As I have no work today I decided to share with you some nice pictures from one of my trips to Outher Hebrides, where I was working about one year ago. Some of you were asking me for that before, so now that’s it!
That was one of my weekly trips, it was about 07/2007. It was one of my last trips for them, and I really miss going there. Altough money was small, that was really good place to work: decent boss, good lorries, family atmosphere and if not heavy lifting, which was tons of to do every time, I would want to come back there at any time…
DAY ONE
So I am leaving depot in Wenesday morning. After leaving Glasgow I am going up along Loch Lomond and after about 1 hr of driving through nice mountains
we are approaching Glencoe
It’s really beautifull place:
I am going pass Fort Wiliam and just before Loch Lomond I am turning left for Kyle of Lochalsh. It’s one beautifull place to stop at the coast with beautifull view over the lakes Skye. (There is also a small village shop there)
After passing Skye Bridge we got to pass some really step hills:
(Sorry, i haven’t turned this picture, please fogive me 
You can see old road down there, which is going along the coast and new road is made through the hills).
On approach to Portree we can see this famous sky rocks:
And shortly after passing Portree we are in Uig, where is ferry to Lochmaddy departing from.
Crossing takes approximately 1h 40 minutes and embarking and disembarking is really fast, and as Hebrideans do not like to wake up too early in the morning I decide to do couple deliveries at the evening.
Hebrides Haulage is specific company, as not much lorries going up there, so we are delivering everything - from pallets through furniture and other stuff to TNT parcels. So i am heading to my first drops, passing this nice warehouse:
and guys who are picking peat to use it in fireplaces (there is not too much forests in Hebrides, so timber is quite expensive).
And at the end of the road I reached my first drop: I am not brave enough to drive there with heavy lorry, but it’s only a small parcel.
On the way back i am passing deers - they seems to completely ignoring my presence:
Not far from there I see herd of highland cattle:
They seems to belong to the small farm, where I have another delivery: tractor tyres.
You can see beautifull example of Hebridean art of lorry loading - i seen something like this before only in Turkey.
I asked Farmer how to go to another farm with my next delivery. He pointed one small house with his finger and told me “that’s there”. I asked him how to got there? Should I come back to the main road and then go through tne village and then… but he interrupted me: “No, no go on the beach and then take the third exit”. I wasn’t sure if beach is suitable place for lorry, but he assured me that it is - locals do it all the time…
So I decided to try:
And it was indeed suitable for HGV’s 
On the way back I passed the local gaelic library:
and some sort of local used parts shop to Soviet Union made cars:
As an owner of this car explained me another time: It’s hard to get ANY car parts here, so I bought a car, what is easy to fix with the hammer. Isn’t it smart?
Then it came time to go to bed. And what is more refreshing than a short walk along the beach at the evening?
It’s sometimes hard to find place to park a lorry on hebrides, as we cannot park on passing places. I was too short of driving time to go to one of my usual places (near to the tourist toilet or in village pub) so I used one of camping fields. It was marked with parking sign and it wasn’t stated “No HGV’s” so I hope i Was perfectly legal:
DAY TWO
First thing in the morning is to pass from North Uist to Benbecula. There is really nice long causeway (almost 2 km long) which is really danger to drive on during the storm. But this day weather was beauifull, so I just enjoyed nice view:
On benbecula I had a meeting with a local van driver from our company. He took over all my small staff, so I had only big things left on the lorry (and few parcels, which were on my way anyway).
One of the first delivery had really nice road to get in:
Then I was heading South, stopping from time to time for some deliveries.
Last one was on very south, on the tiny Eriskay isle, where usually small van is working. But this time it wasn’t possible, as stuff was too long and it was no way to fit in into the small van.
That one, with small help of some passer-by wasn’t very hard to find (altough adress written in the lines “Ms XXXX, Eriskay” wasn’t giving you too much information) but then it turned to be another problem: How to get there?
