The Outer Hebrides

Yesterday we drove north on the A82 from Ft. William to Spean Bridge, then continued on the A82 north to Invergarry.  Here we turned west and crossed the Great Glen on the A87 toward Shiel Bridge.  At Shiel Bridge we took a left and headed due west toward Glenelg.  The road from Shiel Bridge to Glenelg was one lane most of the way with “Passing Areas” every ¼ to ½ mile or so.  Steep, sharp climb as we neared Ben Achacinich (but didn’t summit it, just drove around it).  Still, we got some glorious pictures from up that high, looking down to sea level.  Continued on down the other side of the mountain to Glenelg.   On the picture below, the pinkish line is where we went just today!  My butt is flat.  this was way more driving than I care to do, but we got where we wanted to go.

Drove up to the ferry landing and they were just rotating the platform to take off.  They stopped upon seeing us, then motioned us on the ferry.  We drove on.  It SAYS this ferry can take up to 6 cars, but I can’t see that unless every car is a motorcycle.  4 at most from my estimate.  But they collected the fee at mid-stream, which I guess is the best incentive to pay, since you could get rolled off the back side if you don’t pay, I suppose!  At the other side (Kylerhea) they rotated the platform to meet the ramp and we and the couple from Worcester, Mass drove off. 

We took another one-lane road from Kylerhea on the Skye side to meet the main road, the A850.  We followed the A80 through Portree, the main town, and on up north to the A856 until we came to Uig. Here are a couple of pictures from part of that journey:

There we bought ferry tickets for the Uig-Tarbert ferry, and waited about 90 minutes to board.  Once on board, I was glad to see that there were no naked lights allowed aboard with us decent folks.  

We bought return tickets for Stornaway-Ulapool, so today we've visited a Harris Tweed weaver's croft in Carlaway, then drove to Stornoway, where we are now. We shopped in Stornoway and bought some actual Harris tweed, and now we're at the Cabarfeidh Hotel, which, thankfully, has a good Internet connection.  Tomorrow afternoon we take the ferry back to the “mainland” and Ulapool, where we’ll head for Inverness.

This is incredible country.  Amazing, amazing scenery and people.