travel Archives - Page 4 of 5

Ruabhal

A watery view from Benbecula’s high point

Ruabhal (Rueval) is the high point on Benbecula, the island which sits between North and South Uist and links them via a series of causeways. It’s 8 miles long and about 5 miles at its widest. Although small, the island is the main administrative area for the Uists. This is mainly because of the large military base here, although the military presence has been scaled down in recent years. Most people live on the west side and the main village is Balivanich which hosts the airport as well as a bank, post office, souvenir shop, bakery and restaurant. Further south along the west coast is Liniclate which has a large sports complex adjoined to the secondary school. There is a swimming pool, sauna, gym and games hall as well as an outdoor sporting area. The complex also contains the island’s library, theatre and museum as well as a large cafeteria.

But back to Ruabhal. Sunday dawned a bit hazy and breezy but still a fine day. I drove to the town dump just off the main A865 to park. The turnoff is easy to find as there is a brown sign pointing the way to the Rueval footpath.

From the dump a clear, wide track led towards Loch Ba Una. This path can be followed all the way to the far side of the island to Roisinis from where Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald set sail for Skye.

About midway past the loch I left the main path to turn to the left up the side of the mountain and in the direction of Ruabhal. The path is distinct and there are wooden posts acting as waymarkers alongside the first part. The waymarkers stop near a fence and the path gets a bit fainter, but it’s still easy to see where to go. Basically just head for the big lump straight in front of you.

Although steep, particularly near the top, this was not a strenuous walk. The walking book I’m using says it is a four mile round trip, but I doubt this. It took me 45 minutes to walk to the top and I went slowly, stopping every few metres to gasp at the ever-widening view. Descending I took it easy and used my poles as I could feel my knee joints creaking, but even so, it only took 30 minutes.

The view at the top is breathtaking. There is a trig point and a couple of cairns. Even though it was hazy and I couldn’t see any distant islands (no chance of seeing St Kilda today), I could still see far more than I could take in. The island is covered with lochs and lochans and seems to consist more of water than land. It was difficult to tell which bits of land were actually Benbecula, just separated by a loch, and which bits were different islands and islets separated by the narrow channels that run between them. I could also see how spreadout the majority of houses were and how few there were in total. I spent quite a while at the top, forgetting all about the wind, just gazing at the 360 degree view.

Flodda

No seals, but plenty of rusting, old farm machinery.

Flodda (Flodaigh) is a small island attached to the north coast of Benbecula by means of a short causeway. I drove over the causeway and parked at the end of the road in the bus turning circle. A sign asks people not to park during the hours of 8.00 – 8.45am and 3.30 – 4.30pm as this is when the space is needed by the bus. An abandoned brown 3-wheeled car is perched at the side of the space rotting away.

Two tracks lead off side-by-side. The right-hand one leads down to the small peninsula where a resident seal colony can be found. Part way along this track is another abandoned car. This one has been put to use as a display board for the ‘Flodaigh Seal News’. An A4 map of the area showing the best walking routes and the best points to see seals (noted as Point A and Point B) is stuck to the inside of the driver’s window. On the dashboard is another A4 sheet giving information about the routes and the seals. It reported that the seals often beach themselves on the rocks during low tide, sliding back into the sea to go fishing at high tide. So low tide is the best time to see them. I had no idea what the state of the tide was, but as I’ve seen plenty of seals before and I fancied an evening stroll, I set off anyway.

As I was leaving the car to continue down the track a man came striding purposefully across the moor and over the wire fence. I said hello but I don’t think he even registered my presence. He strode past the car and down to the croft house from where a few minutes later I could hear him shouting ‘hello’. On my return I saw him striding out back across the moor. It made me think of times of old when people would have visited each others houses in this way. Now most people use a car, but maybe the old ways still continue for some.

A little further on the track splits, but a hand painted sign on the ground points the way to ‘seals’. A little further still another sign on the ground shows the paths leading to Point A or Point B. The information in the car had said that Point A was rougher going, so I decided to go that way first. Although it wasn’t particularly difficult going I was glad of my poles to sweep all the bracken away. A faint but definite path led the way through to the end of the point past several pieces of abandoned and well-rusted farm machinery.

There were no seals to be seen. I continued round the small headland and came to what must be Point B – I could see the path leading back. No seals here either. There weren’t many exposed rocks for them to sit on so I guess it was high tide and they were all out fishing. I walked back along the second path, which was much easier going, past more abandoned and rusted farm machinery, back to my van.

