Nik lives in Essex, UK and works in London as the editor of MacUser magazine. The posts and comments on this site do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions of values of his employers.
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Every plane out of Edinburgh was delayed on Thursday. At least while I was there that’s the way it seemed. An increasingly irritated voice called for the last two passengers on every flight to come forward. Their bags were always being unloaded, and they were always delaying takeoff.
Our flight to the Outer Hebridies was delayed, too. And then the bus went AWOL. We stood under a plastic canopy waiting for it for five long minutes, while the uniformed woman at the front of the queue looked up and down the canopy and pretended to be busy.
It came, eventually, and loaded us onto a 30-seat propeller plane that bounced around like a spastic wasp across the mountains towards Stornoway. We put down in Inverness. Half of the passengers departed. Their seats were filled by a further fifteen, who joined us for the thirty minute hop to the Isle of Lewis.
The first sight of the island was through the windows to the right. We had passed across the Isle of Sky, and cut out across the sea. We veered sharply to the right and spiralled down towards the water. I looked through the window, trying to spot the tiny airport, and eventually spotted a short strip of concrete cutting through the grass. We were still turning as we approached, dangerously close to the ground, and touched down heavily.
The pilot slammed on the brakes and came to a halt two thirds of the way down the runway, turned full circle and headed towards a crossroads in the tarmac. Finally I spotted the airport building. It was a tiny two-room affair.
Russell, our PR guide, met us at the door, and drove Dinah and me to the centre of town in what was probably the largest vehicle on the island.
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3 Responses to “Outer Hebrides”
A very enjoyable read. I was checking to see who’d got Nik.co.uk. but was hooked.
The blackhouses struck a chord with me for some reason. I fail to see why the islanders should leave. Is London really That great?
• Posted at 3:18 am on May 15th, 2002 by Nik.As an active member of Subterranea Britannica, what evidence was there to support any sort of government bunker in the Northern reaches of the island itself. I doubt (strongly, I add) that mere good cellnet signals qualifies as support for such a claim!
John Locke
• Posted at 3:40 pm on June 9th, 2005 by John Locke.Leave a Reply
Hi Nik
Nice trip to the Outer Hebrides but didn’t you do some work whilst out there? I thought that you visited a Call Centre, something to do with ‘LineOne.’
• Posted at 9:01 am on May 13th, 2002 by Nick.