Cunard Aparthotel Douglas

Apologies. We won't be counting this as part of our total mileage but I just wanted to see what the red line looked like on the tour map. Back to the UK and the Isle of Man for the goldfish handover to Malcolm and Isobel and my interview. Castletown reminds me of Scottish northeast towns (buildings, links, seagulls). However, there are a lot more South Africans here than ...

After staying up until about 11:30 last night packing it was time for bed...but not for long, as I was catching the ferry which left at the slighty-too-early 3:30am. Desperate to not repeat my late ferry check in antics, I had to get a taxi at 2:15am, meaning that my nights sleep came to not much more than 2 hours. Excellent.

I was happy to arrive at the terminal on time, and once on the boat I attempted to get more sleep, but didn't have much luck. I did ...

... of the road, with a passenger on board, coming up to a blind corner...
It was really cool to see the whole track, and it's not hard to see why it's so popular with both cars and bikes, as the roads are great - a mix of high speed sweeping corners, long straights and tight hairpins, with plenty of elevation change thrown in.

Back at the house I had to pack my stuff into my bags, ready for the early morning ferry the next day.



Isle of Man ...

... and I couldn't believe how fast they were flying past! At this part of the track, the riders were hitting around 160mph (~260kph) then accelerating up the hill, where I could see them lifting the front wheel in the distance! It certainly made for some good viewing.
I made my way up to the area where the podium place getters arrive after the race, and saw a few famous faces around, including Murray Walker (ex F1 commentator), then went and watched the podium presentation from the ...

... problems around two thirds of the way through the final lap.

After that race I walked to the Ramsey Sprints, some single pass 1/8th mile drags along the promenade. There was a few interesting bikes, including a couple of turbocharged Hayabusas, one of the electric TTXP bikes and a dedicated drag bike.

That afternoon the Red Arrows aerobatic team were performing over Ramsey, and they ...

... left 30 minutes later, I was now going to be boarded on the slow boat, meaning I'd arrive at Douglas a couple of hours later.

Lesson learned (the hard way) : It's better to be an hour early, than one minute late.

I met Sam (who I was staying with) at the terminal, and she took me back to her house on the outskirts of Douglas where I met her husband Chris and two of their ...

... visited Pune, in India for the Commonwealth Youth Games. So what have I planned? When I finish my A-levels, I'm flying out to a Finnish island, called Aaland for the Island Games, representing the Isle of Man. When I return from this trip (hopefully with a medal or two) I have a couple of weeks on home soil before I leave again, this time for South Africa on a charity trip. My high school, Ballakermeen have set up a charity, called ...

... so I made French toast for breakfast. I also baked an apple pie, because Katie had received a load of apples and we were just discussing my love of baking...so I got inspired! We then drove all around the island, where I got to see beautiful mountains, the sea, and even Ireland and England! We ate lunch outdoors at a quaint restaurant and headed north in the afternoon to visit a waterfall and the 'Calf of Man' - the Isle of Man's neighbouring baby island! We ...

... voyage tire sur sa fin! Le 14, retour a Glasgow pour que je reparte le 15 vers Ottawa. Etant donne que Zoom airlines a fait kaput, j'ai du me racheter un autre billet et c'etait le moins cher. Heureusement que mes parents se sont ennuyes assez pour accepter de venir me chercher a 2h30 de route. Merci:) Hamish ne revient que le 19 parce qu'il doit retourner chercher son passeport (si tout se passe bien il aura alors son visa de residence permanente).

... arrived in Douglas at about high water, so we were able to enter the inner harbour and tie up on a berth - the inner harbour retains its water with a sill that raises and lowers so that the time available to enter is governed by the time and height of the tide. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, getting used to the idea that we had over 130 days of this to come and enjoying the warm weather. What a contrast to the last two years!