Five days, five days we have sat on the land. So far the most weather bound we have been on all of our paddles. We enjoyed exploring North Uist making various trip, a combination of walking, hitching and local buses taking along the circular road. We met lots of people, found out many interesting facts, learnt a thing or two about birds. Yet, we are here to paddle, and paddle we did yesterday. The wind dropped from red, orange on XCWeather to green for about 12 hours and we knew that this was our chance. On long journeys we learnt to go with the weather and the flow. This time, we had to add a new skill, to go with the wind as well. And so instead of heading west or north, we allowed us to be pushed east.
Once we left the bay from Hugharry, the sea changed from calm, clear turquoise to lively, dark and quite hilly. We forgot how it feels to paddle with this great Atlantic swell. We stayed far out away from land, whose cliff or hills occasionally disappeared from view obstructed by waves. We enjoyed the conditions, more so, that we could regularly see each other from the bird perspective.
We landed just once for an obligatory pee stop at the entrance between islands of Harris sound. The sea calmed straight a way and with wind blowing in our backs we decided to circumnavigate Berneray from the north rather than ferry the kayaks across the causeway. Berneray is appreciated by tourist for its dunes and long white beaches, something that could get quite boring if followed for a prolong period of time in the kayak. Fortunately the island of Borneray, Pabbay and Harris made the views more varied.
Six hours after launching we landed on the east side of the island and decided to camp in a place in dunes,which will provide us with enough shelter for the forthcoming gales tomorrow. We chose the right spot, obviously, as little later a car stopped by, instead of being bothered by landowner it was the best take-away ever. With shouts of “home baking”, “local crab”, we purchased the latter and coconut, and coffee and walnut cake.