Independent overland travel through Africa in a Unimog called Moglet

The next day dawned overcast, misty and raining, so possibly not the best combination for a cliff walk to look at things. Plus if we spent most of the day walking we'd end up only driving a little way before the ferry so only minimal battery recharging, which isn't too good when we're wild camping with no electric hookups.

So we decided to take a looping route to the ferry, via as many small and twisting roads as we could find, charging up Moglet as well as killing time before the ferry later on in the afternoon.

On our meandering route we spotted a good example of the thatched cottages that are still in use today on the islands. Not certain what the stones do - maybe help hold the thatch down in strong winds?? Jason also spotted what apparently amounted to several thousand pounds worth of perfectly good tyres discarded by the roadside in the middle of nowhere...very odd.

Wanderings complete, we rolled up to the ferry port a good hour or so ahead of schedule - which was handy as they had a waste disposal point and fresh water supplies for us travelling folks :-)

Housekeeping attended to, we boarded our next ferry over to Harris, the southern part of the largest island in the Outer Hebrides. Although its technically one landmass split in two by a stream, Harris and Lewis are regarded as separate islands by pretty much everyone, including the locals. You can see from the picture just how many little islands and jaggedly little bits of rock are around all the islands - the ferry route is about as far from a straight line as you can get.

Once we'd landed, we hung a right and headed along whats known as the Golden Road which connects all the little hamlets along the southern edge of the island - not because it's inhabitants are fabulously wealthy but because of the extortionate cost of constructing it. Apparently the locals had a plan back in the '30's to sort the issue themselves with a large supply of dynamite but the council convinced them to hold off and let them build a road 'properly' instead. And no doubt charged massive taxes for the next decade or two to pay for it! All cost issues aside though, it's an impressive feat of engineering when you drive along it and see the amount of rock they must have had to cut through to create the space wide enough for a road.

Back on the main road, we headed for a site recommended to us a week or so ago. We arrived to find a good location but no electric, but still a sign saying at was £10 a night. So we trucked on about 5 miles down the road and parked up in a not exactly salubrious location (small public car park with toilets, next to a cemetary!), but it was free plus we were able to empty tanks if we needed to, and there was an outside tap so we could go mad with the water use in the shower and fill up in the morning. Plus it was still only about 10seconds walk from the beach, so not bad all in all :-) Jason went off for a quick scout around when we arrived, and I put the kettle on. We were also using it as a test for the walkie talkies we have after my minor heart failure while he was off climbing up to the Table a few days back. Lovely clear signal for about 20mins, then he goes around the headland and nothing but static... Is it more worrying to not hear anything from someone while they're out walking alone, or to hear something from them and then have their sentence cut off half way through and you not then be able to contact them again for an hour?? I'm not sure...

No big plans for tomorrow other than to get up at a reasonable hour to make sure we have a good few hours driving, to keep batteries healthy and happy. There's a standing stone a few miles away and after that we'll just have to see...