Saturday 19/02/05

My intention was to walk west from Barvas, but, as you'll see, that got thwarted. Anyway, the weather today is pretty unpleasant. That is, temperatures are low (5C), with intermittent show- and hailshowers and a strong northwesterly wind. This puts a biting edge on the conditions. Nonetheless, I jumped on the bus to Barvas at 1pm, which was full of shoppers returning to the west side, general direction of Shawbost. It made an uncustomary diversion up Benside, south of the main A857. Nice views over Broad Bay and towards Point. One person needed to get off on that loop. It's a request-only service. At 1.25, we reached Barvas Junction, whereupon the bus turned into Loch Street. This is a side-road along Loch Mor Barabhas towards the coast. Jumped off at the very end of the road, and encountered a very cold NW wind. One lady directed me towards the shore, but things went belly up on encountering the bridge across the outflow of the loch. The water was so high in the loch, that it was impossible to approach the footbridge - under feet of water. The sluice was up, but it stood marooned. The outflow was feet deep, again, and a raging torrent. Impossible to cross safely, I would have been swept out to sea in that. So, there I was. Walked along the shingle bank, and through the dunes to have lunch on the shooting butt. Then proceeded north at a leasurely pace, through the dunes and along the cliffs. A couple of teenagers were climbing the cliffs - idiots. Kept my mouth shut. Then headed inland, and found myself by the cemetery after a little while. Plenty of cemeteries along the shorelines here. Cut south through the dunes, but finally ran into the river which could not be crossed, except by a bridge half a mile north near the shore. Basically back where I started. After a teabreak went south back down Loch Street, to wait for the Ness bus back to Stornoway. Frequent hailshowers and the strong NW wind made it actually fairly unpleasant. Glad to be back in town.