The Isle of Man

The IoM ferry, Manannan, takes about three hours to get to Douglas, arriving at 10pm.  It's not a patch on the Scottish Caledonian MacBrayne ferries, and about 5× more expensive, but it's the only ferry company sailing to the isle of Man.  I bought a meal (first proper meal of the day, tut tut) and a beer, and received my change in Manx currency. Exciting!

As we sailed across a perfectly calm Irish Sea, the north Wales coast kept us company, behind a forest of wind turbines. ln the haze to the north, I thought I caught a glimpse of the island of Sodor, but I couldn't be sure.

A few hours later, we watched the sun set over the looming hills of the Isle of Man - Ellan Vannin in Manx.

I'd booked a B&B in Douglas, and set off this morning along the prom.  Douglas is built around a very large semicircular bay, and it was looking lovely in the morning sun.  As soon as I left Douglas, I was on the glorious Marine Drive, several miles of traffic-free road high up overlooking the beautiful rocky coast, with just a few seabirds and dog-walkers for company.  I think they were gulls, but it's hard to tell the sex from that distance.

Douglas

Entrance to Marine Drive

Strata!

After that I crossed a couple of glens - not at all like Scottish glens which tend to be massively long and wide. Manx glens are narrow, steep sided, wooded and dark - a perfect home for the famous little people who are said to inhabit the island.  This gave me the chance to ride up some short but very steep hills.

There was a lot of poop-pooping in the distance, and at Ballasalla I encountered the IoM Steam Railway, which goes from Douglas to Port Erin in the south.

Fort with cannons, built by Henry VIII

Castletown

Port St. Mary

Manx flags at Port St Mary

The Calf of Man

Port Erin (just out of shot)

Peel Castle

There are three biggish places in the south, all nice: Castletown (lunch stop), Port St Mary and Port Erin, these two separated by a neck of land which leads down to the Calf of Man, a small island to the south.  Mostly very quiet roads with  great views of the coast, and not too hilly.   But after Port Erin there was a massive, brutal hill, 350 metres of it.

I was in need of cake. Took a risky detour, nearly 100m downhill just to get to a possible cafe at Niarbyl.  Would it be open?  I was rewarded by a huge slice of coffee cake, and then a bill for £4.95 for the cake alone.

4:30 and I didn't have anywhere to sleep tonight. I was banking on Peel, one of the three big towns (the other is Ramsey), on the opposite side of the island to Douglas.  It was supposed to be all downhill, but there were a couple of devilish glens, no doubt put there by the little people to test me.

Peel is nice. A smaller bay than Douglas, but a working harbour (lots of pleasure boats too) and acres of sand.  Facing west, it gets the evening sun too.  The only thing against it is that it's built on a hill, like so many places in the IoM.  I struck lucky with the Peel Camping Park: I am the only camper tonight so I have plenty of space.