Covered by a Wave and Sandblasted

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Things were not looking good for a photography week, although the weather in London is not necessarily a reflection of the weather in the islands of Scotland. I left the airport hotel and it was pouring with rain. It was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel to London City Airport and I was sweaty and wet when I got there. Great, I'm going to have to spend the rest of the day sitting in wet clothes!

I dropped off my bag, which, I hope, is checked in all the way to Stornoway, but I guess I will find out whether or not that is the case when I get there. I kept my camera gear in hand-luggage as, if that goes missing, I'm going to struggle on a photography week with no camera.

Security was a breeze - almost no queue what-so-ever. I was through by 5.30 and the screens indicated they would be showing the gate for my flight at 6.30. Oh well, I guess I could have had another hour in bed, but I'm quite neurotic when it comes to getting to airports early, although, on this occasion, it's not like I could get stuck in traffic on the way!

We took off and promptly entered the thick white cloud (so much for my window seat view), but by the time we got to Edinburgh the weather had improved significantly. Things may be looking up, although the ground was wet, so it clearly had been raining.

We got a view of the Forth bridges as the plane was lining up to land.

It was easy to walk through from arrivals into the departure lounge, which made my transfer extremely easy and I could just find something to eat and relax until it was time for my next flight. I gave the Weatherspoon's a miss (is it too early for a beer still?) and just got a tea and a croissant from Pret.

I thought it was just a cliché or for ceremonial occasions, but there were a lot of men in the terminal in kilts. No photos though as I didn't want an angry kilt-wearing Scotsman questioning why I'm taking his picture and I'm not very good at sneaky candid photos.

The plane to Stornoway was a lot smaller than I'm used to. In fact the little propeller-driven plane was the smallest I had been in since a similar plane in Indonesia when we had flown to Bali, minus all the rust of course and, this time, with a tartan tailfin. Logan Air is "Scotland's airline" according to all the announcements. I did check that I had a sickbag as my strongest memory from that flight was the simultaneous filling of numerous sickbags (see Brits Abroad Meet Australians Abroad).

I watched from the terminal as the engineer checked all the propeller blades. Yes, they all seem to be there.

The flight was fine - slightly rougher than the jet from Heathrow, but nothing to worry about. Being "Scotland's airline" I'm surprised that the aircrew were not all wearing kilts though. Not to mention serving haggis whilst the sound of bagpipes enhanced the atmosphere. Not that I'm stereotyping at all here, perish the thought.

Stornoway airport is tiny, which is actually a good thing. It was a very pleasant little terminal, with a single baggage claim and an area of tables and chairs for relaxing before or after your flight. I didn't need to wait for long as the photographer who is running the workshop came in to find four lost photographers and we all headed for his minibus.

I did feel quite rough by the time we got to the hotel, which is probably the cumulative effect of the flight and the windy roads. Harris and Lewis is bigger than I thought, but the roads are what you would expect - windy and narrow. The hotel is right on the boundary between the two islands, which are actually joined despite having separate names.

On the way, we saw a rival photography group photographing a dilapidated old house. Their lead photographer was a friend of our lead, so our lead hooted his horn. We think it made them jump, but luckily he realised who it was before there were any offensive gestures towards what they thought was just an obnoxious driver. Not that they would expect any of those here, this isn't London after all, with their cutting into the queue to the Blackwall Tunnel.

I had soup for lunch to settle my stomach, which was very, very tasty, so would have been a good choice anyway. It was something called Cullen Skink, which is smocked haddock, leek and potato. I think I'll be having that a few more times this week!

After a short break to unpack and settle in, there was no time to waste and we were all motivated and ready for some serious photography. We headed off to a number of beaches, which are quite photogenic when the tide is out. We spent the reast of the afternoon trying out different compositions at each of the these locations, getting extremely wet in the rain, but mostly when I stood too close to the rocks and got absolutely drenched by an huge (and unexpected) wave, as did my camera and as did my camera bag which I thought I had left far enough away. Furthermore, we were getting sandblasted by the wind, which was howling across a couple of the beaches. I literally could not look into the wind due to the pain caused by the blowing sand. We were rewarded by a beautiful rainbow across one view, however, so the weather was not completely against us.

We had intended to stay out until sunset, however it became very apparent that the weather was not going to allow a sunset, so we called it a day and went back to our hotel to dry off.

The rival photography group is also staying in our hotel and already were in the restaurant for dinner. I hope it doesn't get too competitive - cameras at dawn and all that.

Footnote: Oreo Cheesecake for dessert. Absolutely amazing and will probably be on order for every evening until I leave, along with Cullen Skink for starter.

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Photos

Seliebost Beach Rainbow
No time to waste with the photography and we timed it well.

Sunrise
There was some sun, but only once we got above the clouds.

Airport Breakfast
Some breakfast whilst waiting for my next flight at Edinburgh Airport.

Irn Bru
Clearly I'm in Scotland.

Scotland's Airline
The little plane to Stornoway.

Stornoway Airport
A very civilised little baggage claim.

Harris Hotel
Our home for the next week.

Luskentyre Sands
The waves will take you by surprise here.

Oreo Cheesecake
I think I'll be having this every day.