Benbecula to barra

Castlebay, barra.
The macneal clan owned the uninvaded castle from the 14th century right up to when it was handed over to the national trust. Katie macneal and her family still organise the yearly barrathon, an epic half marathon around the island. Which tour's truly is running tomorrow.

So we arrived safe and sound in benbecula after the12hr road trip from Edinburgh. House was warm and toasty thanks to the neighbour roddy who was delighted to see some rain after 3 weeks of sun. Everytime.. honestly. We end up blasting music out loud and dancing about in the rain in our wellies before a wee pop down to beautiful Culla bay to inspect the latest storm strays (a huge net, loads of big stones, uprooted seaweed, the ubiquitous plaster containers) and spot a wee seal.. or maybe an otter. We saw one here last year.

Today we headed down to barra. Sun was out and more loud music as we dipped and zipped through hilly south uist to the eriskay ferry. Virtually no mobile signal on barra but we located Val and his "flying Dutchman" pal joss. All of us nervous about the race tomorrow.

It's our 4th time running the barrathon. Just driving over the hills make my quads tremble, but the gorgeous landscape (lush greens, rock, briney brown bays, turquoise seas) and after party feast make it all worthwhile.

Watching the machair shiver in the breeze this morning I remembered that this is not a place to obstinately resist nature. There are no trees here, no high rise buildings. Most man made objects rust, fall apart, disintegrate with damp or need a lot of patching up. It's hard to generalise but folk are hardy and upbeat (sharp dark humour prevails). What else can you do? You can't fight the rain, the wind, the sea or the wildlife (corn cranes are loud btw..). Sheen, a true islander is unable to run but her acceptance is admirable. Will try to remember this tomorrow for the half marathon. Just roll with the punches, well hills.

I took this while eating a brilliant Korma down on the harbour side. Cafe kismul Italian Indian. Amazing