Stornoway - Tarbert (Lap of Luxury)

This morning we woke in our lovely hostel in Ullapool having dried the tent in their massive and very warm drying room. We also washed quite a lot of stuff to make the most of the drying room facilities! We started the day with a bacon and egg butty and checked out of the hostel to catch the ferry to Stornoway. After a calm and cloudy crossing to The Isle of Lewis we arrived in Stornoway at half 1. From the harbour we could see a castle and arrived optimistic about the town, despite the guidebook's description of it as 'eminently unappealing'. After a quick visit to tourist info we searched for a cafe for lunch to no avail and ended up in Tescos to buy lunch and dinner. We also found a lovely little smokehouse on the harbour front where we bought smoked salmon for dinner.

Having stopped for a quick drizzly and midgey picnic in a park on the way out of Stornoway we began the journey down the Hebrides. 

The road out of Stornoway was on a par with Stornoway itself. As we ploughed on through the mizzle we passed industrial areas and were overtaken by lots of industrial traffic - a bit of a shock after the roads we've been enjoying lately. The landscape was moorlandy and very much featureless, though the hills were less severe than those we have encountered of late. It wasn't until we crossed into Harris that the landscape really picked up and we started to see fantastic hills and lochs and sea inlets. Just over the border into Harris we were pleased to arrive at our hostel for the night as recommended by tourist info only to find that it was shut. We left to find the next hostel on our map, leaving behind a walker who was following similar advice but who decided to wild camp. Unfortunately the hostel was at the bottom of a massive climb so we climbed our way into Harris proper only to find that the next hostel on our map was up an even more ridiculous climb off our route and in the wrong direction. We continued on feeling that even if we ended up wild camping we would at least have got some more miles in before bed. 

Climbing out of Scaladale, looking back over Seaforth Island we saw 4 golden eagles circling over the water. This made the climb more than worth it!!

As we approached Tarbert we found a Black Lab Gallery (it really is pictures of black labs!!). The sun was beginning to disappear and light was getting low and we realised we needed to sort a bed for the night. With rain forecast we were reluctant to wild camp as we finally have a dry tent and dry gear so we spoke to the kindly man at Harris Hotel in Tarbert who did us a deal on a room for the night and are now enjoying the lap of luxury which exceeds even the SYHA of last night! We had our Stornoway smoked salmon for dinner with salad and whiskey (fresh from our jar) and get a cooked breakfast in the morning! This should see us firmly down the rest of the Hebrides!!