To Harris

The night in the freezing campsite in Portree had lasting benefits. Ever since then, I have really appreciated a warm shower and a comfortable bed.  Nunton House hostel, on the west of Benbecula, met those criteria and had a toasty lounge too, heated by a peat-burning stove.

The mystery knicker nicker was nowhere to be seen: suspicion lay with a pair of cyclists who stayed at the previous hostel with me and had also had some washing in the drying room.  I had received a tip-off that they might be staying at Nunton House, but my informant was wrong, it seems.

The next morning I set out in light drizzle,  with a strong wind speeding me along the single track road.  It was 8am, rush hour, and I had to stop several times to let cars or school minibuses pass.  Across the causeway to Grimsay and swiftly to North Uist, where I took the 'scenic route along the west and north sides.  Actually, it all looked much the same in the mist.  A detour in search of a café,  which was closed till 11am, instead turned up an RSPB visitor hut at the very western point.  While I was inside, the birders outside saw a (very rare) cornckake eun across the road to hide in a bed of nettles right outside the hut.

Turning East across the top of the island, the zephyrs turned to howling banshees determined to blow me off the road.  More of the same scenery.  A couple of cars to stop for in passing places.  Eventually I turned onto the road to the ferry.  It was running a special timetable today because of the tides, so I had no idea when it was leaving.  The road led to a remote spot, and as I came over a hill, I saw the ferry in the distance.  A mad dash, and I was the last person on the ferry, along with a dozen other cyclists.

And guess what? The pair of cyclists were among them. Under fierce interrogation,  they admitted thst one of them had collected the washing and assumed my underpants and socks belonged to his friend.   A mystery solved, to the amusement of the other passengers sitting nearby.  Once off the ferry we found shelter from the rain and they were returned.   Phew. I was glad to have got to the bottom of that one.