; we stayed out late, and read maps and tourist leaflets until we flaked.

The Stones, from our window