From Glasgow to North Uist

‘I like things to go well’ Cara tells us as she walks us through her adventurous solo trip to North Uist.  

When TRNSMT festival rolled into town Cara – not a fan of the crowds and noise which are synonymous with the annual music festival which takes place a stone’s throw from her flat – decided now would be a good time to go and visit her dad who lives in the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist. 

No small undertaking for Cara, who shares with us that she can’t stand being in busy places or with people she doesn’t know and often takes the ‘long way round’ to avoid such people or places. She likes to know what’s going to happen next and doesn’t enjoy being put in unexpected or unpredictable environments.  

Cara and her Personal Development Worker Janny took a long time planning this trip: organising transport, booking seats and Ferry tickets and – perhaps most importantly – packing enough specialised dog food for her beautiful big poodle Zael who would be accompanying her all the way to North Uist. 

Bags packed, dog food bag secured on top, Zael on the leash, Cara set off to Queen Street with Janny alongside to see her safely onto the train for the first leg of her adventure. So far so good. That was until the train rolled in alongside a platform crammed with people – all two carriages of it. Cara clutched her reservation for Coach E which was nowhere to be seen. Panic! 

Cara tells us that she froze, broke down and just kept repeating ‘E, E’ to the conductor who eventually told her that her reservation would be moved to coach B instead. Despite somebody being in the seat when Cara arrived at it they did move and allow her and Zael to sit down.  

Not the most calming start to her journey but Cara and Zael were now on their way (after Janny had to fight her way off the completely full train before it set off). The train from Glasgow to Oban is one of the most beautiful and scenic lines in Scotland but Cara didn’t get to enjoy it much: a rogue wasp, a full train and the thought of the hurdles still in her way kept her mind occupied.  

Arriving into Oban her dad’s words rang in her ears ‘you can’t miss it, you literally fall out the train station and the ferry port is right in front of you’. Leaving the train she looked up – no ferry. She walked a little way towards the bay and saw a ferry way off in the distance. That must be it! Cara, her bags and Zael set off walking round to the other side of the bay but as she approached the half way mark she saw one ferry behind her back where she came from and one in front. Was CalMac the same as Caledonian MacBrayne? Was her ferry behind that one or that one? Tears, panic, phone calls to loved ones later Cara was able to ask a passer by for help who directed her to the right ferry. When she arrived a member of staff approached her and asked if she needed help and she found herself being led up to the waiting area and given clear instructions on what would happen next.  

The five hour ferry ride went without a hitch: good food, lovely area for Zael to hang out with other dogs and not too choppy on the seas! Cara had a great five days with her dad: seafood restaurants, beaches, hunting lodges, enjoying the total dark and silence the night brings. Now I’d like to tell you that was the end of the story – but on the day Cara was due to travel home her dad’s van gave up the ghost! Van parts are not easy to find in the Outer Hebrides, and a mechanic even rarer so a five day trip turned into….wait for it… five weeks!  

Cara seemed to take this in her stride, coming up with solutions to the many obstacles thrown her way – the biggest being how to get hold of dog food for Zael – and eventually returned to Glasgow over a month later than planned.  

What an adventure!  

Cara will miss the silence of island life and the delicious seafood (scallops the size of your fist) and Zael will miss the long white shores but I’ve no doubt there will be other adventures to be had for these two explorers.  

‘It’s made me think I can do it’, Cara says ‘but I just won’t trust the trains’