Day 31 - The Journey to Lewis

The morning began with another delicious breakfast from Arabella. I think the reason it was so yummy was the french toast was made using homemade bread, and she made the bacon extra crispy so it was the closest to American bacon I've had yet. Arabella and David were so sweet and invited Angus to breakfast. Then we walked down to the cafe to wait for the bus...except that as 10am came and went, I realized that it was Saturday and the bus wasn't coming for another two hours - oops! The owner of the cafe came over and asked if we wanted anything to drink and it would be on the house - I love all the people of Scotland, sooooo friendly. I am boring and got water:

Here is a view of Northton from the cafe:

The bus stopped in Tarbert, which is one of the ferry terminals on the island, and we had an hour wait until it departed, this time in a slightly bigger bus. I think we found the one tree in Tarbert to sit under - there are absolutely no trees to be seen in Harris and Lewis, except for some around Stornoway. I haven't really looked into it, but I think the islands are all hard rock with a layer of soil and grass, the machair, and it wouldn't be deep enough to allow tree roots to grow. At least that's my theory, but it really is a bit of an odd sight to have zero trees. In Harris you almost didn't notice that they were missing, because of the rest of the brilliant scenery, but in Lewis it is really noticeable. 

In Stornoway there was just a ten minute window before my next bus to Ness, so while it wasn't a long wait it would've been nice to have a couple hours in between. The joys of public transport mean getting from one place to another can literally take all day, when if you had a car it would probably be two hours at most. At least for the first bus ride I had a fun bus-riding companion. One last view on the ride out of Harris:

The bus dropped me off right in front of The Decca B&B, where I had just booked in a few days earlier. My original B&B emailed me the day before I was flying out saying her family had a medical emergency and she had to cancel my booking, but gave me The Decca to try. I have to admit I did have a slight moment of panic when two days from then I didn't know where I would be sleeping, but you can't be upset over a medical emergency and thank goodness there was space. Although I kinda someday do want to be a spur of the moment traveler, but I think I need to learn to pack a little lighter before I attempt that (and be willing to camp out if you can't find a place to stay!). 

Ness, or Lionel the village I am in, is much more populated than over in Harris...but the nearest place to get food was a 35 minute walk. Seeing as I only had some biscuits and granola bars, I walked over there for dinner. And that was my major outing for the day (and they had milkshakes!) I have to say that my first impressions of Ness were kinda blah, but I think I'm just in the midst of some post-Harris blues.