HEB 3 flora mcdonald and tractor shed

Day 3

        Apart from the showers the rooms in the old folks home were fine and we had a decent sleep guy even made me coffee in bed, Tim had very thoughtfully unloaded my big pumpfrom my cycle which I was carrying for the group, a few of the boys used it to pump up their tyres and then he loaded it onto his own bike this became a tradition on the trip with each person taking a day humping the big pump, we were off for nine the weather was much improved we had flattish roads and stopped just up the road to look at flora McDonalds birthplace,

Floras Haim

              we then cycled on to a museum where we spent a fair amount of time looking among all the interesting stuff taking photos buying trinkets we had only done 4.57 miles of cycling and plenty more to do it was time to get some miles in

I will tell you this boy

  

We went along via the Machair coast route which was very scenic the weather was by now nice and the coastal road was flat through small hamlets and crofts with pristine beaches, having had no breakfast by then though we were all hungry and in need of café or pub stop, this was our third island with us being on south uist (we would go on to cycle over a long causeway to benbecula then onward to north uist! Strange how that works) we were a further 18.69 miles of cycling before we found a place to eat which was the dark isle hotel on benbecula. We had a nice lunch it was a big place it was mostly soup and sandwiches all round but I had prawns of the specials board. We had learned our lesson and just had the one pint with dinner it was 13:30 and we still had a long way to go,

                One of the reasons guy Anderson had been going to bed early was that my roomy also had been feeling a bit under the weather with a dodgy stomach! Now I’m not saying its his fault or anything but on the approach to our next big causeway over to our next island. I had to find a secluded spot behind a boulder due to an upset stomach! Thankfully due to my dysentery issue in china I am practiced in the art of these sort of emergencies and always prepared while of on an adventure for just such an occurrence

         

       We stopped at a big smokehouse the shop was interesting and you could look into the actual smokehouse where there was loads of fish waiting to be smoked I bought a pack of smoked scallops and bob bought a pack of smoked salmon, we left then cycled on to the westford hotel which bills itself as the only pub in north uist. We had cycled 18.88 miles since our last stop and were ready for beers and food, we lined the bikes up for a photo and got our beers the weather was nice and sunny so we sat out on the picnic tables and eat our smoked salmon and scallops which were extremely tasty everyone agreed,

             although sunny it was still cold and we had the logistics of getting to our digs for the night and deciding if we could get back there for dinner that night we opted to just have two beers then cycle of and come back for dinner we booked a table for two hours later hoping we would make it back in time. We had a taxi number from the pub there is only one taxi in town

                Our accommodation that night was the quaint tractor shed which was a 2.84mile cycle from our intended dinner pub, the place itself was cool with eco huts in the grounds and fields with corncrakes and other interesting birdlife we were booked into the actual tractor shed lodgings with Gary and ali getting a twin room the rest of us in a 4 bed bunk room and tim`s snoring! the shower was good and we tried to work out how we would get back to the pub, As the taxi number was ignoring our calls, Tim decided that with the tide being right out we could shorten the journey by marching over the sand, myself and Gary worried about tributaries wet feet etc and opted to walk the road at speed. The group split 4 to the beach two on the road we set off, me and Gary could clearly see the gang making good headway over the sand. We felt certain they would beat us but secretly hoped that a bus or taxi would come along, we also hopefully shoved our thumbs out at every car that passed us, we seen the boys cross over the bay and felt we had made a bad shout when BINGO a car stopped for us, three American tourists gave us a lift. Our car flew passed the boys as they approached the road but I had time to get my window down and give them the bird as we flew passed laughing at our success, we had finished our first pint by the time the boys arrived damp footed. I had bought our new found American friends a beer as thanks troy Maria and a I can’t remember the other guys name but cheers to you three legends,
 

                We had a good feed and I loved the fact they had real ale pumps they were closing early but they sold draught packs, this I couldn’t resist two big two pint milk cartons of fresh real ale were purchased, the local taxi told us what time he would collect us at not the other way round a double run for him, it was a pleasant end to a great day chatting to our fellow guests in the kitchen area of the tractor shed with my milk cartons of Skye red ale and Gary’s bottle of cardhu, which he had by then been carrying for four days (which of course we tanned)

   44. 98 miles cycled that day