How it all began

Back in the August of last year and after a lot of discussion, my husband and I decided to take the plunge and give up our full time jobs and relocate to Uig on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. I was working as a practice nurse in a local GP surgery in our then city of Bath and my husband Adam, was working as a sales executive with BMW. It was a bit of a staggered affair as he ended up moving first with me going up for a long weekend every 3-4 weeks and then I joined him permanently at the end of April.

Why there you may ask....

We had been visiting Uig over a number of years as my sister had moved there with her family back in 2007 and although it is remote, the peace and slower pace of life held a huge appeal. With our busy and full on jobs we didn’t get to spend as much time together as we would like and Adam worked 3 out of 4 weekends and holidays and time away were just too far apart. 

We would often wish we were in a position where we didn’t need to work as many hours and not be under all the stress that went with our jobs and we would have various discussions how we could achieve this but still pay the bills.

We normally had a family holiday with our two sons Jon and Nat in the summer break but in 2017, they were both unable to come and so we made plans to go camping with 2 of our dogs for 10 days in the July and to stop off at various places en route to Uig.. 

We camped for a night in the Lake District before heading up through Glencoe, where the scenery was absolutely amazing. We stayed a night just outside Fort William and then the following day headed over the bridge to the Isle of Skye. Fortunately the famous midges weren't too bad. We were armed with Avon 'skin so soft' and it did seem work.

On Skye we stayed at the Uig Bay Campsite which has the most fantastic view across the bay and I would recommend it.

After a night there we caught the CalMac  ferry over to the Isle of Harris and arrived in Tarbert. 

We had planned to camp at the amazing Luskentyre Beach for a couple of nights but the campsite was packed solid and there was no room, not even for just one more tent. We were still driving around at 20.00 that evening trying to find somewhere to stay. The mobile phone reception was none existent. Suddenly we saw a sign for a campsite and 4 miles later down a winding, single tract road we arrived. It wasn't the best place that we had stayed in but there was room for about 4 tents and it had a shower and toilet. What more do you need. 

After a couple of nights there we set of for Uig on the Isle of Lewis. 

We had booked to stay 5 nights at the Reef campsite. We had a fantastic pitch, right on the beach.

I have zoomed over further details of the trip as I don’t want to bore you, but suffice to say that this trip was to be a major deciding factor in our relocation and was the trigger that got the ball rolling. I could go on and on about how much I love this place and we are fortunate that we have family here and over the years of coming to visit, have got to know a few of the locals.

At the time of starting this blog I have already been living on Lewis for 4 weeks, which is really hard to believe as the time has flown by. 

It had been agreed that I would have a couple of months off to recharge before looking for another job and already I am half way through that!