NOVELIST

It's normally a three hour drive from Invermoriston to the ferry port of Uig, a small town on the west coast of Skye. The drive itself is hardly a chore, taking in some of the wonderful scenery of the North West Highlands. 

We experienced none of Martin's own challenges on leaving, with the sole exception of a sendoff from the habitually raucous pheasant Napoleon, on his parade just outside the back window.

Below are images of the view of Glen Shiel from its most intimidating ridge, the Five Sisters as seen from the Mam Ratigan, and Castle Eilean Donan looking west along Loch Duich to Skye.

Once over the bridge, we drove past the ever-impressive, never-less-than-scary Black Cuillins, and made our way to Uig, joining the boarding queue for our (and Martin's) ferry to Tarbert on the east cost of Harris. I think you can see from my face that I was beginning to feel the novelty of our early morning start wearing off.

An hour after departure, we arrived in Tarbert Harbour to be greeted by the sight of the new Harris Distillery buildings, their white walls gleaming under ominous autumn cloud at the head of the inlet. 

As we got in the car to begin our journey across to The Broch, we took a moment to capture an image of Munro's shop, where Martin stocks up on his favourite Jack Daniels.

Martin was quite nervous about routefinding for this last part of his journey, but I'd driven this route so many times on Google Streetview, I had no such qualms. We took the opportunity to have a gorgeous lunch at the North Harbour Bistro on nearby Scalpay, then began the final part of our drive.

If only to prove that Martin was not making it up, I include below a shot of the phone-box-turned-tourist-information-office that sits just a couple of miles south of the village, and one of the brightly painted yet somewhat incongruous bus shelters that appear along the route.