Tarbert - Berneray

It's a just as well that we woke up in the Harris hotel yesterday to a hot shower and a fortifying breakfast - our ride south through Harris to catch the Leverburgh to Berneray ferry was somewhat challenging as the cold rain poured down. Harris looked like it was rather beautiful - some stunning white sandy beaches and vivid clear blue sea which no doubt on a sunny day looks mediterranean, however we mostly saw grey wet stuff! We made it to Leverburgh with an hour and a half before the ferry left so stopped in their Co-operative for tea and cake and a much needed opportunity to warm up and dry off a bit. The co-operative at Leverburgh was fantastic, with a decent range of food downstairs and a cafe upstairs with home baking (including treacle scones!) and a shop upstairs full of local crafts of various varieties, including Harris Tweed.

The cafe didn't do food so we got some lunch stuff from here which we ate sheltering from the rain in the ferry terminal hut. The ferry to Berneray featured a number of other wet bedraggled cyclists and we spent the hour long journey trying to dry off some more in the passenger area above the car deck. This turned out to be quite enjoyable as a man in the corner played reels and jigs very well on a harmonica. Reaching Berneray we decided to look for the hostel there rather than push on as we were already going to struggle to make our intended ferry crossing on Friday first thing from Locboisdale so we decided to enjoy our time in the Hebrides and allow ourselves to see more of it by catching the Saturday ferry to Oban instead. Upon arriving in Berneray we decided to stay the night there rather than push on as we were well and truly soaked and thought we were in for more rain to come so we headed north from the ferry port to find Berneray hostel only to find that the rain began to ease. On our way to the hostel we spotted roughly 8 seals basking on rocks in the bay off the 'main road' (another tiny weaving single track road!). Approaching the hostel my chain snapped rather dramatically but this was very fortunately within wheeling distance of the hostel where we arrived and used a quick link to prepare it.