The walk was just over a mile in length so quite a good one to fit into a day spent doing other things. Although it was a shame not to have seen any seals, I have seen them before, and the walk was a nice way of getting to see a bit of yet another Hebridean island.

Wheelhouse, South Uist

On this short walk I discovered the remains of houses that had been lived in for 1400 years.

I’d spotted signs from the road for something called the Hallan Wheelhouses. I had no idea what these were but decided to investigate. Following signs down side roads and a track I parked outside a modern church with a large graveyard, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

I then walked down a sandy track assuming I’d know when I got to the wheelhouses. I did even though they weren’t signed. There were actually three information boards on the opposite side of the track but they had been placed on the ground behind a bit of a dune, so are not visible unless you go around there. I like poking around and so I found them.

The remains of the wheelhouses are thought to date to the early years of the first millenium. Archaeologists have found evidence of them being lived in for about 1400 years, some of the most continually lived in properties in Britain.

The houses are round and have thick stone walls with entrance passage ways and fireplaces. They also have burial places within them and bodies have been excavated. This seems to have been a way of honouring a respected dead person or as some sort of good luck charm. The houses are known as wheelhouses because of the round sides and spoke-like chambers leading of the main central room. Others have been identified in the area but many are buried underneath the drifting sands and these are the best exposed examples.

I could see that if I continued to follow the track I would have come to the beach, but as time was getting on and I’d only stopped for a quick look, I left and walked back the way I’d come.

The following day I followed a short walk in my walking book entitled ‘The Wheelhouse’. this started slightly further south than my walk the previous evening and at first I thought it might be a walk leading to the same wheelhouse. A check of the map showed that this was a different location albeit not very far away.

For this walk, I parked on the side of one of the roads I had driven down yesterday. I then set off across the machair and cultivated fields along a good track for about 1km. Coming to a crossroads of tracks I turned right along a distinct track though it wasn’t as good as the one I’d just been walking along. I knew the wheelhouse was somewhere off to the left along here and the book warned me it could be hard to see. I kept veering off to look at any mounds or hollows, but when I came upon the wheelhouse it was actually really obvious. It wasn’t as distinct as the ones yesterday, but was still clearly a wheelhouse.

I continued on my way turning right after a short way to head north along the dunes and the beach. Finally I left the dunes to join up with a path leading east and back to my car.

As I walked along this path I kept getting glimpses of the graveyard where I’d parked yesterday. If I was to do this walk again I’d join both together. Walking a bit further along the beach I’m sure I could have come inland at the sandy track I’d followed to get to the Hallan Wheelhouses. It would then have been a relatively short walk along the quiet lanes to get back to my car.

Eriskay

Bonnnie Prince Charlie, wild horses and whisky galore!

otter sculpture — Otter sculpture by Iain Brady at the Barra ferry terminal

Eriskay is the small island to the north of Barra and to the south of South Uist. It is about 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide with a high point of 185 metres. The whole island is an undulating mass or rock, heather, bog and wild flowers. The ferry from Barra docks here and there are toilets and showers (£1 if you want a hot one) in the rather nice new waiting room at the pier.

Round the coast a bit, on the west side, are the two villages of Am Baile and Rubha Ban that sit side by side – I couldn’t tell where one finished and the other began. It is here that the Am Politician pub can be found. The pub is named after the ship, the SS Politician, that came aground here in 1941. To the islanders’ delight the ship was carrying a cargo of 20,000 crates of whisky to America. At any time this would probably have delighted the islanders, but as this was the wartime and whisky was hard to come by, this was like manna from heaven. The locals carried out their own salvage operation and although some islanders ended up in prison, customs and excise never caught up with the majority and it was a case of ‘finders drinkers’. The story was immortalised by Compton Mackenzie in his book Whisky Galore. The film of the book was later shot on neighbouring Barra.

The east side of the island is where the SS Politician actually came aground but this side has no tracks or roads or houses. It looks an interesting part of the island to walk over and Peter Clarke, when researching his book The Timeless Way, did just this and found faint tracks from years ago.

