Saturday 21/05/05

The early risers are noisy and take yet another shower at 5.15 a.m.. Leaving eleven towels to be washed. Shaking my head, I depart for Carloway at 12.45. The bus is quite full of tourists. A drunk gets on at Willowglen and promptly loses his footing when the driver pulls away. He is saved from crashing through the windscreen only by a quick grab from one of the passengers, who seizes his t-shirt. Her reward is 20 minutes of pestering. He finally gets off at Loch Ganvich, just after Achmore. One passenger said he was heading for Great Bernera, but doesn't know where. Place is a bit big for that. I usually don't know where I'm gonna end up, but do normally state a definite destination to the busdrivers. Anyway, rest of tourists alight at Callanish and it's locals from then onwards. Tell the driver I want off at the Borrowston Road End, which I reach at 1.45 in blazing sunshine. There is this lively force 5 wind, but it is actually quite mild. Walk all the way through Borghastan, with great views down Loch Carloway, across to Ciribhig and over to Bernera and Uig. The trail peters out on the edge of a precipice, overlooking a green plain. The remains of the settlement at Lamishader are seen below in the valley bottom. Oh, getting down there was very tricky, it required a bit of a scramble down a 20 ft escarpment. It's fairly straight forward across the southern slopes of Ben Lamishader. It gets a bit tricky on the approaches to the lighthouse, be careful on those steep slopes above the sea, particularly if it's windy. On toothlike rock sticks out from the sea. The island off the lighthouse does not feature on Explorer 460, but it turns out to be Craigeam. The return to Gearrannan is a succession of hills, valleys, small cliffs and rocky beaches. Three lochs punctuate progress. End up overlooking the blackhouse village of Gearrannan at 3.40. Have a brief break with a Cornish pasty, then work my way downhill and across that pebbly beach to the lower end of the village. Just as I walk out the other end, I can see a familiar yellow bus moving up from Carloway. That was not my plan, but I might as well board it to head back to town. Driver waits at Shawbost to catch up on his schedule. Even though he only did 30 mph between Dalmore and Shawbost, he was still minutes early. Nonetheless, we still belt across the Barvas Moor at 60 mph. Which is a bit much, particularly if a dog decides to bolt across the carriageway. Return to a very busy Stornoway at 4.45. A Harris Coaches bus sits at the busstation with a board saying Callanish Tour. Carry a new guest's luggage upstairs, ain't I gallant. Cirrus clouds drift across from the south in the early evening, it's raining heavily in Glasgow apparently. Here it's a moonlit night, with the midnight glimdim past midnight.