Van Life Day 9 - Harris

I am spoiled for choice of blips today. We have had sunny intervals which have shown off the beautiful Harris beaches to their best, but in the end I decided on this one. Even though the sea isn’t showing all the colours I have on other photos, I like the shimmering reflections.

Last night I met a young couple on the beach. They had hired a van for their honeymoon - they said a partial guest reception was brilliant for them as they could legitimately exclude people they didn’t really want!

The most exciting thing happened as we drove back along the road - we saw a golden eagle soaring above us. (Too high for a photo). We were actually heading to a 5km walk to an eagle observatory. It was a great walk which I managed without limping and with minimal pain. We saw an even more distant eagle from the walk out. It was interesting for Mr C as he’d come through the same glen on a 2 day yomp from Aird Uig to Tarbert, aged 20, and then 2 days back. We met a chap on his ebike. His job was to check the ecology of the area - he counted bird chicks, checked development of the plants and grasses etc. He said things are 3 weeks behind this year. The eagles now prefer the area where we saw them as there is more food. As there are no longer sheep grazing up the glen there’s no easy pickings, though there are red deer. In the blip the bottom of the distant hill with the steep side is the place where we walked to see the eagles.

We then enjoyed the drive to Tarbert where we got the Guardian before stopping for lunch overlooking the famous beach at Luskentyre. The colours of the water as the tide went out were spectacular - unbelievable turquoise, indigo and blue set off by the white sand

After a walk on the beach we drove to Leverburgh and we are parked by the restaurant at the ferry terminal. The owner is putting final touches to it before opening next week and is happy for us to overnight. It’ll be handy as if the boat goes to St Kilda tomorrow at 7.45 am we won’t have far to go.