Saturday 11th October

We left just after 9am heading towards Heysham to get our ferry.  The roads were relatively free flowing and the weather started off really quite foggy, but by 11am I t was clear and we arrived at a service station where I had a coffee and Mathew had his second breakfast of a toasted cheese, onion and sausage sandwich which I had a couple of bites of too.  Not bad!  We shared a small bakewell before we moved off.

The journey was uneventful, until we got to Heysham where the roadworks went a bit crazy and we headed off in the wrong direction, turned around rather clumsily in a McDonalds car park because it was much smaller than anticipated, but we got there in the end, and we were in the queue for the ferry at 12:30.  Come 1pm we started heading off....into the secondary queue for the ferry.  Lots of hairpin bending going on here to get onto the ferry, including on the ferry itself.  We were soon aboard and heading up the the decks to have a wander around.  We sat outside on the deck and had our lunch where the sun was shining and it was really quite warm.  Most people were inside the ferry buying and eating their lunch.

By the time we had finished our lunch the ferry was ready to depart, and we stayed on deck before the land was a speck in the distance and we went inside to find a seat - we figured there wouldn't be much to see on the way but the water!  Once seated, Mathew pulled out his book and I my National Geographic.  An hour into the journey I noticed something outside so I popped out to see -  a seemingly endless army of turbines calmly rotating in the wind.  After taking a photo I went back inside to tell Mathew who promptly went out to look, at the same time the ferry turned around the wind farm which I'm guessing would have got me a few good angles and a pretty good shot!  As soon as Mathew returned I went out again and took another photo, not sure how it would look when I get them on the PC at home. 

There were TVs on the ferry, and the one just above me was showing the Great British Bake Off Final, so I thought I'd watch it.  I don't watch it regularly and I already knew who won, but it was fun to watch (with subtitles) and it passed the time.  After it ended we were told we would be in the Isle of Man in half an hour.  We got out the Ordnance Survey map and Mathew showed me which route we were taking to get to our holiday cottage.

In the car waiting to move off the ferry, I called the cottage contact to let them know we'd just arrived, as they would be greeting us when we got there. Off the ferry and rolling out into Douglas, the first thing we noticed was all the Victorian buildings on the seafront - possibly a mixture of hotels and private residences.  The other thing which was very noticeable was how clean they all were - a fresh mixture of white and cream.  Overall it was very pretty and it didn't look dull or drab at all.  The sun shining on them probably added to their brightness!  Driving through Douglas there were yet more of these three storey Victorian buildings, and in general - even though we didn't stop off there - our first impressions were that it looked a very nice little town.

But we couldn't stop - we had to get to our cottage which was up on the north side of the island.  The first thing we did was.....turn the wrong way! We quickly righted ourselves (not quite as bad as Heysham) and we were well on our way.  We cut right across the centre of the island as it was the most direct route, and as it happened, it gave us a rather nice preview of the island landscape.

We had rolling hills in the south, more mountainous hills in the centre, and by the time we were in the north of the island, it had really flattened out!  A real mixture of everything so it seems, and we know that the island has lots of Glens to explore, so we'll be looking for the ones which are recommended.  To be honest it was more hilly than I thought, and the island in general is bigger than I thought it would be too, as it takes 50 minutes to get from the north to the south of the island.

Finally we arrived at Ballacamaish Cottages.  We were taken into ours which was Harvest Cottage.  It was Part of a converted barn, our cottage used to be a milk parlour.  It was done up really nicely, spacious and clean, and actually catered for 4 people.  It was comfortable and bright and we settled in quickly.  The only problem was that we were told by the owner that they've been having some issues with flies - just normal flies, which seemed to accumulate in the master bedroom in the late afternoon.
  
We unpacked, sat down and had some tea (how very British!) before having some dinner.  And of course, we made it in time so I could watch Strictly Come Dancing!