IoM Day 2

I did something a bit different from my previous visits to the Island today and decided to do a gentle bimble around the Island keeping pretty much as close to the coast as I could, so that I was mainly on quiet lanes and B roads. Basically, I started at the ferry terminal at Douglas and kept the sea over my left shoulder.

Very soon I was on country lanes heading out towards Castletown.

I took a break at Port St Mary to let Anna cool down. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m still running the engine in, but she’s in her element on these lanes.

Next stop Peel harbour and a delicious early lunch of locally caught Queenies (small scallops) and bacon roll. Lots of other bikes were gathered at the harbour including a group of 4 or 5 riding MZs. Considered as very ugly ducklings when new but kind of cool now!

I realised shortly after leaving Peel that my phone battery needed charging so I stopped off at the Motor Museum at Jurby so I could charge it while I walked. A very interesting and quite eclectic collection of cars, bikes and general paraphernalia! I particularly liked this Charabanc - always seems to evoke a spirit of a “grand day out”!

From Jurby it was a fairly short hop up to Point of Ayre, the most northerly point on the island. I think the fog horn and lighthouse look great here - so forlorn that you can just imagine them belting out a wailing noise in a thick fog!

And then I followed a well trodden path back down the eastern side of the island, taking the coast road from Ramsey to Douglas, but with some diversions off down the tiny lanes hugging the coast. As we got towards Laxey, I was feeling sorry for poor Anna, who’d dealt with some very steep hills on that stretch, so I took the main road back.  But this is still a very picturesque route as it runs parallel to and criss-crosses the Electric Tramway down onto Douglas prom. 

All told we did about 85 miles and it was such a lovely journey - perfect for this kind of bike. 

I got back in time to stroll up to the gathering point for my marshalling sector, at Braddan Church and spent a couple of hours at TransMann on the exit from Braddan. It was all fairly uneventful for us, though sadly the second session was red flagged not far into it and no further practice took place. It was announced the following day that one of the riders, Ian Bainbridge, had died following an accident at Kirk Michael. 

It always makes me doubt why I support road racing when there is a fatality. I don’t even particularly get much from the racing itself per se; it’s the atmosphere of lots of bikes and passionate motorcyclists on such wonderful roads that I like.