Moggie with binoculars at the B&B window. On South Uist in the town of Lochboisdale.

We had a bus to catch the next a.m. at 9:00 at the TIC office just below the B&B, so we got up for an 8 o'clock breakfast. There was another American couple there who'd come up on the ferry from Barra. They were Fay and John Harris, no relation to the island, from New Mexico. We had breakfast with them and it turned out they were headed for the same bus as we were, slowly making their way to Lewis and Harris. Slowly is the operative word here. We got a regular-sized bus and drove a ways on these tiny little single-track roads with "passing places" every so often. After about an hour or so, we changed to a wee little bus, which was pretty full, with a number of islanders spouting Gaelic to each other, and 5 tourists

Moggie with her sketch pad at the B&B window at sunrise. On South Uist in the town of Lochboisdale.

Scene of the harbor at Lochboisdale.

Breakfast view at the B&B

Breakfast view at the B&B

Site of peat harvesting.

Bush

Photos of South Uist from others

We drove through to North Uist to a pier called Lochmaddy. Checked out a few shops there and Jim went to a little museum there while I got us a snack at a tea room. Civilization abounding! So we just got a piece of bran bread, a KitKat and two diet cokes. Enough to hold us til Otternish, just a wee way down the road. At Otternish, we'd catch the ferry to Leverburgh, Harris.

Loch Maddy on North Uist

Jim and Moggie on the Island of Berneray

MISCALCULATION!!!!! Two, actually. The "ferry terminal" at Otternish was a little building with a waiting room with benches around 3 walls. No toilets, no food, no nuttin! And on top of that, our ferry info was for another day. What we thought would be a 1:30 ferry was a 3:30 ferry. To pass the time, our bus driver suggested we take the little ferry over to the island of Berneray and walk around a little, and then come back in an hour, just in time for the "real" ferry to Harris. Good idea, but there wasn't much to see at Berneray since we only had an hour. The four of us, Henrys and Harrises, went out there, for free because of the Harris' s Freedom of Scotland passes, like ours but we weren't using ours that day. Once John showed his passes to the ferry guy, the guy just turned around and left us, assuming that we all were on the same passes. So we saved 3 pounds.

Itsy bitsy ferry that did not have a buffet on the round trip to Berneray

John-silhouette

New-found friends: Faye Harris

And John Harris. From New Mexico

We got back from Berneray about 3 oclock and there sat Edwin and Janice in their rental car. He talked to us and then offered us a ride to Tarbert(our friends hitched a ride with a delivery-van driver) where we'd planned to find a B&B and rental car for the next day. We sat with them in their car waiting for the ferry, and when we drove on, Edwin showed his Island Rover pass to the guy, and we were all let on.

Gerry, from London

Gerry, again

Gerry, again, with his moped.

Faye and John, en route to the Isle of Harris

Moggie and Edwin Rogers

Approaching Harris

Mog on the ferry

Sandy beach on Harris

More beach

Even more beach

Yes, even more

The last beach, for now

The ferry landed at Leverburgh, about 20 miles from Tarbert. The ride to Tarbert passed by simply huge and gorgeous white sandy beaches. I was sorry we couldn't hop out and walk them, but beggars can't ask for favors like that. Edwin offered several times to stop so we could take pictures. He was awfully nice to us. When we got to Tarbert, we planned for him to drop us at the TIC, but it was closed when we got there. Jim hopped out of the car and walked into the Tarbert store (hardware & fishing tackle) and asked where a B&B was and where we could hire a car. He came out with answers to both questions. Edwin drove us to the top of the hill, right above the ferry port, and there was a B&B, waiting for us. After Edwin saw we were safe, he and Janice took off and left us to our own devices. We walked around the corner a ways to the Harris Hotel Bar and ate dinner. From there, Jim called a guy named Wildon Cameron about the car hire. WC has two cars he rents, and he had one available, a red Citroen(sp?)...we later heard of some folks that wanted to hire a car in Tarbert but had to take a bus to Stornaway 50 miles away to get a car, then drive it back 50 miles the night before and catch a bus to Tarbert to take the ferry out next a.m...we were quite lucky.

Edwin, Moggie and Janice, as they dropped us at the Waterstein B&B in Tarbert

Moggie, that evening, at the Tarbert Ferry Terminal