In my opinion, as beautiful as everything has been this far we have saved the best (as in the Outer Hebrides) until last. We still have a few days left but sadly more time behind us than in front. So in my last blog I warned of melancholy but I no longer think that is the word. According the OED (thanks Google and back to the advances of technology again) Melancholy is a feeling of intense sadness without a good explanation. There is no sadness that this is coming to an end only gratitude and I’ll go on to say more about that in the next blog.. For now let’s come back to time. A couple of random musings. Firstly, there is something very sobering about the idea of having more time behind you than in front of you.. I’m beginning to think this might be a metaphor for life. When we look back did we capture the moment or did we got bogged down by the detail, the worry? or did we relish the challenges and enjoy and exploit the opportunities that arose out of difficult times ? Secondly how do we spend that time that we have? do we look back and think I should have worked more or given more time to things that other people think are important? How do we fit into that for ourselves? I did warn you this was coming! In short- life is just to short, gone in the blink of an eye. If you aren’t familiar with it I urge you to think of the poem by W H Davies ‘What is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare’

Another ferry crossing

Took us to Barra where we had three nights on a camp site on Barra – at times windy, in fact it’s probably better to say at times it was less windy than others.. the Duct tape came in useful again. We managed a couple of good bike rides round the island admiring the views as usual. Here’s a flavour..

This was the view from what we termed (and will always remain) our bench. The colours were stunning. As captured by Emma.

Although we cycled to Vatersay on our second day we also spent a night wild camping at this spot

And stunning does not even begin to describe this place. It was breath taking (as always) and that wasn’t just the wind that took our breath away it was and is just beautiful. As I said to Emma I actually believe this place is as close to heaven as we will ever get on earth. Vatersay is well know for its golden beach. Very many happy family holiday memories – thanks kids!

Also from the top of a small hill

If anyone is interested there is a band called the Vatersay Boys – exceptional music and really bring this place to life. When Toby was younger we actually went to one of the band members house and blagged some free merch.. we then bumped into him and some of the other band members in the Castlebay Hotel and they ended up blagging free whisky all night, not sure who came off better out of that one but all in all it was was a good night! Just a couple more pictures from the hill and these are all exactly as it was. The colours were amazing.

The problem here really is deciding which ones to choose. I also want to include a picture of this meal

A seafood platter following a starter of some lovely fresh scallops with garlic butter. It’s such a shame that fish and seafood isn’t in abundance here but we won’t go into the detail of why that is – as I said some time ago this is supposed to be apolitical . This was all wrapped up with a very windy night (the advantage of the wind this entire trip is that, as yet, we haven’t seen or experienced the delight of a single midge, every cloud and all that) and the prospect of a very early start to catch the ferry from Castlebay to Oban. The early start did not go without gain with a beautiful sun rise

I have an amazing ability to wake myself up without ever needing an alarm, not sure how my brain worked out that 5.00 AM some how meant 4.00 AM so it’s been a long day. We had a stunning crossing but it was sad to say goodbye to Barra.

We are now in Oban for a night (already with tales to tell in the next blog) and then off to Inver Cottage (for someone’s birthday – there are only two of us on this trip and it isn’t mine so let’s leave it at that) and the Isle of Gigha for our last two nights. Arriving in Oban compared to where we’ve been already feels very much like bright lights big city so who knows what the M6 and heading south will feel like when Saturday comes! For now that’s not occupying our thoughts.