Vatersay and back on the mainland

Tuesday 16 September 2025

Nido's parked up on the Highfield campsite in Benderloch, about 20 minutes drive north of Oban.  It's a lovely, well kept private site and cheaper than the CAMC and C&CC sites (of which we pay to be members), plus there are no 'white posts' we must park between or guards (I mean Wardens) marching around checking we've parked between said  'white posts'....go figure!  This is our second night here and it's been a welcome break after our early morning ferry crossing yesterday and also nice to have a day off driving.

After leaving the Scurrival campsite on Barra we drove 30 minutes to a pull in on Vatersay, just past the community hall and cafe.  There were beaches to the east and west of us, just over the sand dunes. The east beach is generally known as the more sheltered and it's said to be like a Caribbean beach.  The west beach faces the North Atlantic and the (normally) prevailing winds, so is usually rougher.  However, on this occasion the winds were from the SE, so we experienced the opposite.  We walked on both and I think the wind and rain gave us a different experience than those in the guide books; from our experience there are better beaches in the Outer Hebrides.  After a wind-swept walk on both sides, Cathy and Salty returned to the van and I popped into the community cafe to buy some cake.  The weather was dreadful - heavy rain and strong wind, so we had our meal and an early night, alarm clock set for the morning.

At 4am yesterday morning we woke to zero wind but not zero rain. I took Salty out while the kettle boiled and we had a quick muesli breakfast with our cup of tea, before driving the 15 minutes on a very narrow track to the ferryport in Castlebay.  Salty stayed in the van for the crossing as it's less stressful for him. There were very few of us on the ship so we could have easily found a spot to lay out and sleep.  Instead we had a tasty Scottish cooked breakfast then sat in comfy chairs, reading and looking out over the sea for the 4.5 hours crossing to Oban.  It was very calm and we disembarked on time, driving to Tesco for a food shop and diesel.

The 20 minute drive to this campsite seemed very busy and noisy after two weeks on the very quiet, single-track roads of the Outer Hebrides.  Pitched and hooked up, we walked to the beach to stretch our legs after an early morning start.  After dinner and a couple of YouTube videos, our eyelids were drooping and we all slept well.

This morning Cathy had her first online Welsh lesson of the new 'school' year, so I took Salty down to the beach and the dunes for a dip and a long sniff down the rabbit holes!  After lunch we walked again through the forest to the Otter Pond (actually a trout fly-fishing pond) before returning and sitting out in the sun until it disappeared behind the trees.  We were stuffed after a chicken curry and daal meal, with some naan I made from scratch.  Now it's quiet, and we're all tired from a mentally (Cathy) and physical (me) day.  Time to sleep!