"What A Beach!"

After two days of travelling and preparing today marked the start, for me at least, of The Timeless Way proper, my route going over the forbidding Lewis Moor to North Tolsta. It started on roads, then tracks, lots of squelchy, squidgy, mucky open moorland before reaching a good track again not far from "The Bridge to Nowhere" and continuing on a small road to the end point of today's walk.

My (good) intention was to try my best to follow Peter Clarke's route along what are referred to as "ancient tracks and drove roads". The reality was quite different, however!

After the biggest Scottish breakfast I'd ever eaten, and it turned out to be just about the best of the whole fortnight, I said goodbye to Edna at the Loch Beag B&B and also to The Boss at about 09:30 and headed south. It was cool, drizzly and, I suppose, typically Hebridean. But I was in good spirits tinged with trepidation and at least I wouldn't go hungry, as Edna had loaded me down with a superb packed lunch, complete with locally smoked salmon!

The walk to North Tolsta should have been about 12 miles but it turned out to be a little longer; closer to 14, in fact.

To begin with I headed for Port Ness, where we had dined last night, and took a small road close to the cliff top which petered out onto a track and rejoined the B8105 at Eòradal. There was no-one around, but this was a Sunday on the Isle of Lewis and I supposed that everybody was either in bed or at church. Bizarrely, I did, however, see a guy feeding a Llama on his back step! Eventually the B8105 also became a track and there was a plaque explaining an "official path" to Tolsta over Lewis Moor. I wasn't going to follow this, however, preferring to try Peter Clarke's more interesting route.

It began to rain and I donned full waterproofs as the wind came up too, creating an eerie, swirling mist which seemed to hang closely over the moorland. The wide track I was following narrowed to a single quite good path with evidence of peat cutting on either side. All too soon this narrow track disappeared and in the thickening mist I was relying on my trusty Garmin GPS to guide me along the route I'd downloaded from the LDWA website. I'd given up all pretence of following Peter Clarke's route as the mist became heavier and the day more gloomy and I was now walking from marker post to marker post across the moorland. There was no discernible footpath, which turned out to be the norm for Hebridean moorland "routes" and I was very glad of my Brasher leather boots and waterproof trousers.

The "official path" goes much closer to the coastline than the Timeless Way route and, when the mist cleared, I could see wonderful beaches ahead. Despite the marker posts and the GPS route I had to make quite a few "course corrections" as the going underfoot became wetter and wetter, boggier and boggier. It really is very bleak and isolated on Lewis Moor and from time to time my spirits drooped a little. Surely this wasn't the wonderful Timeless Way that I'd read about? But then I thought, "hey, this is only the first leg; how good to get a "not so nice" bit over and done with" and pressed on.

After a few hours of yomping between marker posts, and having trouble seeing them in the mist from time to time, I saw a couple of people stumbling towards me, the first since the Llama-feeding man! They were two women, one younger, one older, who didn't seem properly equipped or shod for the weather or terrain, but who said they would plod slowly over the moor to Ness. I wished them well and continued!

After a seemingly interminable age, passing several small, attractive lochs and what I took to be a survival hut I reached the waterfalls at Abhain na Cloich where there was a wide concrete footbridge over a stream and where the soggy, boggy "track" turned into a pleasant, double width dry one again. I stopped and ate Edna's butties and delicious salmon and had a cup of coffee. Refreshed and revitalised I almost jogged down the track, meeting a couple of elderly "strollers" and a farmer. I rounded a bend and there in front of me was the magnificent Tràigh Ghearadha, the beach before Tolsta, and there, in the car park, was a red SAAB - The Boss was waiting for me.

But before meeting her there was one treat left for me - the crossing of Lord Leverhulme's folly "The Bridge to Nowhere". It's a wonderful piece of construction from the 1920s, still in good condition and especially interesting as the road that was supposed to have been built over it, to link Tolsta and Ness, was never constructed. Hence it's The Bridge to Nowhere!

I met Noelene and she photographed me almost sprinting along the road! I'd intended to finish the day's walking there but I felt I had another mile or so in my legs so I carried on to Tràigh Mhor, the beach nearest Tolsta. I reasoned that if I walked a bit further and did the same tomorrow I would be able to "trim a few miles" off the 25 miler from Stornoway to Breasclete that I'd planned for two days hence. It turned out to be a very good decision.

Like many Hebridean beaches, as I was to discover during the days ahead, Tràigh Mhor is spectacular with very beautiful pale yellow sand covering a huge expanse but, even in the, by now, much improved weather, completely deserted.

I met my beloved, for the second time, at the car park and we drove south to Stornoway along the road that will be my route tomorrow. We checked in at Braighe House - our very lovely (and expensive!) B&B close to Stornoway Airport where we'd be for the next two nights and received a very warm welcome from Alison who showed us to our amazing and very spacious room. Instead of showering and changing straightaway we did a short driving tour of An Rubha, the Eye Peninsula, with its small port, lighthouse and landraiders monument at Aignish Point, commemorating those who died in the land struggles of the 19th century.

Later we ate at the Royal Hotel in Stornoway, one of the few restaurants open on a Sunday and had a wonderful meal before returning to Braighe House to write up my day's notes and prepare for tomorrow's walk from North Tolsta to the Pentland Road about three miles to the west of Stornoway.

It had been a good "first day" and I fell into an immediate deep sleep!

A Few Photos From Day 01 (just click on them for the BIG versions):
Day 01 - Leaving Loch Beag B&B, 19/06/11	Prepared For Winter
Sgiogarstaigh	Lots Of These On Lewis Moor!
Shelter on Lewis Moor	You're Not Kidding!
Approaching Traigh Ghearadha	Tràigh Ghearadha
Near North Tolsta!	Braighe House B&B, Stornoway
Sunday Dinner!	View From Braighe House B&B, Stornoway