And now for something completely different!

16 July.

The start of our Hebridean Adventure

It was great to meet Sue, Marg and Malcolm at Glasgow airport and set off in a little Twin Otter plane for the Isle of Barra.

The co-pilot gave the safety spiel and we were already to go when one of the passengers noticed her pearl and diamond earring lying on the tarmac. The co-pilot happily obliged her request and got out of the plane to retrieve it for her! Never seen anything like that on a commercial plane before!!!

We could see into the cockpit and see what was going on. Uneventful flight with only a couple of small bumps from the wind and after about an hour we could see the beach upon which we were to land.

Strange to think of landing there but it went very smoothly and then we picked up our bags and found our hire cars and drove west/anticlockwise to our hotel in Castle Bay.

Very different from the landscape in Iceland and quite lovely. The road from/to the airport is very narrow with passing places!

After we arrived at our hotel we went for a walk and when the weather became a tad inclement adjourned to the bar to watch the last two sets of the Wimbledon Men's final. We weren't the only table barracking for Alvarez. When it was finished we were treated to one of the hotel patrons singing a song in Gaelic. No idea what it was about but the locals seemed to know it and joined in on the last line of each verse.

During dinner we watched the weather turn from clear (but cloudy) to little visibility and back again in a short space of time.