Claremont 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 ...

... through Castletown (which, funnily enough is named so because of the castle in the middle of it - quite clever really). Port Erin is a small town on the south west end of the island, and it has a lot of old buildings and a nice sheltered beach and wharf.<br><br>After a slightly different bus route back, which went over part of the Billown Circuit (where some sprints were held over the TT race period), it was back to Douglas.<br><br>That evening, Chris and Sam kindly ...

Today it was off to Bray Hill, where I stood at the bottom of a fast right hander with a dip, shortly after the start line. Despite the weather appearing beautiful where I was, on the west side of the island it was raining, and later hailing, meaning that the first race of the day was postponed by a few hours. Annoying, but what can you do..<br><br>To pass the time I walked up to the pits area, just behind the grandstand. I was surprised at the expense that many of the teams went to...all of ...

... 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 ...

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

... after and retreated inside, so all is well, and now we're left with this crazy story! After packing up my belongings, I headed to the Liverpool Pier to board a ferry headed for the Isle of Man (and stood at the intersection of Canada Boulevard and Mann Island!). the ferry was delayed by 30 minutes, and had to wait an additional hour before it could leave for the Queen Elizabeth II cruise liner to turn around in the port and finally dock. It was quite a ...

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 ...

God what a mission to get to this rock. Who would have expected crossing the Irish sea to be vastly more complicated than anything I'd encountered crossing the deserts of Sinai. The wind and rain was as prevalent in Liverpool as it was in Manchester, although as it's more common than not you'd expect the ferry companies to have organized alternative arangements other than sending you to the other side of the country to get a ferry 7 horus later hey? No! Pah. However I ...