The Uists, and a bit of Benbecula too

Lochboisdale had a couple of really beautiful converted MFVs in place. One directly ahead of us, owned by a local man who inherited it from his father after he retired the boat from fishing. This visiting craft is a tourist boat now and looked the part for the area unlike some of the tin ugly monsters that have been built specifically for the cruise market:

Very impressive piece of kit.

We caught up on sleep after the silly early start leaving Stornoway, then after a day of boat washing and cycling to the local (20 minutes) Co-op only to find the fresh fruit area was pretty bare, we picked up our little hire car form the lovely Laing Motors folks. No scruffy van with dangerous tyres this time, instead a tidy little Citroen C1:

Not brand new but well cared for. The paperwork process was just as we remembered it from before. You fill in a photocopied A4 sheet with your address and licence information, pay the hire fee and get the keys. No insurance upselling, no "driving licence check code" needed from the DVLA. No checks at all really. The little car was pressed into immediate action, heading north. Plenty of single track A road here, lots of little inland lochs, very little other traffic. All pretty good really. This is typical of the roadside scenery in the "lowland" areas:

with lots of little causeways:

and a few longer ones that link the islands themselves. Further north, you see the hillier bits:

We went onto Benbecula, raided the bigger Co-op  there where we happily found fresh fruit and veg, then went to the wildlife reserve area and explored Loch Skipport. Tempting as it was, we didn't wait until the guided walk started to see the Golden Eagles that were nesting nearby and raising a chick too:

We didn't spot them during our walk around but we got to enjoy the area instead:

Our little excursion was a great reminder of how special these islands are. Laid back to almost the horizontal, generally unspoiled apart from the abandoned cars, vans and tractors that seem to be just left to die in fields and gardens. No scrap yard or recycling centres here!