Wednesday 20 July 2011

The Skelligs and Great Saltee

So day two of the Wild Britain trip was the Skelligs off the south-west coast of Ireland.  We had visited a few days before in flat calm conditions...and I just knew that wasn’t going to hold for us!  It was a little sporty and we had some pretty good swell at the back of the ship, but the landing site was fine and we ended up getting a good many passengers ashore.  What an awesome place.  The climb to the top was spectacular and I got some superb photos.  A few birds around, but with showers coming through it was mainly a time to focus on the scenery and getting to the top.  What a day!

Day three was Waterford in the morning and Great Saltee in the afternoon.  The weather in Waterford started off overcast and was raining by late morning, but boy were we lucky on Great Saltee.  The weather steadily got better and by the time the passengers were coming ashore the sun was shining!  We met the owners who very kindly allowed us a little extra time ashore and had an absolutely amazing time ashore.  What a fantastic place!  We had excellent views of gannets, puffins, razorbills, guillemots and both shags and cormorants.  I missed the peregrine falcon pair that are there, but had a ball anyway...a lot of flight shots with a few nice ones out of the rubbish!