I'm heading for the Isle of Man for a few days for no reason in particular, other than - that is - to be out-and-about for a bit instead of continually grinding away at the incessant list of things to fix, renovate or otherwise sort back home.
I've been once before, with Emma, in order to compete in what turned out to be the very last Isle of Man Bike Weeks way back in 2003. This used to be just as it said on the tin: a week of really well organised and massively attended international bike races that included road races, crits, time trials and hill climbs. We stayed for the week in a hotel back then and, as well as competing in two time trials, we also pretty comprehensively knocked off the better-known tourist attractions.
We had a good time of it but - in contrast - I'll neither be bike-racing or hitting the honeypots this time; this short break will be more of a bumble down back roads in the L200 / by bike just seeing what I can see with the optics. Plus, though I'm far from race fit, I also plan on doing tomorrow's parkrun in Douglas; just because it'd be rude not to whilst I was here and able.
Things to remember:
- It was a pleasant enough drive up to Heysham (pic) over the Yorkshire Dales and through the Forest of Bowland. The latter is somewhere that I've only fleetingly been to a couple of times before and deserves more of a poke about.
- The crossing over to Douglas was smooth enough but the ship - the ancient Ben My Chree - was absolutely rammed. From conversations I overheard there were actually two-crossings' worth of passengers and vehicles on board. I don't know why, but assume the Steam Packet company lost a crossing somehow and had to accommodate those who'd missed out. Whatever, conditions aboard were ridiculous. Not only were there no seats anywhere but there wasn't even very much free floor space to sit on either. By way of slight redemption, I had a bowl of ship chips at an almost unbelievably cheap £1.20!
- Arriving on the IOM brought two slight traumas. The first was that my mobile (and internet service) provider, SMARTY, does not have a service-level agreement with any of the IOM mobile network providers, so I instantly found myself totally incommunicado. Only with the help of Emma back home was I able to navigate this one. I should have checked before I came here, of course, but having previously only run into similar operator constraint as far afield as Kosovo, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine (for which I'd pre-planned), I didn't imagine such issues approximately half way between Blackpool and Belfast.
- The second slight trauma was more expected. I already knew that overnighting off formal sites here was frowned upon / illegal in places but the proliferation of neat and well kept signs reinforcing this notion was impossible to miss. Good on the IOM! I totally support such restriction and am going to have to extra respectful / creative. To that end tonight's intended spot is nestled amongst industry but nonetheless has decent views over pasture land and distant fells.
Post composed at 21:15 on Friday 11th September from my intended overnighting spot N 54.14094°, W 04.52570° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:54.14094%2C-04.52570
