Tuesday 26 August 2014

Hebrides 13: Finally, a Sunny Evening

After a bracing day on a boat (understatement of the year) the wind dropped and the sun came out.  It looked as though there might be a decent sunset, for the first time since our arrival on the Uists, and this was too good an opportunity to miss.  After cooking the trout caught earlier, I headed outside with my camera for a walk around South Lochboisdale.



Not far from the cottage was a strange monument with carvings in both Gaelic and English, providing a semi-circular wall giving shelter from the prevailing wind and a place to sit down.  Ok, so the seat was made of metal and taken from an old tractor, but it's the thought that counts.




A few views around South Lochboisdale showing the crofts and the kind of terrain which the people need to work with.  When this is taken into consideration, I guess it's unsurprising that the area is so sparsely populated.




The lighting looked promising, so I headed South hoping to get pictures of Eriskay and Barra as the sun went down.  Fat chance, as the clouds gathered and the sun disappeared.  I waited for a while, but the lighting remained gentle rather than dramatic.




Inevitably, as soon as I decided to give up and head North again, the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  Typical!  South Uist looked stunning in the low light, with mist rising over the Eastern hills in the background.



The Western side of South Uist is comprised of long sandy beaches, and I decided to park the car and go for a walk.  I was on my own for most of the time, but then a large 4x4 drove across the dunes and down to the water's edge.  A dog was then thrown out of the back, and the car took off down the beach with the aforementioned hound in hot pursuit.  After about 20 minutes of this, when the exercise period was over, the poor animal was re-admitted to the vehicle which then disappeared whence it came.  Talk about walking the dog in style...





Being so far North, the sun took a very long time to set.  I arrived back at the cottage around 22:30, and the light was still pretty spectacular.  I couldn't resist two last shots: one of the cottage; and the other of a boat moored on the other side of the "horse" field.



A fine end to a long and tiring day.

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