Happy Days - a dry cycle!
After a super breakfast from Audrey we departed at 10am knowing we had a long way ahead of us. Howard had reckoned 100km or 64 miles or so. We were slightly worried but felt our e bikes would get us through! Plus it wasn’t raining! In fact it was bright but windy and we set off very optimistically!
We thought it might take 6 hours of cycling so a break every 1.5 hours seemed a good plan. But before that we passed:
1) Flora MacDonalds birthplace - mmmhh
2) Kildonan Museum in South Uist - a longboat with oats for 16 men. We didn’t stop though
So the first real stop was perfect! Our Lady of the Isles - up a VERY steep road which the bikes did in turbo!
The story: Our Lady of the Isles was commissioned shortly after the Ministry of Defense proposed a missile testing range be constructed in the 1950s. This caused concern as it was thought it would destroy much of the island's way of life, culture and language. The statue was intended to be both an expression of the devotion of the people of South Uist to the Blessed Virgin Mary but was also intended to be a public and permanent reminder to 'strangers' that they were entering a 'different' world. People of all denominations supported the project through fundraising and the giving of their labour to construct the road and the foundations for the forty ton statue.
We chatted with a lady who was walking the Hebridean Way on her own. Phew!
We crossed on to the island of Benbecula by another causeway…..
We stopped at the well stocked Benbecula co-op just after the causeway to buy some lunch provisions, and I’m glad we did. We saw almost no cafes and only 1 other supermarket on Benbecula. And 1 Smokehouse with a shop but no time to stop. We still had a long way to go! We did briefly stop at Creagorry Beach on the west side of Benbecula to enjoy the view and smell the ware!
Benbecula still has a MOD presence, obvious as we cycled through the substantial village of Balivanich, close to Benbecula Airport
It was really windy and the landscape was flat offering very little shelter for lunch. Finally an empty church provided Sanctuary and we happily sat in the sunshine for a bit of R and R. Behind us was a ruined Augustinian Nunnery and a battlefield called The Ditch of Blood, dated 1601. The last battle fought with tradition weapons.
We stopped a couple of times to take photos of monuments :
1) To the Macleod family who served North Uist for 3 generations of doctors, plus the Air Ambulance Service
2) To men who took part in a Land Raid in 1921!
On again we took a small detour off HW to Houghharry which was actually National Cycling Route 780. Our next brief stop was to photograph Scolpaig Tower built in 1830 to provide employment for the purpose of famine relief.
Looks a long way away but we could see it clearly - photo below from the internet
From then on it was head down, use battery power just to get to Lochmaddy. It’s a fair bit off the HW but the only accommodation around as far as we could ascertain. But boy did it feel a long way. We finally arrived about 5, pretty tired, to find a bunch of cyclists we had seen last night at the Borrodale Hotel at dinner, arrived just about the same time. They had a support vehicle and luggage transport so we felt pretty smug! We were very happy just to check in and have a bath to ease all the achey bits! Dinner was fine and afterwards we went for a walk in the still evening to check out the ferry terminal. There isn’t much else at Lochmaddy but it is in a very dramatic setting.
Early to bed as we have to catch an early ferry tomorrow.
