From Skye to Harris and Lewis
Today's journey was comparatively short in car miles, but included a 90 minute Ferry trip between Uig and Tarbert on the Isle of Harris, as well as a loop of South Harris. So the day looked like this:
Dinner at Uig
My last post had us arriving at the Uig Hotel - we settled into our Room, Room 10, with its lovely view over the Uig Harbour. And went down for dinner.
After three days of multiple courses it came as a shock to the system only to have two courses each. But the food, while simple was well cooked.
As mentioned in my earlier post it is Friday today, so a non-meat day for me. So I started with the Isle of Skye Chowder, which was rich with Haddock and Salmon in a slightly spiced chowder. Drew opted for local Scallops with parsnip puree, black pudding and chorizo. He took great pleasure in telling me how nice the meat was and how they worked so well with the tasty scallops.
For mains I went for Scampi and Chips which were served with peas and tartar sauce. Drew opted for an 8oz cheese beefburger with chips, peas and mayonnaise. After a long day's drive on some challenging roads simple food seemed great before it was time to collapse gratefully into bed. Breakfast at the Uig Hotel
For some reason, that I don't quite understand having a ferry to catch meant that I woke up at least once and hour to check the time. The fact that the alarm on my phone would wake me made no difference to my nervously checking the time. by 4.30 I'd given up and got up for an early shower and dress and to look out at the lovely Uig harbour, which by this time was beginning to get the benefits of the early dawn.
Breakfast at the Hotel was served at 7.30 - and though we had to check into our Ferry by 8.30, the proximity of the hotel to the Ferry meant this late start was not a problem. The cooked breakfast was excellent and as well as the stables of bacon, sausage, black pudding, grilled tomato, mushroom, fried eggs and hash browns also had a slice of Scottish Potato Cake, sometimes called Tattie Scones. The potato cakes were like pancakes thickened with the addition of potato, not a bad texture and a great way of mopping up the juices of the other food on the plate.
Uig to Tarbert
We left the hotel at 8.15 and had arrived at the parking place for the ferry by 8.22, so in plenty of time for the 8.30 check-in and the 9.15 departure.
The ferry operator has a quaint approach (some might say crazy) to managing online customers. Everyone who had their online ticket (and that was 90% of the people boarding) had to queue in the ticket booth while the online ticket is swapped for a, pre-printed, paper version. The queue runs smoothly until a none-booked passenger arrives, and then it draws to a halt as long conversations about ferries., return dates and type of ticket ensues. It wasn't clear why the two types of passenger weren't in different queues, but it made a useful way of using up half of the 45 minutes between checking-in and boarding.
We boarded the Ferry and walked up to the seating areas. It was a roomy ferry and there were plenty of places to sit. We were soon on our way.
The Ferry has a coffee shop which had freshly brewed coffee, the time on the ship went by quickly.
Harris
On arriving at Tarbert, Isle of Harris, we prioritised buying food for the next two days. I say two days because Lewis and Harries, like the other Northern Isles of the Outer Hebrides has a strong sabbatarian tradition, so what we didn't get today, we would not get until Monday.
Tarbert has a small Mini-Market not far from the harbour, so we headed there to buy milk, juice, meat and veg for the next two days. While small the shop had a wide range of goods and a well stocked butchers counter where the meat was prepared as requested in the old-fashioned, non-prepacked, way.
As our accommodation was available from 2pm and we had arrived at 11.45 am we decided to visit South Harris while we were down this part of the Island.
The road from Tarbert quickly became a one track road with lots of passing places to allow cars coming from the other direction to pass. The narrowness of the road was a nice challenge leading to a slow and meandering drive through fabulous countryside. The fact that the narrow road also twisted around blind bends, blind summits and close beside the sea or inland lochs, added to both the challenge and the charm. We were really out in the wilds and enjoying the slow pace of life that the road imposed.
We travelled south through little villages called Geocrab, Manish, Finsbay, and down to Rodel, the Southern most point of South Harris. We stopped, breifly, at Harris to see the Church of St Clement built on the site of a medieval church. The impact of this imposing church on passing seamen in the middle ages can only be imagined. It is still impressive to the land-bound journeyer of today. 
From Rodel we turned onto a more major road (still occasionally single track) and travelled up the West Coast of South Harris via Leverburgh, Borve, Seilebost and Losgaintir. The West coast is very different from the rigours of the east coast with long sandy beaches and bright blue sea. This side of the island is replete with hotels, rental cottages and art galleries, it even has a golf course or two - very definitely links courses right beside the sea. Lewis
The road leads back to Tarbert, where South Harris and North Harris meet. South Harris is a distinct peninsula, but North Harris is for all intense and purposes the same land mass as Lewis. The main difference being Harris is hilly and Lewis is comparatively flat. At one point we crossed a tiny brook which announced we were passing from one to the other - lucky it told us as we would never have been able to guess.
From here it was just under an hour before we reached Crossbost and our accommodation Seaview at Repose, this little cottage is adjacent to the owner's own home. She, Liz MacGregor, was there to meet us and settle us in.
There are some great pictures here...
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