Day 22 (11th July 2022)

 Spent  a  bit of time after breakfast catching up my "postcode history" - my friend Larissa has volunteered to plot out all my destinations (Germinal CCXXIV places & others) onto a map, the kind of stuff I love but am incapable of doing myself.

I then headed south out of Stornaway, stopping briefly at a monument for the "Land Raiders" until I arrived at pretty much the end of South Harris.

The roads on Harris are treacherous at best and positively terrifying in places. My final destination was St.Clements Church in the tiny village of Rodel. Dating from the 16th Century, it contains some extraordinary tombs of the Clan Chiefs of MacLeod. The church itself is empty and somewhat amazingly you can get most of the way up the tower.

The drive back to Tarbert was just as thrilling as I got all the terrifying views in reverse. Found a postcard of St.Clements so wrote all about it and sent it to my in-laws who would appreciate it more than a view of sheep on a hillside.

Took the late afternoon ferry to Uig on the Isle of Skye. I still have no idea how you are meant to pronounce Uig. Driving down Skye, in the distance mountains appear on the horizon and I was taken by genuine surprise. As I've never been in this part of the UK before, I've never really had any understanding of UK mountains in the same way I've seen mountains in France for example. Having spent years surrounded by the South Downs and as a child gone camping in the Brecon Beacons, I've always assumed that the whole of Britain is covered in green hills that are romanticly called mountains. I can't wait to make a closer acquaintance with them.

As you can tell, no Germinal CCXXIV places on this bit of the trip.

C'est la vie, there is always tomorrow. Given the amount of wind and rain the NW of the UK is getting compared to the rest of you, I genuinely hope it will be "a lovely day tomorrow". God, I love that song.

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out