Day 15 - Lochmaddy (115 kms) - " On our last legs" !

It was 8.30 p.m. and the rain was teeming down. We'd been on the go for nearly 12 hours when we rounded a bend to finally see a sign indicating that we'd reached Lochmaddy our destination for the evening. Our exhilaration though was short lived as while the Scots appeared to have an abundance of lighthouse builders over the centuries, bridge builders were in short supply as our entrance to the township still required a circuitous 4 km cycle around a huge loch and Monika's legs were failing her fast !!

The day had started well enough surprisingly in sunshine in Stornaway where we peeled off one of our 14 layers, said goodbye to our friendly b&b host Louie the "Muso" and stocked up at Tescos before departing thinking about putting on sunscreen for the first time on tour before we realized we had little or no exposed skin showing because of the icy winds !

With Monika navigating we departed the city limits without drama entering the barren spaces of the Outer Hebrides. We made our way in favorable conditions over the next few hours  to the foothills of the Scaladales climbing steeply to a high plateau. Not only did the going get tough but the reasonable weather had now disappeared to be replaced by the customary gloom and drizzle.

A great descent off the plateau took us into Taerbet and now driving rain where we decided to take lunch at the local pub of soup and toasted sandwiches giving our wet weather gear a chance to recover.

With a ferry to make in Leverburgh though we couldn't hang around departing straight up a 15%climb that nearly bought our lunches straight back up. While the gradient backed off the climbing didn't as we moved across a weird looking moonscape type terrain.

Finally some relief when a downhill took us to the amazing white sand beach of Luskentyre voted as the best beach in the UK and considered scenically as one of the top ten beaches in the world.

The appeal of Luskentyre is that it's white sands run for miles and its waters are a Mediterranean coloured jade green with all of this against a tropical looking mountain backdrop - this was so not UK !

Snapping (photos) away we worked our way around the stunning coastline now picking up that dreaded Outer Hebrides headwind that made our last 5 kms into Leverburgh treally tough.

We did however have time on our side so were able to sit back in a pier side cafe taking in a hot cuppa while waiting for our 6.30 p m. Ferry

Our crossing was uneventful dropping us off in Erenskay at 7.30 p m. just in time for the rain once more. Already fatigued we set about he last 16 kms into Lochmaddy on lonely single roads  where we seemed to be the only living (just!) things around

Finally after circumnavigating the never ending loch of Lochmaddy we collapsed into our beautiful b&b at Rushlee House just shy of 9.00p.m. to be well received by the lovely b&b owners - heaters on we hung up our gear to dry, put on a cuppa and not long after hit the sack feeling the effects of our long 115 km day !