However, today I was just planning to follow a walk I’d found in a little walk book I’d bought in the tourist office in Barra. I parked at the pub and walked past the two graveyards stopping to investigate a couple of small beaches along the way. After the second graveyard the road forked and I took the right hand track which led to the larger beach known as Prince’s Beach as this is purportedly where, in 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie first put foot on Scottish soil. He’d arrived from France and was on his way to mainland Scotland.

All the beaches on this side of the island are take-your-breath-away beautiful: white sand, silvery rocks, clear pale blue sea shimmering in the subdued light. There were clouds, but it was warm and there was no rain forecast. I followed what looked like otter tracks for a while – the tracks looked quite fresh, but I didn’t see any. I came up to the road at the far end of the beach near the ferry terminal.

Walking up the road away from the pier I came to the crossroads where I’d earlier turned left to get to the village. This time I turned right and walked a short way before cutting to the left, through a gate and along a track leading up hill to the water purification station. The track ended here but I could see a faint path where people had walked before me veering to the left. My walk book instructed me to walk straight up behind the station however, which I did, clambering over a few rocks in the process. I soon found a faint track again and saw a marker post. I walked out towards the small, still Loch Cracabhaig and then, still following faint paths on the ground and the occasional marker post, headed north through the rocky landscape and over the moor. The ground was spongy with heather and moss and in places quite boggy. Wildflowers were everywhere and these were attracting copious amounts of butterflies of different colours and varieties: red, brown, cream, pale blue.

I was tempted to walk up to the trig point, but decided against it as I was starting to get hungry and I’d not brought any lunch with me. I saw wild Eriskay ponies on the rocks above me. The ponies are native to the island and no more than 12-13 hands in height. In the past they were used to carry peat and seaweed around the island, but now they seem to be enjoying a life of permanent retirement. They are hardy and stay outdoors year round. The ones I saw were white, though I think there may be other colours. They have a different stature to Shetland ponies, being a slimmer build.

As the village came into sight the tracks and marker posts began to lead me downwards. I came out on the road but felt I could walk further on the moorland, so headed back up and descended again just above a roadside shrine to Our Lady of Fatima.

From here it was a short walk back to the pub and my van. The walk is only about 2.5 miles long but took me about 2.5 hours. This was because of my many stops to take photographs or just to stare at the amazing views.

Heaval

A steep climb led to my first sighting of St Kilda!

I climbed Heaval after a day walking on Vatersay. It had been hot and sunny all day and with barely a cloud in the sky and no haze the opportunity to ascend Heaval and see up and down the chains of the Inner and Outer Hebrides and possibly all the way out St Kilda was too good to miss.

I parked in the car park up the hill from Castlebay. At the side of the car park is a stunning house. Most houses in the Hebrides, as I’d also found in Shetland, are not particularly nice to look at. You wouldn’t go to either place to wander round quaint villages as you may do in the Cotswolds. On the whole the houses are functional boxes, often pebble-dashed.

But this house is something completely different. It has a stunning, uninterrupted view over the bay and the castle that sits in the harbour, and the house has been designed with the view in mind. The side facing the bay is almost all glass, with a soaring double height ceiling over the living room. Around the outside overlooking the bay is a large decking area. If I was to move to Barra, this would be the house I would want to live in. Actually, even though I have no thoughts of moving to the Hebrides at all, if I was offered this house, I think I’d move anyway.

Enough of the view of a house from the car park. I was here to see the view of the islands from the top of Heaval. By starting at the car park I was already part way up the 383 metres to the summit. The hill looks like a mini Matterhorn and seems to rise to a distinct point. It looks steep. Very steep. Just below the summit is a statue of Our Lady of the Sea which can just be made out as a tiny white speck from the car park.

view from heaval — See how steep this is?

Striding out from the car park, I crossed the road and came to a standstill. There was a barbed wire topped fence seemingly all the way along the side of the road. There was a gate but that just led to another layer of fence. Supposedly down the road a bit was a stile. As I was looking the guys from Kent who had been on my trip to Mingulay arrived, along with a girl from their hostel. Four heads are better than one and together we wandered up and down looking for a way over the fence. We did find a stile but it was so rickety it didn’t seem safe to stand on, let alone use to climb over a fence. Eventually we decided to go over the fence near the gate as there was a bit without the barbed wire.

Once over it was onwards and upwards. It really is steep and there is no set path, just lots of slightly beaten down bits bearing footprints that show which way people have gone before. Of course, following these can give a bit of false hope, as they could have walked that way only to have to turn back when they could go no further.

