Quality 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.

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 ...

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-The Isle of Man is home to the oldest continuous parliament in the world, having been in the same place since 979AD

-The Isle of Man is home to the Manx Cat, a breed of domestic cat which typically has no tail (or sometimes just a shorter stubbier tale). I didn't manage to see any though!

-The Isle of Man has a native 4 horned sheep, called the Loaghtan...didn't see any of those either!

-The Beegees were born in the Isle of Man

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..

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 ...

... quite a sight! The nine planes did some formation flying then some stunts (for want of a better term...but that's really what they are) in smaller groups. It's hard to desribe what it's like seeing them, but it was certainly very impressive!

In the evening Chris and I went down to the Braddan Bridge grandstand and got some good shots of the riders leaning right over through the corners.

Today it was over to the Isle of Man for the Tourist Trophy races, something which I've wanted to go to for a long time.

I began with an early-ish morning, then beginning the drive up to Heysham, a bit north of Liverpool, where I was to catch the Ferry. Mum and Nan were off to spend a few nights up north somewhere (which ended up being at Morecambe) and dropped me off at Heysham on ...

Hello readers. I'm Tom, and this is my travel blog. At the moment, I am an A-level student, in my final year of study. I have applied to university, but I've decided it'd be better for me to take a year out. So thats what I'm planning for the next year of my life, to travel to various countries and continents, embarking on mostly voluntary work. Alongside my studies, I am an athlete, competing over 800m. Through this sport, I have ...

... Katie's friend Anthea for a cup of tea, and headed to her parents' house for tea (which is actually dinner...it gets quite confusing! haha). Her mom cooked us a delicious lamb casserole, and we ate the apple pie for dessert. Back at Katie's, we watched 'The Chorus' which is an excellent film! It was great to have Katie show me around the island - I feel like I got a real sense of what it's like. It felt like home, especially because I was in the good ...

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 ...

The time has come and I am packing or attempting to fit 18 months of clothes in a back pack!! Not sure quite how to do it, rang airline and £34 per kilo of excess baggage...shocking!! Having a few panics about starting my new life in the heat and chaos but also very excited that i'm finally doing it after talking about doing it since my 1st trip. Only have 2 days left to teach....woohoo!!