I asked for advice one of the boat keepers and they told me “it can be bit narrow on this side road, but you shall pass”. Hm. Can there be even more narrow than THAT?
Yes, it can! Also step and bendy…
Guy assured me, that it will be turning space at the end of the road, but there was a problem - car was parked in turning space and I cannot manage to turn:
I was happy that I wasn’t driving my own nissan primera, as it had even worse turning circle then this orange bug 
Lucky me, lady, who was owed this car spotted me through her shower window and she runned out wearing only her bath robe (again lucky me ) to move her car for me.
If you are interested about how I returned to the main road, you can wath this movie: http://youtube.com/watch?v=q-MALAk4BWg but i ■■■■■■ something with that and the sound is broken. But that still can give you some wiev of Eriskay driving.
As I was on Eriskay, at the evening with the empty lorry and I had nothing to do, as next ferry was at 8 in the morning I decided to go for some beach walk and watch sunset. I parked on Barra slip-way ferry terminal and enjoyed the sunset.
Perfect postcard from Scotland:
I took some pictures of myself: I had long hairs in this time 
perfect sunset:
Yet another one:
It was a bit cold, but there were some people and the fire, so I warmed myself and chatted with them.
When the darkness came I drove to lochbaighsdale to ferry terminal. On the way I stopped in one place, when I knew, that I can reach my mobile network and I had spoken with my girl.
DAY THREE
There was some suprise at the ferry terminal: as I had no booking for this ferry, as I supposed to use Lochmaddy ferry at previous afternoon, which wasn’t possible due to this Eriskay delivery there wasn’t a space for me. But they told me to hold on and if that will be possible there will try to fit my lorry onto ferry. But, unfortunably, it wasn’t enaugh space to let me in:
So… Bye bye, Lord of the Isles…
Next departure: tommorow evening! Ouch…
Quick consultation with friendly guys from the office - there is no space for me on Lochmaddy ferry this afternoon as well, but It’s possible to go via barra or Lewis and Harris. Phone call to the boss and he sent me via Lewis and Harris. That’s cool - I had never been there before.
So after a quick coffe in the office (thank’s Ian and your friends) I setted up north again.
On North Uist i met one of the biggest vehicles on this islands - MacAskill artic (other one is from D.A. MacLeod)
At the Sound Of Harris ferry terminal I met the travelling bank:
After about one hour of waiting small vessel come to take me to the Harris island:
The views during the crossing are amazing. Vessel is swerving between hundreds of tiny islands and you can still see skye, islands and North Scotland…
There is no road access to this farm: you can get there only by boat:
And there we are:
One can tell, that the success is to have yacht on the one of mideterrain coasts, but it can be also an old fishing boat on the scottish islands, as you can see on that picture:
As i had some time before ferry was departing from Tarbert I was able to do couple of nice photostops:
here you have famous Harris sands:
What the shame, that it’s not so hot there like in croatia, becouse landscape and green water is as much beautifull and just inviting you to jump in and swim there:
For some people is even to cold for sunbathing, so they are going onto the beach in their cars:
Wee mountain crossing…
…and there we are. Ferry terminal in Tarbert:
Soon M/S Hebrides will open its jaws:
and there we are on board, sailing home. Look for these funny clouds, thats shows how low are clouds in Scotland. That’s something, what I wasn’t used to in Poland
Another similar picture:
Last view to the Uig ferry - bye bye, I promise to come back here for some holidays one day…
And there we are on the skye again. Only need some piece of straight road to overtake this really slow camper:
Another nice skye landscape…
Leaving Skye via Skye bridge…
How beautifull Scotland is: you can just put your camera outside the window when driving and shoot without looking and then you have another nice postcard:
Another nice scottish view:
What are all this stone towers? Is that some form of tribute to somebody?
I stopped for my 45’ under Commando Monument at sunset. I was in glasgow about the midnight…
So I hope you enjoyed and sorry for my english 
