Decca Cottage

We're on Lewis Island now. The adjustment to the time zone change is better, but we're still all sleeping at odd hours and for odd intervals.

We knew that, for a long-acclimated American driver, driving in Great Britain would be a bit of a challenge. Taking that on was part of today's adventure. We were picked up at the airport and given a ride to our car hire, a wine stain red Ford Scorpio, at MacKinnon Self Drive in Steòrnabhagh. Steòrnabhagh has the most wonderful narrow, sporadically marked streets. And traffic circles too, I love those.

Our first task was to go just a few blocks to the Somerfield supermarket. Piece of cake, finding that. Also, it was a nice supermarket. I didn't know exactly what to expect so far out, but it was quite well stocked. We found pretty much all we wanted. Next we wanted to go a few more blocks to the visitor information center, to pick up some Ordnance Survey maps, walking guides, and possibly start the souvenir collection. That was just a little more challenging. We didn't have a good street map yet, just the little quasi map from the car hire office, and no idea about what streets might be one-way or closed to automobile traffic. We wound up parking a little jog away, and from where we were, actually facing the rear of our destination for a while without knowing it. We nearly gave up before one of the ladies spotted the "i" sign. But it was ok, as we got a little look at downtown, learning where a couple of the essentials were (an ATM machine and a Woolworths). Soon we were ready to leave town and head for our cottage.

Now, I get tired quickly driving in an unfamiliar place in the US. It should have been obvious to me that driving on the "wrong" side of the road was going to wear me out even more quickly. For those that haven't had the experience yet (switching in either direction) let me just say, it is draining at first. Don't try it while already exhausted or otherwise impaired.

All that said, the drive from Steòrnabhagh to the Ness was fascinating. The peat moors are an otherworldly sight, but full of life. They are, at the same time, forbiddingly alien and speaking straight to the adventurer inside. We took the A857 highway northwest from the east coast of the island to the west, cutting straight through the heart of the moors. It takes hardly any time at all; even driving as slowly and erratically as someone twice my age, I got us across the island in around a half hour. As we got to the west side, the moors gave way to the marchair. This landscape seemed a lot more familiar: open grassland full of sheep, birds and rabbits. Occasionally, on the left (or the European right, as it began to feel to me), there would be a glimpse of the Atlantic against black cliffs.

People joke about there being no trees in Kansas. I can say now that I have seen a place that has Kansas beat. Just as it is back home, the statement isn't completely true of Lewis Island. There are a few stands of trees, but you won't find them growing wild. For the most part, the marchair has its grass and wildflowers, and the moor has its heather, cotton grass and bog beans. No wonder sheep like it here. But there's not much with a woody stem around, so goats would probably be less happy.

We are staying in a cottage in the rehabilitated Decca Station, in the village of Lìonal. After getting to the cottage we needed a rest. I'll write more about the cottage later. But at first, the beds were what we needed most. Still suffering from the time change. We got there around 10:30 am, but didn't get out again until about 2:00 in the afternoon. That was when we headed for the beach, via the nearby village of Eòropaidh.

I'd studied this place some on Google Earth, so finding the beach was an easy one. Also, it was only about a ten minute walk. But of course, satellite photos can never really prepare you for a truly beautiful place. We found the beach at high tide and didn't see everything, but still it was great. This was my first look at the Lewisian Gneiss, the rock on which the island is founded. It is a metamorphic rock thought to be in the area of 3 billion years old. The folding patterns in the stones are very interesting. However, the wind was in straight from the west and pretty cold. I hadn't brought a hat, and none of us had gloves or scarves. It had been in the eighties in Kansas when we left. So after a short while we left the beach and found our way to the Eòropaidh Tea Room for some hot soup and a sandwich. In the tea room we also got our first look at the Harris Tweed goods made by the island's best-known cottage industry. Being in need of a hat and scarf, I found this immediately very interesting.

After tea, we decided it was time to head back to the cottage. After a short rest we hopped into the car and drove around the north side of the island. We got out a few minutes to take pictures of the light house. Other than that we just made note of places to visit later, and eventually circled back around to the cottage.