Castle Mona Hotel 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.<br><br>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 ...

... the island! It must bring a massive amount of money into the economy each year, and there are also other similar events such as the Manx Grand Prix, which is also very popular with the bikers around Europe.<br><br>I walked up to the pits around lunchtime for a bit of a look around, then it was back down to the waterfront to walk across to the main bus station where I hopped on a bus to Port Erin. It was another scenic bus ride which went along the south-east ...

... any reports were released regarding the incident. Later on in the evening it was reported that both the driver and passenger had been airlifted to hospital, and that both had sustained multiple broken bones, and were both in a pretty serious condition. It was rumoured, but not officially announced, that the sidecar had hit a rabbit, which caused the accident.<br><br>Overall it was a good days racing, and the weather was brilliant...at least on the parts of the island I was on, anyway.<br>

... problems around two thirds of the way through the final lap.<br><br>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.<br><br>That afternoon the Red Arrows aerobatic team were performing over Ramsey, and they ...

... That evening we went down to some pubs near the waterfront where I tried some of the local brew, O'kells. Considering I normally drink lager, this was pretty good. It was a good evening out, and Chris and Sam were very kind and gave me dinner and bought me some beers too.<br><br>Eventually I hit the hay at about 1:30, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow as I was that knackered.<br>

... a company based in Portugal which organise trips specifically for warm weather training for athletics, who said for information on 2010 bookings, check back in April. I have also e-mailed the Kenyan National Park in Nairobi inquiring about volunteer work, but I'm yet to hear back from them. Well thats all I've got so far, I'll update whenever something new happens, probably not much likely to be happening over the next few months though

... to tell us he'd just been released from prison after being locked up for 18 1/2 years. After we gave him all fake names and Rachel (aka Ann) gave him the rest of her cigarette, he suddenly went mad and started yelling at Melissa (aka Nathalie), calling her selfish and vindictive, and saying that she didn't want to anger him or it would be the last thing she would ever do! I guess prison doesn't really help with social skills... We convinced him to leave ...

L'ile du Man, mon troisieme voyage dans cette petite place! Comme j'ai pratiquement tout vu ce qu'il y a a voir a l'ile du Man, nous avons profite de notre sejour chez les parents de Hamish pour surtout marcher. Une journee nous avons pris l'autobus pour aller visiter un village pittoresque (Gregneash a la genre village d'antan de Drummonville). Sinon, temps de rattraper le temps perdu avec les amis de H, passer du temps avec sa mere... et ouf ...

... and we chillaxed with a game of pool, and a bit of test match action, before a well deserved and lovely Indian meal down by the harbour. I don't think we will be appearing as part of the British Cycling Olympic Team anytime soon, but I will console myself that it was a valiant effort, and we did indeed make it back in one piece... well, kinda :)