In Australia we booked a photography tour with Scottish landscape photographer Marcus McAdam. Scheduled for Monday 9th Match, he phoned on Sunday to comment that the forecast predicted some of the wildest weather yet! And it was! He suggested Tuesday with the downside being that he would not be able to take us but that his colleague, wildlife photographer Tom Hodgetts could.

We met Tom in Portree ('Kings Harbour') . An enthusiastic and most obliging young man who delightedly informed us that we were about to experience the first complete sun-filled day of 2015 - and we did! He wore shorts and sneakers - we wore thermals and jackets!

What followed was eight hours of landscape exploration of some magnificent parts of Skye. We raced around in a mini Hyundai van, joggling over hill and dale, avoiding pot-holes and sheep and enduring every twist and turn imaginable!

Time to consult a map:
From Portree we travel north past the Storr Lochs of Fada and Leathan, above which towers the grey/black plateau of Storr. The giant pinnacle ' The Old Man of Storr' emerged from the lowering clouds to allow for some delightful photographs. A little further on, the Lealt Falls are small but beautiful.

Further north we shiver in the icy wind as we admire the Kilt Rock/Mealt Falls that plunge dramatically into the sea. At Staffin, a pretty little hamlet, we sip a welcome hot drink.

We explore the Quiraing with its incredible rock formations, twisting steep roads, moors and peat bogs. We photograph the 'most photographed tree in the world'! According to Tom! Note the peat bogs middle left of image.

Before Kilmuir we glimpse the Flora MacDonald monument and marvel at the traditional thatched black houses - a hard life indeed!

Tom kindly detours to Kilmaluag to see the Grand Designs home built by the two women featured on TV . That is a disappointment! At the ruins of Duntulum Castle ( a Viking stronghold and later home of the MacLeods and then MacDonalds) we have a magnificent view to the Outer Hebrides. We are at the most northern tip of Skye!

We travel south down the Totternish Peninsula to the pretty little port of Uig and then onto the wooded Fairy Glen. South to Portree for lunch - Skye haddock, peas and chips. Delicious!

We then foray south to Broadford stopping at whim to take in the changing landscape. From Broadford we travel west towards Elgol to view the mighty Cuillin Ranges. The Black Cuillins rise to over 3,000 feet with dramatic pinnacles and gullies. The Red Cuillins are rounded and balding - snow still clings to the tops of both.

We stop at windswept Torrin Beach and discover brilliant tide-wrack. Tom is enthused and fossicks madly with me. I find a magnificent plank of worm patterned wood and a dear little plastic horse, worn and exhausted by time at sea! We stagger back to the car - arms laden. 

On the narrow twisting road close to Elgol we encounter a herd of Highland cattle - magnificent, gentle, shaggy beasts with huge horns and doleful eyes. 

We drop down to the stony yet beautiful beach of Elgol with magnificent views north and west into the Cuillin Hills, Rum Island and the Small Isles to the south.

It is an hour back to Portree and after eight hours of exploration we travel home to Glendale in silence - exhausted but very content.