Monday 24 May 2010

Isle of Man

Well what did I think to Isle of Man? and did I make it round the Isle on two wheels?
I thought it was a little gem and can't believe that more people don't go.
We sailed smoothly to Douglas from Heysham and what an exciting feeling as we wheeled the bikes off the ferry a real adventure! Friday started with a thick sea fret and with the sound of the fog horn blasting we cycled along the wonderful flat promenade. 1st stop was the ancient capital 'Castletown' and what a pretty place this was with lots of painting opportunities, but with 25 miles to go I only had time for a rough sketch.
Castletown, love the signpost on the left, it's a 'duck' warning!
Castletown
After the quaint sleeping town of Port Erin and cycling alongside the coastal road, it was time to head inland and upland  and up the mountain pass. With so much varied scenery and such a beautiful time of year for spring flowers the pass was not too bad! This was also part of the TT route, but we had the road to ourselves, Bilberries were ripening in the heather and the golden gorse was everywhere to be seen.
'Peel' a very special little place. We reached Peel and found the B&B it didn't have a website and seemed to be the last room in Peel when I booked it, so we did wonder what it would be like! But shouldn't have worried our two elderly hosts treated us lovely and with a massive cooked breakfast to see us on our way, they knew the hills we had yet to climb! But getting back to 'Peel' set in a beautiful clean cove, with a castle and busy little harbour and a couple of pubs to watch the comings and goings of this local town, I could see the attraction.

Peel sea front, this was about as sea -sidy as it got, with locals and a couple of tourists enjoying a Saturday morning coffee.
Miles and miles of beautiful coast a perfect cycle tour. We stopped here for a breather and thought we had spotted basking whales, 20 had been seen the night before.
Gorse, Bluebells, Wild Garlic, and Cow Parsley perfumed our route around the Isle.

Now I did wonder which shoes and D40 thought I should take Red ones (which I don't have!) This lady obviously owns some!

2 comments:

Dave from Keswick said...

Wonderful, looks like a beautiful place and you are both having a great time. The photos are real tempting
Ummm, maybe the blue shoes would have been better :-}

Kay said...

I was wondering how your trip went..sounds lovely..if I ever get there I will be sure and bring along red shoes