Just Beachy

Looking at this shot you wouldn't think we'd decided against taking the bikes over to North Uist on account of the heavy rain. Mind you, that decision was only taken after having got up before 7, made two flasks of tea, packed up sandwiches and cake into the bike bags, out both bikes onto the car, driven the 8 miles to Leverburgh for the ferry, and parked up with 25 minutes to spare before said ferry departed for Berneray... I perhaps wasn't the ungrumpiest person in the world at that point. I'm beginning to winder if we should bother taking the bikes away with us to the Isles anymore. At best I manage two or three pretty short spins, and once again have no had no real chance to do the Golden Road loop.

Still, there was a bonus otter as I rockhopped along the coast north of the end of the Luskentyre road. Mel was a little ahead, and my strangled shout didn't reach her as I watched a big dog otter fly away from me and into the water, with no amount of shoreline searching afterwards bringing him back. It was actually only on the return journey that I realised I'd interrupted him eating a truly massive fish, that must have been bigger than he was, big enough to ponder just exactly how he'd caught it.

Anyway, by this point the sun truly had his hat on, so there was a barefoot stroll along the virtually deserted massive beach. Not bad really. And still there was time for a boggy wander to the coast on the other side of the island. But despite a few close calls (i.e. seals), and even finding what looked remarkably like an otter holt, there were no more otter sightings.

Tomorrow we should be off to North Uist, but with high winds forecast it'll be with the car. Still, there should finally be some big wildlife at the Balranald reserve. So it's been promised by various websites anyway.