A quest to find the cave…

The binmen arrived this morning and, as observed before, they had their mascot Jack Russell on the seat between them.  Peter was a little embarassed about taking a photo but managed to get this one.

The weather is fantastic today and getting quite warm.  As usual, the sea is bright blue and sparkling.

Our first job of the day is a visit to the doctor’s surgery in Castlebay.  I have been plagued with an infection for weeks now and I took a “sample” in to be tested by the nurse (who turned out to be the niece of our host, Angus!).  It is now winging its way to be tested at the lab in Stornaway.  (Actually I think it’s going by boat!)  There is no chemist on Barra as such so Peter has made an appointment for tomorrow to be seen by the doctor for his cough, which is persisting.

After that it was but a stroll down to the Post Office (which had a major part in the movie Whisky Galore when it was filmed here after the war).  The PO now has a tearoom, named after the lady who was the postmistress for many years, Morag McCroon, I believe.  We were lured by the free wifi but, unfortunately, it wasn’t strong enough outside to upload the pictures on the blog.  The scones, however, were enormous and tasted as good as they looked, with jam and cream.  The owners of the PO are a couple from Yorkshire who have settled here.

Then we drove along to the airport carpark and walked across the machair to the beach on the Atlantic side – Traigh Eais.  There’s about a mile of pure white sand and I have read somewhere (exactly where now annoyingly lost in the mists of time) that a cave exists towards the northern end of the beach which was used in the filming of Whisky Galore, presumably for the hiding of the illicit whisky from the wreck of The Politician.  Readers of this blog might remember that, although basically a true story, the island concerned was Eriskay and not Barra but the inhabitants of Barra were more than happy to assist with the filming and, indeed, acting as extras.  Studying the OS map, there is indeed a cave shown but its exact position is difficult to see.

Even though quite hot, there is still quite a breeze and it made walking along the beach quite bracing.  In the distance we could see something that looked a little like a cave – could this be it?

Cave far right…

The tide was gradually coming in but the beach was dotted with pools of water, forming ‘islands’ of sand which looked fantastic in the sunshine.

Eventually reaching the cave, Peter took the plunge and went in as far as he could (header photo) but unfortunately it seemed to have been filled with shingle and stones (some in a plastic bowl!).  Probably to stop people going in and getting cut off by the incoming tide.

I took the opportunity to have a rest from walking and sat on this gaily striped rock.

Happy that we had at least found ‘a’ cave we started the long walk back along the beach.

A family had come down and was enjoying a paddle in the waves and a couple of Oystercatchers flew over.

Back at the campsite we found that several other motorhomes had joined us and there was even one on the grass beside Angus’s mother’s house.  Full up!  Luckily, of course, we have our special place and were able to sit outside unseen by other campers.  Angus is back from fishing again as the prawns are proving elusive.

The day ended with a spectacular sunset which Peter managed to capture from the hill at the back.