When we reached Leurbost, there was a hitchhiker out on the road. We passed him and he looked so crestfallen that we hadn't picked him up that we decided to stop, since there were two of us. He was quite grateful, as on Sundays not that many people are out on the roads. He was headed to northern Harris, so we said we would take him all the way.
He ended up being quite interesting. He knew the builder of the monument we stopped to see on the way, in Pairc. He also knew Gaelic, and held a Gaelic conversation with Cheyenne. I was impressed at how well she did, as she'd told me she really hadn't learned anything in her Gaelic classes.
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After dropping him off, we rounded the corner and were met with the faces of
the Harris Mountains, covered with a thin coating of snow. They were
spectacular! We stopped to take in the view, and then headed south towards
our first destination -- Luskentyre beach. Wayne and I had seen this beach
before, but only the part adjacent to the main road. If you drive down a
road turning off the main road, you can follow the sands for a good two miles,
and you reach a dunes area. Parking there, you can walk along the dunes for
a while until you reach the long sandy beach that faces the snow-capped Harris
Mountains. There's a wonderful rocky area on one edge of the beach, leading
up to the hills beyond. We walked along these hills and climbed the rocks
for a good while, enjoying the views. It was again a sunny, beautiful day,
this time with no wind to speak of, and no precipitation at all. It was cold,
but when climbing you get warm quite quickly.
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I loved this beach -- the combination of the snowy mountains behind and the rocks and sand made it a beach-lover's paradise. We spent quite a while here before heading on.
From there, we headed to MacLeod's stone. On the way, we passed another field of curlews, and this time I managed to get a photo. They are amazing birds -- they look huge and awkward, but are elegant and pretty at the same time.
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MacLeod's stone is a stone up on a hillside that I had seen from the road
every time we'd come to the island, but had never walked out to see up close.
Cheyenne was game to try it, and we found it wasn't a bad walk at all. The
stone was really quite picturesque, and we found the setting a nice place to
just sit and enjoy the view and the quiet.
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We stopped to look at another standing stone and to drive down a side road,
where we wanted to take a walk to find a ruined chapel on the map, but we
decided the walk looked fairly long and we might run out of time, so we headed
back. (I regret this, as I think there probably was time, and it sounds like
it might have been an interesting place. Someday I hope to get there.) From
there we headed to St. Clement's Chapel. I love this chapel and wanted to
show it to Cheyenne. Since it was such a bright, sunny day, the chapel was
well-lit -- much brighter than any other time I had seen it. We climbed to
the top level, looking out all the windows at the views beyond. We saw the
carvings on Alastair Crotach's tomb quite well in the good light, and wandered
around the outside of the church appreciating the stonework. Wayne and I had
visited this chapel right after the big storm, and it had taken a lot of roof
damage. I was pleased to see that all of this had been repaired since
then.
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Heading from this southern tip of the island, we drove home on the eastern side, driving the "golden road," which winds through the machair hills, through a moonscape type of landscape, and along the coastal cliffs for miles, weaving in and out. The whole road is one lane, and very curvy, with sometimes steep drop-offs over cliffs. It's quite amazing that the road ever got built, and it is a wonderful experience to drive along it and see all the views you would normally only get to see if you were hiking. <
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We stopped at one point to stretch and take a photo of the view, and as we
got out of the car, a herd of sheep came running down the road to meet us
expectantly. They seemed to decide Cheyenne was their leader, and as she
took off to run up a hill, they all took off following her, blindly running
up the hill behind her. She didn't realize she was being chased until I
yelled to her. She turned around to find a whole bunch of sheep facing her,
and no more on the road.
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After driving home, we stopped in to visit my landlady, and then went to Laura and Justin's for dinner. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and playing harps there, but exhaustion finally brought us home to bed.
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