Benbecula is one of The Western Isles of the coast of Scotland, and it comes in between North and South Uist. It can be reached by ship from either Oban which is about an 8 hour crossing (we usually went on the night one so we could sleep but came home on the day one) or from Skye which is a shorter crossing but a longer car journey at this end. We have done it from both directions. The first when we moved June and all the furniture was a night trip and Brian was horrified when the man came and told him he had to reverse down what seemed a very narrow gangplank onto the cargo deck. Which by the way you shared with Livestock, Petrol Tankers, food supplies and any manner of other things. Needless to say June and I got out and went on as foot passengers. We found that at that time you could only get drinks at night no food, I don't know if it is the same now. The first stop is Barra where they unload and load. Brian and I were up that first time to watch as it was all new to us, and also the sea had been a bit "choppy", luckily neither of us suffer from seasickness. After this we had a huge cooked breakfast and by that time we were nearly docking. The Ship from Oban comes in at South Uist.
So our first sight of the islands was on a very grim and windy morning so windy that with a high sided vehicle you were afraid you were going to be blown over. The roads are mainly narrow ones with passing places and bordered on either side by peat bogs and lochs. Crofts are dotted around all over the place miles from anywhere. All in all it did not look very inviting at that time. During the week we were there Ken took us around and about and showed us some of the beauty spots, but it was so cold and windy and WET. Benbecula has an Army base so Ballivanich had a NAAFI (like all the shops they sold everything) South Uist has a CO-OP ,and North Uist The Crofters Store. Things were in some cases a little more expensive than the mainland as all of the products have to be shipped in.
The following year we went in June, accompanied by June, Roger and Daniel who was then I think about2 and we went the longer way by rod via Skye. The idea was that June and Brian would share the driving with Roger, but Roger being Roger he did the lot and by the time we got on the Ship he was exhausted and immediately he sat down in the bar he was asleep and then proceeded to snore and I mean snore, he actually cleared the bar, there was only us left and if we had wanted to sleep it would have been impossible. So when we docked at Harris we were all on deck watching the proceedings. The weather then was beautiful sunshine, but still a bit breezy (it always is) and so we were able to go exploring much more than the first time. The beaches were lovely golden sand and clear water especially at Culla Bay, the next bay was not so good as for some reason all the seaweed landed there and rotted and fully deserved its name "stinky bay".
All in all the islands are a bit bleak and barren, but also very beautiful, lochs full of water lillies, sheep all over the place, crofts, wild flowers,wildfowl , mountains with snow on the top in June. The days are long in the summer and you can still read without lights at Midnight. In the winter the nights are long with only a few hours of daylight, but lets face it in the winter it is so wet, windy and cold you don't want to go out much anyway.
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