Had a marvellous week cycling and climbing hills from Lewis to Barra. Sunburned and soaked numb in the same week. Only sign re FMD was at Seaforth Head, elsewhere we wandered freely, as assured by the tourist board, and met only helpful locals.
Flew out from Glasgow to Stornoway (good old air miles) with our bikes which we had to seal in a huge plastic bag and then rip open to have their tyres disinfected - still, my bike has never been so clean. Despite confirmation in advance that they were booked on, their place depended on there being room. Our flight was full (with the triumphant Lewis choir returning from a tour of Canada) and so our bikes arrived two days later.
After tackling the Cracaval group from the west, we headed for Pairc and the six Marilyns east of Loch Seaforth, starting with a lift across in the fish-farm boat from Maurig to be dropped off below Caiteshal. 'We'll drop you wherever you want' was their kind offer, despite a sign at Seaforth Head (passed on our way back) asking for no hillwalking as a precaution against FMD.
For Taransay we joined by good chance a group of five going across for the day (the owner of Taransay is developing his speedboat ferry service for tourists). Going rate was £20 each, but we quietly negotiated £10 each as we were poor cyclists and feigned only partial interest in going across. Bagged Ben Raah and more monumentally the treble-zero point (NB000000). Quite a day. As well as stunning beaches, additional excitement was provided by exploring the various Castaway buildings - totally silent at last - and being able to spy down from Ben Raah on the making of the film Rocketman on the beach below (apparantly telling the true story of a 'professor' who tried to get mail from Scarp to the mainland by rocket). From what we could see from high on Ben Raah they were filming the bit where the rocket man wanders around for a while then lies down in the sun all day. The most strenuous part of our golden day was running away from a lamb which latched on to us.
Back on South Harris, Greabhal was a strong contender for view of the year award (hills, golden sandy beaches, green fields, shapely mountains, moors, glinting lochans, white scattered crofts, shimmering sea, little islands, big islands, waves, blue empty sky... and a dipping sun).
Next was Uist, where we found buses on the Western Isles will take your bikes (in their boot). Handy if you don't fancy peddling into a wet Uist gale. Made it to the top of Roneval at 9pm, after a nasty shock spotting a hand bobbing about in one of the small coves on the approach. It turned out to be a rubber glove. The south flank of Easaval now has a hole in it due to the causeway to Eriskay. The top has five cairns all spread out on undulating rock slabs and peaty bits. A compulsory circuit was required of course, despite 10pm, light rain and a three-mile cycle back to our B&B.
So to Barra (no FMD signs) to climb all four lowly Barra Marilyns in rain, gales and cloud - these hills must have spectacular views? Beinn Cliad was done while waiting for our flight out from the airport terminal, with the cloud base at 80m above sea level. Shortly afterwards the cloud had lifted enough for the Twin Otter, with us and bikes aboard, to lift off the beach for a rollercoaster lurch back to Glasgow on one of the world's most amazing flights - highly recommended for novelty value.
Hecla, Beinn Corradail and Beinn Mhor, South Uist