Ever so slowly, I picked my way through bog, heather and moss. I scrambled over rocks using my hands and poles for support. Eventually I got to the top and the view was amazing. I could make out Mingulay and the other islands to the south. Skye was clear to the east. But best of all, way on the western horizon, I could make out the islands of St Kilda. My first ever view of them. Now I want to go there even more than before.

First view of St Kilda on the distant horizon

Photographs taken, view admired, I started to descend. It was too windy and a bit chilly to stay at the top for long and I knew it could take me a long time to get down. It seemed almost like a vertical drop. I’m sure it would have been easier to abseil down. I detoured slightly to the statue and then continued picking my way down using my hands and poles again and sometimes sitting on my bum to get down the bits I knew would jar on my knees if I jumped down them.

Very inelegantly I got to the bottom. I had wondered how I’d fare getting back over the fence with no-one to lean on for support. The other three were much faster than me and I could see them getting back into their car whilst I was still mooching around the statue. The wire was quite wobbly to stand on and so it had been good to have a shoulder to lean on when crossing to go up.

Just before I got to the bottom I spotted another gate further down. This was a proper big wide gate, which if locked, would be easy to climb over. I headed for this and was able to open it and walk through. There was a little ditch to jump over, but that was it. Easy-peasy. I walked up the road and back to the car park where I stayed for a while looking at the hill I had just climbed, the view of the bay and castle, and of course my dream house.

Vatersay

Sunbathing cows, an old fort and a slice of wedding cake.

Vatersay is the southern most inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides. It is joined to Barra by means of a causeway. The island is shaped like an apple core with a thin bit in the middle and a chunkier section at each end. The middle bit has a glorious white sandy beach on either side. There are several other smaller white sandy beaches dotted around the island, several of which can be seen from Barra.

The day I did this walk was hot, sunny and almost cloudless. I parked near the Annie Jane memorial and started by walking up to the memorial. This is situated on the cliff by the right hand (east) beach on the middle thin bit. The Annie Jane was a ship taking emigrees from Liverpool to Canada which was wrecked just off the coast in 1853. Three quarters of the people on board, more than 300, lost their lives that day and many are buried on Vatersay.

Climbing over the stile by the memorial I crossed the dunes down to the beach. There were only two other people on it, despite it being a long beautiful beach, easily accessible, and such a nice day in the school holidays.

I walked to the far end and examined a low sea cave then backtracked a little to get up on the dunes and machair for the uphill trek towards the remains of Dun Bhatarsaigh, a 2000 year old fort. There wasn’t much to see of the fort, but the views of the surrounding area were magnificent.

The descent on the other side of the dun was decidedly boggy and I was glad of the footprints left by the man walking some way ahead of me. There were waymarker posts but these were not always in the driest of spots. Up over another hill and I was looking out for a standing stone. I went through what seemed to be the remains of a gate – one post remaining with a smaller rounder stone supporting it, and carried on up onto some flat high rocks with great views of Sandray to the south. I sat here for a while, enjoying the weather and the view and trying to work out where the stone was. I realised that it must have been the gatepost I’d seen. Not the most impressive standing stone I’ve seen but I went back to take a photo of it anyway.

The path continued over machair and down to another wonderful beach. This one was so nice even the cows agreed and they’d all come down to spend the day on the beach. Some were standing, others were lying around – all they were missing were beach towels and sun umbrellas.

As I climbed back up the other side of the beach I came across the man I’d been following and a couple who were walking the opposite way and had stopped to chat. It was the couple’s first visit but for the man, who turned out to be a very fit octogenarian, it was his twenty-fifth time. He’d retired at fifty and started leading tours to the islands. He only stopped when he turned 80 and the company he was working for said it had got too expensive to insure him. His tours were mainly with older people and fairly sedate, but he liked to get out walking whenever possible. He was knowledgeable about the islands and I walked with him a short way to the abandoned settlement of Eorasdail. There were only about four houses so this had been a very small settlement indeed and life must have been very hard. Now the cows treat the houses as their own and looked at me very suspiciously as I poked around them.

