Barra: Day Sixteen

The day began sunny and bright, and after a bit of a lie in, we decided to hike up Heaval, the tallest point on the island and only about a mile away from us. 

It was said to just be 40 minutes to climb, and there was a statue of the Madonna and Child near to the top, so we said our goal was to reach the statue. This is Heaval:

We felt it was a little bit out of our league, but everything we read mentioned climbing it, and there was a trail, so we decided to tackle it. 

Once we got over a fence (which reminds me, we really feel you shouldn't have to climb over a fence to get to it!) we started up. It wasn't so bad at first. 

But eventually, it got much steeper, and we were thankful for footholds that we could step into from previous hikers. 

We got a little over halfway up and decided to stop there. The view was still lovely, and we figured it couldn't be much different than from the top. 

Phil wandered a bit, trying to see different views:

After a rest, we said we thought we could go for the top now, but the clouds were beginning to roll in and we made the decision that it would be best to get down. Just in time too, because it started sprinkling once we were off Heaval. 

As we were walking back, a car with the sign Barra Island Tours pulled over to offer us a ride, but at that point we were nearly at the turn off so we declined, though I took the opportunity to ask if he was available to do a tour the next day. He wasn't, but he suggested calling Rob, the taxi driver who gave us a ride the first day!

If I wasn't so nervous about driving on the single track roads (which, while signed at 30mph, the locals were taking at about 50mph) I should have rented a car. If we go back again, I will have to get a car, because it would have made our lives so much easier. The day before we booked for dinner at Cafe Kisimul at 8pm because they were having traditional music, so at about 5pm I started calling taxis to get a ride to dinner. There were only three taxis on the island, and one, Dan, said he could pick us up at 6:45 so we grabbed him and just hung out at a bar before dinner, reading books. He promised us that he would get us home and luckily he was right outside when he said. The whole taxi thing just added another layer of stress, even though the two drivers we used were just the nicest people.