South Uist and its amazing colours…

Today is our last full day on South Uist and the beautiful sunny weather and some real warmth has encouraged us to go down to the beach in the south of the island.  This fine sand beach runs virtually the length of the island and is backed by the machair.

It is absolutely exquisite, with hardly any seaweed and the bluest of water.  It is, of course, the Atlantic and I didn’t test the temperature of the water!  What makes it especially perfect for walking is the firmness of the sand underfoot.

As we ventured up the small roads on the eastern side of the island yesterday, so we took left hand turnings today.  All the roads eventually led down to the beach but some access was easier than others.  My other loves of these islands are the red rooves which somehow seem so natural here – whether more recent builds like this one or old rusty barns and outhouses.

It all harmonises so beautifully with the natural colours of the landscape.

This is the first blue roof we’ve seen!

The other thing remarkable to these islands is the use of what look like old army nissen huts!

A quandry of life on a remote island is what do you do with your old vehicles and farm machinery?  Well, vehicles from buses to cars tend to be dumped in old quarries or land set aside for such unwanted things but farm machinery is left where it rusts and rots, rather like the old stone buildings, where all that is left are the walls and gable ends.  It is part of the Hebridean culture to leave them as a reminder of days past.

Here, both are combined in a delightful scene, where the sheep roam wherever they like.

Nearby, this Redshank was trying to distract us – possibly away from his young.

As they are so common, Oystercatchers don’t get much of a look-in on the blog but this one is an exception.  Cheeky!

Having explored many of the turnings (we have to leave something for next time!) we decided to end our day at the Druidibeg nature reserve.  It seemed a few of the Druidibeg ponies were holding up the traffic in front of us as another motorhome endeavoured to pass the car in the passing place!

Then these two blonde bombshells started up a sort of lick-in – each one licking the other’s neck for ages.  The nearest one looks quite carried away!  We left them to it and drove on.

The colours of our surroundings became even more vivid as we approached the mountains…

As the sun got lower in the sky it became a scene in Technicolor…

… and the clouds look unreal…

A couple of fishermen take out the little green boat that is usually tied up to a bank.

We couldn’t have had a better last day on South Uist and tomorrow we set off to North Uist via little Benbecula inbetween.

I have been having a lot of trouble with the internet connection this evening so will have to cut this blog post rather short as I can’t upload any more photos.  Better luck with the next oneI hope!