Van life day 4 - Lewis

We slept pretty well despite a few lorries and cars blaring their horns as they went past in the middle of the night. We’ve not experienced that before.

At 6.30am we were reading the instructions for the Covid Test pack. No wonder Katy said she’d want me to talk her through it. However it’s simple once you know what all the bits are for. I’m happy to report we both tested negative. So we headed down to Ullapool to get in the queue for the ferry. The CalMac man told us we weren’t to go unless we had campsites booked. The Islands Council had decreed this. It was on the website she said but we’d booked the ferry months ago and only knew about the Covid test as we watch BBC Scotland news at home). He wasn’t bothered about the Covid test. Anyway we don’t have sites for every night and when we tried today we found they are all booked till June. We’ll see how it goes. If we feel harassed and unwelcome we’ll just come back early.

The 2.5 hour crossing was a bit choppy but we enjoyed our fish and chip lunch. (First fish snd chips since Bonfire night 5 November) After disembarking at Stornaway and checking out a garage that sold gas in case we run out, (it’s a lot colder than we expected for May) we stopped to look at the memorial to the land raiders. Then we took the narrow single track road to the Bridge to Nowhere built by Lord Leverhulme who had bought the island in the early 20 century. His aim was to bring industry to the islands but he wasn’t wanted, particularly by men returning from WW1. They wanted to work on crofts leading to the land raiders. The intention had been to built a road to Ness but the plans came to a stop and the road ends at the Garry Bridge. We took a walk up to it from where we’d parked the van, then had time to get a quick stroll on the beach before the rain.

A collage shows the beach we are parked at, the Bridge, the memorial and our van at the spot we hope we are able to stay at for the night. There is no 4g where we are parked up so this will be posted when we move on tomorrow. It is still raining!

No Sunday paper - Wee Free island!