I walked to another small beach just past the settlement before heading up and inland across the slopes of Am Meall. I could see the modern day village which shares its name, Vatersay, with the island. About 120 people currently live on Vatersay, most of them in this village. I circled widely round the village to reach the beach on the other side of the thin middle bit. This beach was positively crowded by Hebridean standards with many families sunbathing, playing cricket or throwing sticks for their dogs. Walking the full length along this beach brought me to the village hall and a welcome pot of Earl Grey and a slice of wedding cake. The man I’d chatted to earlier was in the cafe and I sat with him whilst I drank my tea. I wondered if the wedding cake was left over from the wedding that had taken place in Castlebay on Saturday. The young couple on the boat to Mingulay had come home to Barra as it was the man’s sister who was getting married.

Using my tablet

Enjoying coffee with a view at the Isle of Barra Hotel whilst learning to use my new tablet.

I’m typing this on my new tablet. After much research I decided to go for an Asus tablet that comes with a detachable keyboard so it can be used as a netbook. It had good reviews, particularly about the aspects that were most important to me. The battery lasts for up to 15 hours; it’s light enough to carry around when used without the keyboard (the keyboard makes it heavier, but I wanted a keyboard to use for when weight isn’t an issue); it has wireless internet access; and it has Polaris installed which is similar to Microsoft Office (and apparently compatible, though I haven’t tried it yet). It also has a camera, bluetooth, and can be used with a USB as well as SD cards.

So, how am I finding it? I’m sitting in the stunning lounge of the Isle of Barra Hotel near to where I’ve been camping. I came in looking for a coffee and a place to sit and type. They weren’t open for coffee but said I could sit in the lounge and then offered to make me a coffee anyway. So I’m sat with a silver pot of strong, delicious coffee, on an orange sofa, in front of a large window overlooking the beach and sand dunes. The lounge itself is airy with big red and orange sofas, a budgie in a cage, a piano, interesting wall hangings and pictures, a shelf of games and three shelves of books, and some very comfy looking leather loungers. I’m getting very distracted looking out of the window and looking around the room.

But, I’m here to test my tablet. I took a few photos of the lounge using the camera but have no idea where they’ve gone or how I save them. I found the Polaris version of Word and I’m trying to get used to the tiny keyboard. I’m making a lot of mistakes. I’ve not found out how to copy and paste or how to drag text around yet. I’ve also not found the delete button and so can only use backspace to clear any mistakes. But I’m learning and when I feel competent this will count towards my 2012 twelve goals.

Much later …

Here are the photos I took. The one where I used the zoom is a bit fuzzy, but otherwise I’m quite pleased with them.

Sleeping in my van

Exploring Barra and finding a great spot to sleep in my van.

I’ve camped in my van for the last three nights and I’m loving the freedom of it. I left home much later than planned on Thursday and arrived in Oban just after midnight. I found a free car park, rolled out my bed in the back and went to sleep. I had a really good night’s sleep and felt comfortable and safe. It would have been much more difficult to find somewhere to pitch my tent. It was dark when I was driving so I couldn’t spot any good camping spots from the road.

On Friday I caught the ferry over to Castlebay on the island of Barra at the bottom of the Outer Hebrides. It’s a five hour sail and was calm, clear and sunny all the way. We arrived in the early evening to more sunshine. Knowing the good weather wouldn’t last and wanting to explore I drove a full circuit round the island’s ring road stopping to take photos of the white sandy beaches and looking for a camping spot for the evening.

I drove over the causeway to Vatersay and followed the road finding more white beaches and a lone seal. I also discovered the remains of a second world war plane crash. This reminded me of walks I’ve done in the Peak District to see similar remains (a more macabre version of being a plane spotter).

Although I saw lots of nice places I would have had to park a little bit back from the sea and not have had the best view. With this is mind I drove back to one of the laybys I’d passed earlier on the west side of Barra and stopped there. Although it was on the main road there were very few vehicles passing. I had the beach and sand dunes in front of me and a rocky grassed over hill rising up behind me on the opposite side of the road.

I wouldn’t have been able to pitch my tent here as the layby itself was covered with loose stones, the hill behind was too steep (and I probably wouldn’t have got my pegs into the rock anyway), and the sand on the beach was too soft and the tide was coming in. So having my van meant I was able to camp in an amazing spot and have it all to myself. I kept the door open until quite late and opened it early the next morning, sitting in the doorway to eat my breakfast. Last night I camped here again. Another campervan was parked at the far end of the layby, but it was far enough away for us both to have privacy.

