Day 1; June 4th

Today is the day; we will finally go to St. Kilda! The weather is perfect; sun and calm blue sea.

The journey takes about four hours, and then there it finally is St. Kilda;

The first thing you see are the military buildings of Qinetiq. Which is not a pretty sight, but they are part of St. Kilda's history.

Since 1957 there is an army base on St. Kilda. The base is still in possesion of the army, and not accesible for tourists. But the radar is no longer being operated by the army, but by Qinetiq, a
defence technology compagnie.

The departing group waits for us on the pier together with Kevin, the archeologist. They help us with our luggage. All the luggage together with all the food needs to be brought up to the village. The people of Qinetiq give us a hand by using a large forklift.
Rachel and I help Flo, our cook, to check the supplies. In the meantime the boats all disappeared from the bay, and the island is for the first time "ours". We enjoy the lovely wheather and the view over the bay.

There are 6 houses restored for the workparty; number 1 is the common room, with a kitchen and diningroom, number 2 is the "ladiesboudoir", number 3 is the museum, number 4 is the gents' room, number 5 is the workshop with all the tools, and number 6 is the room for the workpartyleader and office.

Me at the ladies' boudoir

We make a short walk up the hills to "the Gap", from where you have a wonderfull view on the cliffs and over Boreray.

Flo is making us a wonderfull dinner and after dinner we go to the pub, the Puff-in, then up to bed.
Our first day on St. Kilda is over.

Finally!

Isn't it a great accomplishment to write about an island for months on which you've never set foot? Tomorrow it will finally be. But if you would expect a huge amount of posts from me I'm sorry to disappoint you. On St.Kilda there will not be wifi nor internetcoverage. From tomorrow on there will be silence on my blog until at least 18th June.
But I will keep a diary, so I will have plenty to write about when I get back!

The Scottish Hebrides

Friday I arrived in Stornoway. I'm staying in Hebhostel; a very nice hostel near the harbor. Stornoway is  the main town of Lewis. Lewis is one of the isles of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. 

The "Hebrides" is an archipelago in Scotland  consisting of the Inner and Outer Hebrides. The Outer Hebrides are the Western isles. The largests are -from North to South- Lewis and Harris; which is one isle, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra. St. Kilda belongs to the Outer Hebrides.

The Outer Hebrides have long been influenced by the Norwegians. Until 1266 they belonged to Norway. In contrast to the Inner Hebrides - of which the larger, more well known isles are Skye, Mull, Raasay - here is relatively little tourism.
The real Scotland is found on the Outer Hebrides. Here is the last stronghold of the Scottish-Gaellic language. The official name of the Western Isles is Na h-Eileanan Siar. 

I visited the Outer Hebrides in 2009. In my first post of this blog (of november 2013) I explained my fascination for St. Kilda dates from that time.

There is not much to do in Stornoway, but it has a pretty colorfull harbor, and there are good opportunities to make long walks in the park surrounding the castle.

Saturday I went by bus to Callanish Standing Stones; an impressive stone cirkel of more than 4000 years old. Older than Stonehenge but just as impressive.

In the evening it was very agreeable in town with the pubs playing live music, but today it is Sunday, and almost everything is closed. There are even no buses going anywhere.  

I made a run and a hike in the park, and I went up to war memorial site for the soldiers of World War I.