Butt of Lewis

Plod, plod, plod, the  low rocky coastline of NW Lewis slowly disappears behind us. To be replaced by more of the same around the next headland in front of us. 24kms of it. Not exactly a boring coastline but to be honest not a particularly interesting one either especially on a windless overcast day, the smooth oily sea barely undulating beneath us. A zephyr of a SE breeze moving a knot or so faster than we were just filled both sails for a while but mostly it was plod, plod, plod. 

Quite a contrast to the day before off Gallan Head where messy confused seas threw us around and slowed us down for what seemed an awfully long time. 

John and Lorna Norgrove who we’d met through a mutual friend in Tasmania (Hi Luke!) had waved us off from the beach at Carnais. 

Thank you John and Lorna for your hospitality, a comfy night in The Wheelhouse, and an insight into life on Lewis. 

Retired now, but as is often the case with active and inspiring retirees as busy as ever with a myriad of activities. Most importantly they run The Linda Norgrove Foundation https://lindanorgrovefoundation.org/ 

The foundation, dedicated to their aid worker daughter killed in Afghanistan in 2010 funds education, health and childcare initiatives for Afghan women and children. We were particularly impressed with the funding of female medical students all the way through their studies, 33 currently and they are aiming for 50. Seriously, throw them some funds. 

The plodding continued to a beach about 4kms from the Butt of Lewis where we waited for the tide to flow NE. The Butt of Lewis is one of the windiest places in the UK and the tides can run up to 6kn as the Atlantic Ocean tries to squeeze around The Butt into The Minch and then back again. By the time we were looking up at the lighthouse on the tip the overcast skies had cleared and there wasn’t a breath of wind or at slack water a trace of current. Meandering around the coastal rocks we contemplated how often the conditions are so benign to enable kayaks to get in so close. 

A day of contrasts. The NW coast of Lewis from Barvas may have been a bit tedious and uninteresting, but the NE coast to the beach at Tolsta was the opposite. Fantastic cliffs, offshore rocks, caves and arches and just screeching with with bird life.  In the bays between the rocky headlands, the waters abounded with marine mammals - we saw dolphins, Harbour porpoises and at least 6 Minke whales, one of them breaching.

The thought of a beer, the first since Castlebay, as Stornaway loomed ahead of us had pushed us on around Tolsta Point to land at 6:30, a bit later than our usual knock off time. At least our feet were on dry land, a pretty good signifier that a day on the water has been a 100% successful, but camping was limited to the dry, deep loose beach sand. Just the worst! And really not what we needed to cope with at the end of a long day. 

The incongruous Tolsta pier at the end of the beach came to the rescue with smooth, flat and having been in the sun all day, warm concrete. The pier built in 1894 against the advice of local fisherman had finally proved useful, as a campsite. Cue a rave for freestanding tents. 

Stornaway!

The ramp we’d hoped to use to wheel the kayak ashore for the ferry didn’t exist so we tied up in the marina and headed for the homely Heb Hostel. With bodies hosed clean by glorious long hot showers and smelly thermals going around in the wash it was beer o’clock at the Crown, the only pub in town with hand pumps. 

Pedal powered Harris Tweed loom. 

High tide and on its trolley we hauled the kayak out into the street and around to the Calmac terminal for the ferry the next day.