I’ve put a roll-up bed that I’ve had for years in the back of the van. It’s actually meant for a child and is made up of three foam cushions attached together – two larger ones and one smaller one. When it’s folded up it makes a chair, the smaller cushion being the back of the chair; when it’s unrolled it makes a bed with the smaller cushion being slightly raised at the head. It fits really well in the van and is where I’m planning to build my bed when I convert the van. Down the other side from my bed I have everything stored and although it looks very packed, it’s much more organised than I was in my car.

The more I use my van, the more I’m getting the feel for how I want to convert it. I’m glad I didn’t rush into anything. Although most of my original ideas still hold, there are a few things I will do differently and other modifications I’ve realised would be nice to have.

This doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my tents though. When I want to get off the beaten track to places I can’t access with a car and when I’m walking and carrying all my gear, a tent will be needed. Also, when I’m staying in one place for a while it’s better to have everything set up in one place so I don’t have to pack things away in the daytime. I’d also have more room in the back of the van during the day.

Conwy

A castle on a rock and a tiny house.

I didn’t know much about Conwy. Make that, I didn’t know anything about Conwy, but I wanted to stop off somewhere on my way home from Snowdonia and so was on the lookout for somewhere interesting where I could spend a few hours. As I drove past Conwy it winked enticingly at me from down below the road. I turned off and followed signs for the harbour. This, I realised once there, was completely separate from the main town. I parked up (free) and went for a wander. It was quite pleasant with lots of yachts gently bobbing and a restaurant, but not a lot else.

After a quick wander round the harbour I got back in my van and found the old town fairly easily. I parked in a pay and display car park at the base of the old walls and went for a walk along the top of the walls and a look round the old castle.

The castle, a World Heritage site, dates from 1283 and was commissioned by Edward I. It’s built on a rock and has eight huge round towers protruding from it’s curtain walls. It gained its strength from its position atop the rock and so lacks concentric walls (an inner layer of walls) as they were not considered necessary.

The inner parts of the castle lie in ruins, but enough can be seen to imagine how it would have looked in days gone by. From the battlements I got good views over the town of Conwy lying inside the old town walls, the suspension bridge designed by Thomas Telford and opened in 1826, and of the course the inside of the castle. The Great Hall is 125ft long and fills the main space inside the castle. Apart from this there is a chapel, cellars, dungeons, kitchens and so on.

Leaving the castle, I walked a bit further along the walls before dropping into the town. The town walls are over 34 mile long and have 22 towers scattered along their length. It’s possible to walk the full way along the walls but I cut it short as I wanted to have time to look at the town as well.

I had a quick look at the smallest house in Britain which is on the shore front. It measures 1.8m wide and stands 3.05m high. I didn’t go in as there were already a few people inside and so I would have had to wait – its size obviously limits the amount of people who can go in at any one time. I could see pretty much everything there was to see from the doorway anyway.

I popped into Plas Mawr which is an Elizabethan town house known for its fine decorative plasterwork and also visited Aberconwy House which is a 14th century merchant’s house. The houses are in the care of Cadw and the National Trust respectively and so I didn’t need to pay to get in. I would have liked to have spent longer in both places but was aware of the time ticking away on my parking ticket; indeed when I mentioned to the lady behind the desk in Aberconwy House that I would have liked to have spent longer there but couldn’t because my parking ticket was running out, she advised me to hurry as the parking attendants can be very keen.

At least I got to see what Conwy has to offer; enough to know I’d like to go back and spend a bit more time there, and I had a very pleasant afternoon exploring a new place and breaking my journey home.

Prague

I’m going to Prague.

At Easter I usually go to Germany for a week to visit my brother and nieces. Then I head off somewhere by train for the second week. Alternate years I go to Amsterdam to visit friends and the other years I try to go somewhere new and different.

I’ve just spent several hours on the internet trying to find cheap flights and cheap hostels and cheap trains and generally put my holiday together. After looking at a whole lot of random places I’ve decided on Prague. I’ve never been here before, not even in my inter-railing days when I had brief stops in cities all over Europe. I don’t know much about it apart from that people seem to like it and it’s pretty popular, so now I need an Amazon browsing session to order a guide book and a few more hours to do google research.

Tag: travel

Ruabhal

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Flodda

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Wheelhouse, South Uist

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Eriskay

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Heaval

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Vatersay

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Using my tablet

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Sleeping in my van

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Conwy

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Prague

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