In July 2018 I had the good fortune to join the Worldwide Explorers 'Photographic holiday and workshop' trip to the remote island group of St Kilda which lies about 50 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. This is the only trip which has permission from the National Trust for Scotland to use the renovated cottages in the village for accommodation and cooking. The only other alternative is camping which could be rather testing if the weather was poor and impractical for a photo trip.

We had the good luck to hit a spell of good weather, in fact, there was a drought on the islands and the water supply was almost exhausted. The long boat trip out to the islands on the fast RIB style craft was 'a bit bumpy' but not too bad. We had a wonderful time exploring the main island called Hirta with some very early and very late walks to catch the sunrise and sunsets, the best times for landscape photography. In between, there was plenty of time to go birding and exploring. By another stroke of luck, there was a Snowy Owl on the island which I managed to find and photograph - a birding lifer for me! On one of the days, after the boat had landed its day visitors, we had a sail around the whole of the island group visiting the amazing island of Boreray with its huge sea stacks. Our return boat crossing was very prolonged due to an engine problem but fortunately, the sea was very calm.

Many thanks to Marcus, James and Harry of Worldwide Explorers/Skye Photo Academy for organising the trip and for looking after us so well on the island. Also, a huge thank you to Elaine our cook. I was amazed at the quality of food that she produced each day from that small kitchen. The breakfast porridge with honey and whisky was out of this world! See www.worldwide-explorers.com for details of the photographic holidays.