Gail lives on the moon. Her part of Harris is a complete lunar landscape – lovely but amazingly barren. The Golden Road, so called because it cost so much, is a single track road that runs a circular route past Gail’s house and around lovely parts of the coast. It is more than single track – it is like a roller coaster – at one point I came over a blind summit to find the road heading sharply right and almost landed on a roof below. The alternatives are to land on rocky ditches or into a lochan. Oh and large caravans and RV’s and even shellfish container lorries use this road. I circumnavigated Harris from Tarbert down to the golden beaches of the south and back to Gail’s in time to reverse what I had done to go back to the Rodel Hotel for a delicious scallops and black pudding dinner.
From Harris it was a complete day from sunrise to sunset to buy Kim another tea towel at the Harris Tweed shop, catch a ferry then drive from Uig on Skye all the way back to the Borders, stopping off in Pitlochry for some decent priced diesel for the car and a Vindaloo for me. At least the gunman was no longer a threat himself being his final victim, although a mile from home I was hit by two pigeons who tried to put out my windscreen and a hare who insisted on racing me with him in the front for about a mile up the Lempitlaw hill!
Kim’s delight on seeing her tea towels is difficult to put into words, she certainly found it difficult.
It is difficult to say if I would recommend this trip for everyone – if you like some of the best experiences in life, a lot of fun and laughter, some great malt whisky and crumble and seafood, some jaw dropping views, a flat Atlantic balanced with rough seas, excitement from paddling and watching shapely yoga positions – then you should have really come with us. I suspect other trips will come with different experiences and mixes – all I can say is that this trip was the closest thing to a perfect week away I have ever had (and believe me I have had lots of pretty close to perfect weeks away).
Photo Collection here
