This morning we knew it would be
our first day of rain on this holiday.
nevertheless we donned our walking gear and off we went. it had rained this morning already, but that
didn't put us of! We went to Dhoon Glen
which is said to be one of the steepest Glens on the Island. It wasn’t easy as the pathway was covered
with golden leaves (pretty!) but it was wet underfoot and most of it on the way
to the waterfall we were going to see was downhill. Underfoot it was also quite rooty with a few
stones here and there too. there were
wooden bridges (chicken wired, thankfully otherwise they would have ben VERY
slippery!) and steps along the way too.
After a short while we reached
the top of the waterfall and it basically just kept going from there. We followed it down and down and down - it
has the name of Inneen Vooar (Big Girl) and it is one of the highest waterfalls
on the island falling over 40m in two drops.
Eventually we came out into Dhoon Bay, a small beach which was covered
in flat round pebbles. After a breather
we turned back and walked the same way returning to the car and making our way
into Douglas.
We had a preview of Douglas when
we arrived on Saturday and I mentioned how clean the Victorian terraces looked
- well, the Promenade goes on forever!
It's a really long Promenade and I would imagine quite busy and popular
in the summer. Most of the buildings are
hotels with a few appartment blocks, and everything has been really well
kept. There are not, however, any tacky
souvenir shops or seasidey arcades or anything, which I thought was a
refreshing change from the seaside towns we have been to before.
Into Douglas town centre - which
was a proper town centre - we looked for somewhere to eat. We found a place called "Harbour Lights
Cafe" and inside the decor was Edwardian and felt slightly posh actually,
especially when our drinks came. Mathew
had a pot of tea which came with a tiny milk bottle of milk, and I had
'Elderflower Bubbly' or Sparkling Elderflower which came in not only one glass
with a slice of lemon and a strawberry on the edge of the glass, but also a
small mug of more of the drink to top my glass up with! Cute!
Mathew had quite a large bacon and cheese baguette, whilst I went for a
traditional Ploughmans which turned put to be quite epic!
My plate had a salad accompanied
by two slices of ham, two chunks of Manx cheddar, and several small pots of
boiled new potatoes, pickled beetroot, tiny pickled onions, real ale chutney
(which tasted like Branston Pickle), potato salad, and some salted crisps. I managed to eat most of it - as I said it
was pretty epic, but delicious! A very
nice little cafe I have to say with a good range of food. Definitely worth a visit if you're after some
lunch in Douglas.
Back outside, we made our way to
the Manx Museum. We had to go up a side
street, up a lift, across a footbridge and there we were at the Museum. Interesting route...! Anyway, the Museum itself was a really nice
little place, and there was quite a lot to see - nature, geology, history,
archaeology, social history, an exhibition on WW1, an art gallery. Overall a very good Museum worth visiting, we
certainly spent a couple lf hours in there.
There was a cafe too, we didnt use it but it looked rather nice.
Leaving the Museum, we came out
and made out way to the Promenade to walk back to the car. At this point it was raining yet again, so we
knew we were going to get wet now! Fortunately
it became lighter and lighter, eventually stopping as we approached the
Promenade itself. We walked through a
small garden which he hadn't walked through on our way into town, because we
just hadn’t got that far. It turned out
to be a community project, a garden incorporating arts and crafts done by the
public, and also local artists. It was
an environmental project to promote recycling, and it was done it partnership
with Marks & Spencer. There were a number
of small mosaic figures on a number of rocks making up the borders of the
flowerbeds, recycled glass in the tiles and the floor, and carved
handrails. It was a really nice little
garden, and I can imagine how popular it probably is in the summer.
Just as we got back to the car
the rain came down again. I was glad to
be in the car as it meant I could change my soaking wet socks and shoes for dry
ones for the journey back. We made our
way towards Snaefell (the biggest mountain on the island) with the intention to
go the same way to the Cottage which we had gone when we first came. But the higher we got, the foggier it became
and eventually it was really very very thick, so we continued on to Ramsey with
the intention of turning inland from there instead.
It was still very very foggy, and
it even started to get dark - so much so in fact that the car's headlights began
to make the cats eyes in the road glow.
We were surrounded by mountains in effect, going through a valley so we
guessed that the darkness was caused by being in their shadows. Or perhaps the forests which we passed by -
we have no idea because we never saw either of those for the intense fog! It was a little hairy but eventually we were
going downhill and approaching Ramsey on the coast and we could see the blue
skies and brightness ahead. It seemed that
the rainclouds moved inland before dumping their load on the mountains...! I'm glad we weren’t out doing any serious
walking there...! Finally back to the
Cottage I changed my clothes for something warm and dry, and we settled down
for the evening.
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