0:00:11 > 0:00:15The rugged and remote coast of the Outer Hebrides.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20A coast of islands, skerries,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22and lochans.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27Nowhere else in the British Isles can match this wonderland of stacks, secret inlets
0:00:27 > 0:00:29and windswept shell-sand beaches.
0:00:29 > 0:00:35The Vikings called them Havbrodoy - islands on the edge of the sea.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38And the edge is exactly what it feels like.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Over to the east are the Inner Hebrides,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and mainland Scotland itself. But over to the west,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47theres nothing but 2,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean.
0:01:16 > 0:01:21On my travels, I've met loads of people who are captivated by the coast,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24but few have the courage to get this close -
0:01:24 > 0:01:26two feet above the water.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33Paddy Winterton completed a 750-mile kayak trip, unaided and all alone,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36from Glasgow to the Outer Hebrides,
0:01:36 > 0:01:40with a brief stop-off at St Kilda, and on to the tip of Shetland -
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Muckle Flugga, the UK's most northerly point.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55Paddy captured this remarkable voyage of endurance with his own camera.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58I've just been round Lewis.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04And all I can say is...I'm shaking. That was quite staggering.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08Even the big crossings don't compare to going around headlands like this.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12There's current coming both ways... Big swell coming from the Atlantic.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15But it's good, that's what it's all about.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17I caught up with him
0:02:17 > 0:02:20in the more tranquil waters of Stornoway Harbour.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26When you're approaching an island in one of these, it strikes me that you're seeing it
0:02:26 > 0:02:29in the same way that the first arrivals on the islands,
0:02:29 > 0:02:3210,000 years ago, would have seen them.
0:02:32 > 0:02:38Well, there were certainly times when I thought I could appreciate what the Vikings...the problems they had.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And especially in something this small,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43you've only got a vantage height of 2½ feet,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46so it's very difficult to pick your landing spot.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49But it's also quite exciting because you are trying to assess
0:02:49 > 0:02:53is there anywhere to stay, is there any food, is there any water?
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Exactly the same sort of things they went through.
0:02:56 > 0:03:02I'd been going for 8 hours 52 minutes before I saw land,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05and I was only 250 metres away from it.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09In fact, I heard it a long time before I saw it.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12So, um...quite dramatic.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18What goes through your mind when you're alone, in the middle of the ocean?
0:03:18 > 0:03:22To be honest, if there's a lot going on, if there's a lot of wind and waves,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24you're busy thinking about that.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Hopefully theres lots of wildlife which keeps you going.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31You have to be disciplined, you have to feed and drink,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35so theres quite a lot of thinking that needs to be done to get there.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37The pleasure isn't in the crossing.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41The pleasure is in arriving in these fantastic places
0:03:41 > 0:03:45that very, very few people have been to.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55You can land on beaches that haven't been trodden for years and years, and make them your own.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58You feel a bit like a laird - for a night.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04What is the biggest problem, or the biggest danger that you run across?
0:04:04 > 0:04:07You've got whales, container ships, waves,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10but the biggest thing of all is probably the wind,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13an unexpected change in the strength of the wind.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17Once you're up to Force 8, you have no option but to go with it.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And if it's going to America, YOU'RE going to America till it dies down.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24But any day of the week, I'd rather be in one of these
0:04:24 > 0:04:27than in a small fishing boat, which you also meet 40 miles out to sea.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31So you feel safer in that than you would in SY26?
0:04:31 > 0:04:33Any day of the week, certainly, yeah.