Tuesday 11 August. Stornoway

Rest day today! Woke to grey skies but still warm. Sounds like the country further south is having a heatwave with London temperatures in the 30 s . Julian went out early to get some pastries, a stiff brush, some clothes pegs and a plastic box. The croissants were yummy! Whilst he was out it was my task to suss out buses to see if we could get a round island trip or similar. Feeling lazy ( and by now it was raining), I googled the tourist information but due to COVID, guess what – it was closed! I didn’t leave any message but by some miracle someone actually phoned me back about half an hour later and could not have been more helpful. It turned out that the round Harris bus had departed 10 minutes before our phone conversation so we opted for the 1230 “W1” which we could pick up from outside the electrical shop just above the marina. Perfect. It was at this point raining heavily but we set out to enjoy our adventure. The W1 duly arrived at the bus stop at just gone 1230. It took us out of Stornoway and up the Atlantic side of Lewis. The landscape was wild, flat and desolate. The majority of the terrain seemed to be peat bog and certainly the harvesting of the peat was still going on. The landscape looked as if it is cut out in strips revealing many fresh wounds as well as healed scars. The purple heather only seems to grow where the peat has not been cut. Made me feel a bit guilty about not bothering to buy “peat free compost” at home. Many of the homesteads had piles of cut peat outside presumably ready to be used as fuel. About an hour later we arrived at port of Ness, which is the nearest habitation to the butt of Lewis ( most northerly point of outer Hebrides) which sounds scary in the pilot due to clash of strong tidal streams. We were left for half an hour whilst the driver went home for a cup of tea, so pottered down to the little harbour where there was a cafe which was open 👍 . We had coffee and a shortbread overlooking the ancient harbour and beautiful but wild beach before returning to the bus stop. By now the rain had stopped and the views on the way back were under a brightening sky. By the time we got back it was sunny and hot! On the way back to the boat we paid our dues to the harbour authority for our stay. An amazing building which must have a lot of history…..I’ll have to look it up. Stornoways history and growth was built upon the herring trade and all the poor people who worked in it. What a life…….J went back to the boat and I browsed the shops for a while….. especially the Harris tweed shop! Later we sat in the sunshine in the cockpit and even had our supper outside. We are very happy and fortunate to be here.

What I learned today……………….that by law all the Harris tweed Weavers HAVE to work on a loom in their own home.