Leodhais

Ardvourlie - Garenin
37 miles

We woke from a great sleep and still the trees whipped about outside. We doubled up on porridge and headed out into the elements and Lewis proper. Feeling slightly guilty we trundled along, off the higher ground of Harris with, our now good friend, the sou' western tail wind. Eventually we go to the left turn which would take us to Garenin and we now had to feel more of the wind than either of us wished - the view south, back to the mountains of Harris was recompense enough though, as we glanced sideways trying to keep the bikes upright.

We passed a few more cyclists - one guy on his own seemed nice enough - how first impressions can be misguided we thought as we became victims of his snoring later that night. The next stop was Calanais and it's neolithic stones - I've seen Machrie Moor, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness and Calanias in the space of 4 months and their settings very much felt similar. Today they acted as impressive wind breaks but even then I could not find the will to draw. We shouted at each other over the blustery gale as the sun came out on occasion to blind us.

We ate and rested in a very comfortable interpretation centre looking out over the loch and stocked up on provisions near by - including some frozen chips - the most traditional of hostelling food. The road up to Garenin was sun drenched and newly tarmac'd - large chunks of granite having been displaced to build our path years ago. There was lochans as the road gently rolled up and down and generally I felt quite at ease here.

When we arrived at Garenin we found a bed each to our joy (it's a long way from another hostel) but were dismayed at the lack of an oven for our chips - oh how we had been spoiled in Berneray. The group was nice here again and we strolled around the blackhouse village in the sun as the tourists became less and less. Some people appeared to live here - others were staying in a rentable house to themselves.

An interpretation panel reminded us to respect the Sabbath and Chris mentioned how he had seen a play park earlier that was open "Monday to Saturday". We cooked, drew, read and chatted and finally went up to the cliffs for a view south over the violence happening between sea and coast, almost getting a good sunset. Quite a few had come to the vantage point - it had a nice atmosphere.
The wind continued to throw us about so we went to bed.