5 Isle of Man (or Mann ?)

Ray.
A quick 3 hour drive on Sunday night to Heysham from the farm and then a 2 hour wait for the ferry to load.
Once aboard we made a silly mistake of getting out of the motorhome and going up to the passenger deck. All the benches were taken with snoring maggots (occupied sleeping bags) and there were only the most uncomfortable seats in the world to sit on. What a horrible trip. I ended up sleeping on the floor. 3 hours later we docked at Douglas and wearily set off for the Shore Hotel. We arriverd at about 6am pulled into the car park and finally got our heads down. Not in the beds as you would expect but on the benches. The beds were full of luggage and tut. We just did not have the energy to clear them off.

We got up at about 10 and met Debbies sister Julie who had opened the bar. Sounds a bit early I know but the place is a small hotel and does breakfasts etc for residents and passing trade. Debbie and Andy Lagdon, our hosts and skiing buddies were still en-route from Liverpool having had a weekend away themselves. They were flying in to Castletown airport and expected at about 1pm.
This is the hotel from the rear and explains how the place got its name. It has been known for waves to reach over the roof on a real bad day.



As you can see the weather was glorious, however the wind blew like crazy for 4 days, so much so that we did not dare put the awning up. We spent the next few days chilling out whilst doing a bit of tidying up in the MH. I then went out to scout for some more TV type cables to get the new satellite box working.

We met up with some other ski buddies, Andy and Amy Metcalf. Andy is the manager or "squire" of a small hisoric village called Cregneash. The village has been preserved for a couple of hundred years and still has a working blacksmiths, carpenters and wool mill.  It was like going back in time.
This Andy in his "squire" outfit.

Karen pushing Andy and Amys baby, Daisy around. This trio are quite mad (in a good way). They take Daisy everywhere with them. She also went skiing with them this year when only 2 months old. This is the most well behaved and happy baby I have ever seen - lucky buggers.




One of the 4 horned Manx logthan sheep








This is the old church which is still in use today.

This is the old blacksmiths shop that is also still in use. This shop along with the carpenters is used to keep the rest of the village in repair.

Two of the village staff/actors making woolen rugs with raw, as shorne, wool. On top is a very lazy Manx tail-less cat.