Luskentyre Beach

Today was our day off the first thing that I wanted to go see was the beach since everyone was telling us to visit it when we had a chance. We didn't plan a time to head out to the beach but it was the first thing on our agenda, so  our first move was to hit up the tourist information office that we had already walked past a thousand times without going in. The nice lady gave us a bus timetable and advised us to go to Seilibost instead, as Luskentyre was only sporadically on the bus route, there is very little to see there, and the beach is so big it stretches between both places anyway. So that is what we did.

The primary school in the middle of nowhere.

The big western isle coach that pulled up in Tarbert was quickly switched out for  minivan, a better vehicle for navigating the country roads of south Harris, more often than not single file with passing points than a true 'road' as we generally think of them. After about twenty minutes we disembarked, paid the bus driver £5.60 for two return tickets and walked the winding track down past the most isolated primary school in the world, and on through the sand dunes to the beach.

We walked far along the beach, through the dunes, down to the water and out into the middle of nowhere, before returning down the other side past a massive graveyard of washed up shells and dead crabs. The beach was quite desolate in a way; roaring winds scoured the sands, racing in from over the mountains and out at sea, pounding at the few people who dared to wander across the flatlands. Nonetheless, it was very nice, the sands golden and the water sparkling in the few moments of sun that succeeding in piercing the gloomily overcast sky. It was perhaps not the perfect weather for visiting the beach, but it was nonetheless an enjoyable walk.

After stopping briefly for cheese and crackers we returned to the road and followed it for a couple of miles back in the direction of Tarbert, to the Harris Art Cafe. The cafe served wonderful coffee from french presses and very lemony lemon cake. We doodled in their visitor's sketch book and appreciated their art before leaving to hang out with a family of puppies whilst waiting for our return bus.

Good-bye beach.

First day in Tarbert

We made it! Tarbert: Scottish Gaelic Tairbeart

Today we awoke after a good nights rest, packed up our things so we can move into the staff house. It was nice to know if we wanted to cook our own food and things that we would be able to, washing and things would be left to us. From what we have learned today we get staff meals and little perks like free juice when we are at the hotel. The place that we moved into is less than a 5 min walk away, we share the house with other people that work at the hotel. We haven't had much time to get to know them, the house is fair sized and seems like no one is really ever around but then again we have only been here for a day.

View from our back window

Sunday the whole island is closed except for the Hotel Hebrides, so when we arrived for our free staff lunch it was booming. When we finally got some grub it was time to head out of there and explore our backyard and when I say backyard I mean rolling hills, there just aren't any houses around. Just outside our house we met a scruffy white hobo kitty with heterochromia (eyes different colours) whom we christened Rolo for his tendency to roll around a lot. This would later be further justified as it would turn out he had magical wilderness explorer powers, which he demonstrated by climbing to the top of the immediate hill with us and chilling out atop a big rock awhile. We left him up there to come back down and were then distracted by something on the next hill over that looked like him but which would, on further examination, turn out to be a sheep. This sheep was on a leash and had a little house and communicated with Jen, although only the sheep knows exactly what it was they talked about.

From the top of the backyard hill

We live in the black house.

Rolo, The Wilderness explorer kitty. Climbed from the bottom all the way to the top with us!

Glasgow - Uig - Tarbert

So after getting up at the ungodly hour of 6am, it was time to skip our complementary breakfast and get to the bus station. We dragged our things down the street in search of breakfast to go, but didn't find any. We did however saw girls wandering around with no pants on (trousers) and drunken people stumbling back home, kind of sad that we didn't get a chance to party in Glasgow. Maybe next time.

We rolled through the highlands for about 3 hours we arrived at Fort William, the second largest settlement in the highlands after Inverness. Even with that decorum it isn't very big, though it is picturesque with the lake, near Ben Nevis, a steam railway and a Morrisons. Upon arrival we were informed there would be a 30min beak for us to stretch our legs and grab a bit to eat. When we returned after 20 mins a very angry lady was screaming about how the bus should have left 5 mins ago.

After another 3 hours of rolling hills through the highlands we arrived in Uig, silly name I wonder what it means. I will have to look that up later (it means 'bay', which makes a lot of sense). I got travel sick so when we got off the bus off to buy our ferry tickets and grab a bit to eat since I needed to recalibrate. Soup of the day and a toastie later I was feeling better, we had about 4 hours to kill before the ferry arrives.

I was hoping that the ferries around here would be more frequent but if you were standing where we were you would understand that it isn't really a place with a lot of things happening on a daily basis. Mostly just a travel port for people to get to where they needed to get to. We sat by the bay playing guitar until it got a bit chilly we migrated to the ferry station to avoid the wind for a little while. I was getting anxious and was hoping that ferry would arrive early which it did not, it did just the opposite it came 20 mins late. When we finally got on the ferry I read my book for awhile and passed right out until we were ready to dock.

We were finally here after two full days of travelling and waiting we have landed at our new home. The hotel was busy with the people that got off the same ferry as us, so they stuck us in a room at the hotel. It was lovely, we explored the mini bar and things, it was nice being able to stay at this place to know what the customers were getting. I know it is unlikely that we would be able to stay in the hotel for the time we were here but it was nice to have the train run. The manager stuck one last food order for us from the menu before the kitchen closes. Time to get some rest.

Moving to Scotland

It was an early start 6:40am off to the train station, Danny and I had been packing and cleaning all week to prepare for this very impromptu trip up to the Isle of Harris . I didn't mention in the previous blog that we had been offered jobs working at a 4 star hotel. What a wonderful surprise we got while walking into the Museum in Cardiff.  Since the whole idea behind going camping for Canada day was to see if I could clear up things in my mind and come back to Derby with a fresh outlook towards the next step in finding new work. Working at Sky/Herotsc wasn't doing it for me anymore, the hours were long and the number of nice verses irate people just wasn't tipping the scale enough for me to want to stay there. 

