Isle of Barra

In September 2015 I went on my biggest solo trip to date. I booked a week off work and set off for the Outer Hebrides. I took the train from my home in Glasgow to Oban, boarded the ferry and begun the 5 hour sail to Castlebay. I love this ferry journey, it feels like a true sea voyage and naturally I have to spend the entire journey on the deck looking for whales and dolphins - all ferry journeys must be undertaken in this manner! Sadly on this occasion I was plagued with sea sickeness, all was well until we came out the top of Mull and into open water, the last 2 hours were not my finest.

I arrived in Castlebay exhausted and fell straight into bed. The next day I was up at dawn and too excited to stay in bed so I got up and went to explore, straight away I was treated to the sight of the super moon rising over the bay. Seeing that spectacle early in the morning, all alone on a far flung island was verging on magical. I spent the rest of the day climbing Heaval, having a picnic lunch on Vatersay beach (which I had completely to myself) and visiting a seal colony at Cleat (the first place I ever saw seals back in 2010, a life long fascination was born that day and I still search for them everywhere I go).

Throughout the week I cycled up Barra, crossed over to Eriskay and cycled on to South Uist where I hired a car and drove all the way to Lochmaddy, stopping off and exploring all the way back to Lochboisdale.

People often ask me if I get lonely travelling alone, hell no, I love it! That week was one of the best weeks of my life. I spent my evenings eating seafood (something I always crave after breathing in salty sea air all day), I curled up in bed every night and inhaled Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, I became fascinated by the Jacobites and visited Flora MacDonalds home and the place she and Bonnie Price Charlie escaped for Skye. I spent the week totally indulging myself and doing exactly as I pleased.

Getting on my bike every morning was like regaining a limb, it became part of me. I loved having nothing to worry about, nowhere to be and not knowing what was around the next bend, it's like a form of meditation for me. Whenever things get tough I crave going back to Barra, it feels like a physical pull, nothing beats being on an island away from everything you know.

Lismore Lighthouse, plain sailing at this point: