Weather beaten

The folk I met in the hostel reflected the place itself, they were all kind of authentic, unpretentious and natural. I could have chatted all day but alas I had another 50 miles to cycle!

My fellow hostellers seemed quite subdued; perhaps a little disappointed by the torrential rain and high winds? To be honest, I was just so thrilled to have actually made it to the Outer Hebrides that I didn't really care about the weather. I was also aware that I had a lot of ground to cover if I was going to get down to South Uist to make my connection to Oban by Saturday, so I got on me bike. My initial optimism wore off fairly rapidly however; I'd been cycling into the wind and rain for about 2 hours but only gone about 6 miles; I mean I could have walked faster!!

In the end I was very glad when Richard and his sister (a couple of guys from England that I'd met in the hostel), caught up with me. The three of us decided that the elements had indeed won and so we retreated to the visitors centre to dry off. There we drank hot chocolate and ate Lindor balls to help lift our spirits!

Standing stones

The weather cleared allowing us to check out the local sights of interest including these standing stones and the ruins of this wee "broch".

Broch

Richard in the Broch

The "Broch" was an odd wee building, which according to the historian we met within its broken walls, was used as a safe house by locals when their village was under attack. Not so safe these days, nearly broke my neck trying to get to the top!
The rest of the evening was spent back at the hostel drinking whiskey and exchanging stories by the fire, ahhh twas much more relaxing and enjoyable so twas!