Rainy Uists

Thursday 11 September 2025

Nido's parked up at a CL in North Boisdale in South Uist.  We parked by a barn which is providing some shelter from the strong winds and heavy rain that's been with us for a couple of days.  It's good to be hooked up to electric to recharge the leisure battery and also dry out our wet coats and boots.

As we left Baleshore beach yesterday we notice a dead whale had washed up on the beach.  We didn't stop to check it out as it raining hard and the gulls were having a feast, but apparently it's a regular occurrence in these parts.  Our first stop was the Scandinavian Bakery, inside the community all in Grimsay. I bought a couple of pastries to takeaway and had a quick espresso, which hit the spot on a windy rainy morning!  Our next stop was Maclennan's supermarket in Balivanich on Benbecula. 

Provisioned up again, I drove us from east to west to a park up near Peter's Port, a small fishing harbour.  On the way, as we drove across one of the many causeways here, an adult otter appeared and crossed the road about 20m in front of us.  I was the only vehicle around so was able to slow down and we watched it cross and slip into the water on the other side.  At Peter's Port we ate our lunch and half the pastries before taking a walk down to the deserted harbour; I guess the bad weather has kept all the fishing boats alongside.

Our final stop for the night was a park up at the RSPB Nature Reserve at Loch Druidberg, where we joined several other vans who no doubt had also decided to stop driving and rest.  The wind and rain continued but during a gap in the showers we took Salty for a walk and down to a community woodland growing between two lochs.  The bad weather continued through the night and we were rocked around, with the wind rattling the skylights.

This morning the winds were stronger and the rain heavier, so after breakfast we continued south and visited the very interesting Kildonan Museum before arriving at this CL.  The owners weren't in, but I was able to park up in the shelter of the large barn, hook up to electric and service the van, then take Salty for a walk.  With the heating on, my waterproofs were able to dry out and not be hanging around in the van all night.  We've spent the afternoon reading and staying in the warm, although Salty has needed the occasional walk, but he didn't want to stay out for long either!

The weather is still awful but it's forecast to start improving slowly overnight and into the morning.  We're booked on the 1015 ferry to Barra tomorrow and won't know until the morning whether it's running; today all local Cal Mac ferries were cancelled and there's the risk of the same tomorrow.  If so, I'll try and book an alternative, noting we're also booked on the Barra to Oban ferry on Monday morning, although at the moment the forecast looks better.  If that plan fails we'll need to spend a bit more time here, but that's all part of the adventure!