Woke up to a slightly greyer day with a haze, and carried on with our plan to tackle the West coast of Harris. Set off down the island road towards Tarbert. Started up the right hand arm of the circular route. The scenery is so different to lewis, so much more moutainous, especially as you drive over a scary mountain to get there...... The Clisham!!! 

Even scarier to think we did this in the dark from the ferry to get to our cabin on Saturday night.

As we approached Tarbert, the weather was still overcast. We followed the road ahead, and it was like driving through a post apocalyptic landscape. You could almost see the trails of lava and where they were frozen in time. We headed north, and were soon amazed by flashes of white sand through the rugged landscape. We took the left fork and headed along the track to Losgaintir, although the Gaelic spelling and scottish spelling AND the English spelling are all different so stopping at road signs can cause some consternation! 

The flashes of blue and turquoise were stunning, and when the sun came out, breathtaking.

We headed back up the track and continued around the headland to Sheileboist. The view from above was stunning, and I spent a happy hour making some images. The wind seems to have changed direction today so I was happy to find a pair of gloves in my camera bag.

We then carried on along this very different road, with mountains on one side, and white sand and seas on the other. We stopped at the visitors centre just near Scarista beach, and had our pack up at the closed cafe!

We watched the geese doing practice runs for their migration journey which must be looming. We were joined by some local chickens who seemed to want to share our lunch!

We then carried on to leverburgh, it is a tiny settlement clinging to the bottom of Harris, mainly famous for its ferry and trips to St Kilda. A quick fuel stop, and a mad decision to take the yellow dotted line back to Tarbert. The roads here are mainly single track, but you know you're pushing your luck when there is no sign of any municipal paint anywhere to be seen. We headed up the side of the hill and looked down onto an amazing reed bed, with lovely soft light. I leapt out of the car, to run back and take a shot, standing to one side to let the postie by. On such a desolate road I can't believe another car was coming, Tim was in the passing place, so postie had to reverse back past me to the previous passing place to let the car through. Tim was oblivious to all this as it was happening behind him. He hates it when I ask him to stop briefly in passing places!!

The landscape soon changed to the lunar landscape we had passed on the way down, and windy roads in a desolate looking place intersped with azure blue mini lochs. All the place names were Gaelic, but the whole area had a Scandinavian feel to it. We spotted a sign for a gallery so took a chance and drive up there. It was a lovely lady called Margarita Williams and her work was stunning. We carried on ploughing our way back up to Tarbert, and wended our way home.

Another interesting day, and the sun came out in bursts.