Barra, Vatersay and "that" airport

Seeing that there was a dry day ahead with gentler winds we decided to take the little hire car on the ferry to the island of Barra. We were planning to go by boat anyway but having four wheels there would let us explore further than just using two. Another early start as the ferry time from Eriskay to Barra meant a 7:10 check in . Not that there is any check in, you just join other cars in the queue and then the crew come and let you on board.

Here is the area showing the ferry slipway on Eriskay (red pin) and the other islands:

You can also see the one "circular" road around Barra. As we arrived very early, we drove to Castlebay first, the main settlement. Bar the food shops and post office, it was shut. Here is the Castle that gives the place its name and the local lifeboat added in for good measure too:

We were not quite sure why they need a boarding boat when the main lifeboat lies against the pier with steps down to it but here it is:

Perhaps the full time mechanic likes fishing and needed something suitable?  As we could not find coffee until 10:30 we opted to drive around the beautiful west coast, admire the beaches, and head to the airport for the scheduled 11:30 plane arrival from Glasgow. On the way we stopped for a rather good second breakfast at a tiny nursery that has built a very nice cafe. There we heard about the recent big island wedding and the way that covid spread through the island afterwards like wildfire!

For folks who don't know about the famous Barra airport, it has a pretty normal and modern looking control tower:

but some signs that you will not find anywhere else :

and markers that are not actually on the runway / taxiway itself:

Yes, the runway is the beach and the flight times get changed to fit with the tides. The airport folks drive up and down the drying beach in a 4x4 to check for debris and anything big they find gets moved by the tractors:

ready for the incoming two flights per day from Glasgow. In case of an emergency, they have two fire trucks and this rather cute little trailer. No idea what is in it or how they could tow it down to the beach from where it is abandoned but it looked impressive. Sort of:

With the expected delay, the little Twin Otter which is owned by the Scottish Government but operated by Loganair duly arrived. The approach looks like any other airport, you see the plane in the air passing airport buildings:

then it all changes:

and you get to see the salt water spray coming off the wheels as it touches down:

The parking area and disembarkation process is as sophisticated as you would expect:

and baggage reclaim is "functional" and very manual too:

The whole thing is a great spectator sport, more folks were lined up watching the arrival and departure than the 19 that could fly on the plane itself. A lifelong pilot Captain Rae (remember him, Mr Albatross the N47?) seems to like the "Twotter" as he calls it so we made sure there are plenty of plane pictures for him in this post.

Whilst the plane was being turned around (grand phrase - the crew wandered into the terminal to collect paperwork and visit the facilities then they took the returning passengers with them to the plane) we walked up the sand dunes and over to the beach on the west side of the airport. Plenty of  birdlife, this guy seemed to be a sole survivor of the avian onslaught, the other shells we saw looked empty:

Having enjoyed the airport we headed south to Vatersay - here is the island looking moody in some mist, you can just see the causeway over to it as well:

Lunch in the community cafe was first, then a walk to the beautiful beach area:

and down to the main settlement where as well as the obligatory rusty tractors, we also saw this offshore race boat in a garden:

#mostunexpected.

For interest, the little "hut" that you can see in the picture used to be the Vatersay post office. Vatersay folks (all 90 or so of them) now have to go to Castlebay on Barra for post office services. Vatersay is the most southerly and the most westerly of the inhabited islands in the Outer Hebrides chain and really has that "you are on the end of the world" feeling about it.

We headed back to Barra, up the east coast and stopped off to admire the pride of the local fishing fleet:

Well, certainly the tidiest one in the tiny harbour. On the ferry heading back we kept an eye on the bridge:

and after leaving the terminal, we didn't see any eyes inside it that bothered to look forwards. No radar running, no lookout activity, we hope they had some good all round CCTV to watch in there! The maritime collision regulations say:

Rule 5
Look-out
Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight as well as by hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision

but we are not sure that the ferry crew were too fussed about them - who else navigates in that little stretch of water after all?

We hear more and more bad stories about CalMac's fleet and reliability problems from the various islanders. The Loch Alainn that we travelled on was a 1997 vessel and shows her age. The corrosion was quite serious on some of the deck plates and the external pipework on one side of her was in a very bad state. Ironically, there was a door labelled "paint store" - we don't think the crew had a key to it..... 

A great day on two very different islands, with very varied sights and experiences.