Poring over maps and working through the different routes, have decided to go North to South. That means taking the longer route up to Ullapool and crossing over to Stornaway and then working down through the islands, but seems to make everything a bit more manageable. Although all the locations will be superb, in my head the highlight would be the southern Island of Barra, so working North to South will bring on the best last, more psychologically appealing!
So the latest itinerary is 2 nights in Lewis, 2 nights in Harris, 1 night North Uist (east), 2 nights North Uist (west), 2 nights South Uist, and 3 nights Barra. Hopefully this will provide a great overview of what the islands have to offer. Just hope the weather holds up!
Now have nagging doubts that maybe trying to do too much and that travelling on the islands may take longer that a casual look at the map suggests - is 4 nights on Lewis / Harris enough to take in all of the fantastic coastline? Would loved to have done the trip to St Kilda, but given this is an 'all dayer', logistically there just won't be enough time by the looks of it - will just have to come back for that!
Hopefully will come back loaded with some decent photos. Would like to have taken a full-frame camera (when is that Mk3 5D due?) to get most from the 17-40 lens, but that's not going to happen, so will have to stick with my old trusted Canon 30D for now. Have just received a variable 2-8x ND filter, cheap and cheerful but will save a load of time when faffing about with long exposures.
If anybody gets to read this, would really appreciate advice on the best books / guides to the islands. Already have Martin Coventry's Hebridean Island Hopping, but also interested in any books with walks (not too strenuous ones!) in the Islands.
