Highland moon

Here is the moon (straight from the camera) at 02:15am this morning from a layby on the A9 just south of Dalwhinnie. You might be asking how I came to be out on the roads at that time of night. Let me explain...

Mr hazelh and I made a sad departure by tandem from our bed and breakfast on Harris yesterday morning at 09:45 (having first ensured that I photographed the 500 Scarista sea shells that I had carefully laid out on the lawn the night before for my 500th blip). We made good time over the hills to Tarbert to catch the 11:50 ferry to Uig, with the plan of loading the bike on the top of the car at the other side and driving straight back to Edinburgh at the end of our holiday.

What we didn't realise until we were asked to show our tickets at the ferry terminal was that we'd left my purse behind at our accommodation. We did have our cheque book on us and a very kind lady in her car in the ferry queue offered to give us some cash, so we could have bought new tickets. However, at this point we couldn't be certain of what had happened to the purse. It seemed more sensible to delay our departure until the evening crossing, by which time we hoped to have found the offending article.

With the help of a member of Calmac staff who lives in the village where we had been staying, we tracked down our hosts, and they found the purse where I had guessed it would be. It was back in our possession within 45 minutes of the ferry departure: our amazing bed and breakfast hosts made a 1.5 hour return journey by car to deliver it back to us in person.

We were stuck in Tarbert waiting for the evening ferry for over 8 hours. It was too cold and drizzly to sit outside so instead we settled into the bar of the Hebrides Hotel. We stayed there from midday until 18:30. In that time I updated my blog, Mr hazelh read his book, we tried (and failed) to book accommodation on Skye, played two games of Scrabble, and spent £25 on food and drink. The bar staff were wonderful and didn't mind that we were there for so long.

The highlight of the afternoon came when a bunch of eight people with musical instruments wandered in asking if they could "play some tunes" in the bar. We were treated to a wonderful free concert of traditional fiddle music.

At 18:30 we transferred to the waiting room at the ferry terminal where we played another two games of Scrabble, and lent my iPhone charger to a very young (and grateful) motorcyclist.

In all this this we kept our spirits up and actually had quite a nice time: it was certainly all a lot more fun than an airport delay.

Having failed to arrange overnight accommodation, our first priority once across to Skye was to fill the car up with petrol for the five hour drive home to Edinburgh. Fortunately there is a 24 hour filling station in Broadford, so we called in there about midnight and then headed home.

Just south of Dalwhinnie the moon put on this fabulous display. I can't say that I would have chosen to return to our flat at 04:00am, but we would have missed the concert in the bar of the Hebrides and the sight of this beautiful moon had everything gone to plan.

This is the last of our holiday blips. The full set is as follows:

Thursday 16 May 2013: Where's whelkie?
Friday 17 May 2013: Moss
Saturday 18 May 2013: Not an otter
Sunday 19 May 2013: Llama look-out
Monday 20 May 2013: Back to the hide
Tuesday 21 May 2013: A visit to the Faerie Glen
Wednesday 22 May 2013: The queen coo of Northton
Thursday 23 May 2013: The sun shines every day in the Outer Hebrides
Friday 24 May 2013: Taransay from Scarista Beach
Saturday 25 May 2013: 500 Scarista sea shells

We spent the first five days in Ardnamurchan at Rockpool House, Acharacle, and the second four at Tetherstone in the village of Northton on the Isle of Harris. Both these bed and breakfasts are superb and come highly recommended.