Leaving Derby was something I didn't expect to impact me as much as it did, since my team at work had thrown me a mini team brief with goodies and things. Cards and sweeties a plenty it was very thoughtful of everyone that pitched in. To be honest I wasn't expecting anything at all, just a couple hugs and fair wells. In the evening we gathered with the peeps to say our goodbyes, in the end we all knew that it wouldn't be the last time that we saw them again so no tears were shed.

Onwards, when the train arrived at Crewe we switched to a virgin train from the East Midlands Train our one way train ride from Derby to Glasgow 40 pounds each for the one way. I slept for the second part of the train ride and when we arrived in Glasgow not much was different cept for the Scottish accent. It reminded me of training at Hero when I first started my job since my trainer was from Scotland. So it wasn't a huge surprise to hear everyone speaking so differently, it actually made it feel like we were travelling to a new country.

Our very first stop was the EURO Hostel a big building near the train station, we wanted to store our luggage since it was really starting to weigh us down. Luckily they didn't charge us for storage, check in wasn't until 3pm. I thought this was a bit strange since check out was at 11am, either way we will have to wait. We dropped out things off and wandered in the midst of Cardiff central, I had to pick up some work pants and bought some art supplies for this part of my journey. We stopped in at the art museum (GOMA) it just happened to be located in front of the huge yet very expensive art store. I wish we had more time to explore but Danny wasn't feeling well he had caught some sort of cold. Time to grab some meds and orange juice so that we can nurse him back to health, I needed to take some time and rest since we didn't really sleep the night before at all.

Inspirational

Leaving Cardiff and the Bay

At the Bunkhouse hostel we got free breakfast between 7-9am, you know the usual. (cereal, toast, jam/butter/marmalade, coffee and tea) I like it better when they have non dairy milk but it has yet to happen. One day I will open my own B&B and it will have non dairy products as a option for the lactose intolerant people out there in the world. I am sure that they would like a bowl a cereal in morning too. I know I would.

After check out and storing our things at the hostel my first stop was to visit the Cardiff festival that is ongoing for a couple months throughout the summer months until September. First stop over to city hall to catch some live music and festival celebrations when we arrived the security at the door didn't know what we were talking about. Luck for us the museum is right next door!

Danny and I always enjoy a good museum, it is all about the natural history and the dinosaurs.

Before heading to the bay I really wanted to get some noodles since yesterday the noodles we bought were quite sub par. I needed something with a bit more flavour, there is a place right next to Backhouse Hostel called Wok to Walk this is very much like our Ooddle Noodle or Wok Box in Canada which I love. I would recommend these places to people who like greasy noodles with sauces of all sorts and an assortments of additions from meat to nuts.

Cardiff Bay

Yum Yum, I got rice noodles with a coconut curry sauce with duck and cashews. It was excatly what I needed before heading out to the Bay in the misty rain. We walked in a relatively straight line all the way down to the Bay. When we got there I wasn't nearly as impressed with the scenery maybe I had built it up a bit too much before we arrived. I had just imagined this huge epic water front, maybe it was due to the train and it being a bit chilly. They were also setting up foodie stalls and attractions but none of them were open so there was no pretty lights or many people.

We took shelter from the rain in the Wales Millennium Centre and got to catch the Tuesday lunch hour preformances from music students playing classic acts from Peter Pan, Snow White and some I have never even heard of.

Cardiff Castle 

After some time in Wales, we headed back to Derby with a new plan of action!

Back to Cardiff

I woke up before my alarm clock which has been happening more than usual, either way we finally waltzed our way back into town for some breakfast and to get out of the rain. We ended up going into Coast Cafe they have great prices for take out food but it seems that if you want to use their tables (which were empty when we arrived) that you have to buy food from the sit down menu with a slight price increase.

bye bye camp.

We had some time to kill before heading back on the bus to Cardiff, in the end I realized that we didn't pick a place to stay. To be honest I just wanted a place to drop off all my things and take a nap but that felt like a waste. Either way by saving a bit of money we decided to stay in a dorm £13 mixed and £10 for same sex, instead of paying £20+ for a private room in another hotel.

Bunkhouse Hostel is where we ended up. They had nice beds for couches, bar, free wifi and it was right in the heart of downtown. Also it was right around the corner from the bus/train station. We wandered around for a bit and decided to not since we were both knackered. We made use of the couches I took a nap while Danny read his book, when 8pm rolled around we moved down stairs to their free cinema. We watched '12 Rounds' and 'Stardust.

Canada Day

We had a lazy morning since I woke up with one dire cold either way I wasn't going to let stop me from seeing the beach here.

"The beach was the place to start, we gots to visit the ocean waves. The waves breaking against the massive, jigsaw-esque headlands that make up pant of the bay on this side.

The salty sand dunes are restless, the path we used precipitous. The cliffs, dangerous or rather wet.The thorns and thistles a plenty, deftly dodging, we descended to the dunes. Beaten down by the winds at full force, we stopped for curry and tea. Felt enlightenment nearby the cows.

Eventually we escaped the beach and climbed another hill made up of puzzle pieces and caterpillars. Hollow seats by an old fire, we left our names there. Mayhap he will see them one day as a butterfly, and think about times gone by.

but first we returned to town and visited the arts and crafts fair. Textile swimming with a homely feeling, south Wales has some talented folks. A room full of good vibes, we spoke like ducks outside."

Don't forget about the key lime pie.