Off it goes across the Irish Sea, from Heysham, the sea wall of which I was stood on as I took this shot. The Isle of Man has not yet featured on this blog although I am due a visit at some point, to bag its County Top. Maybe next year… there is still time in my life, I feel.
We spent the day on the island of Árrain Mhór, which in Gaelic just means ‘Big Island’. And it is fairly big, maintaining a permanent population of a few hundred, enough to justify a regular ferry service from the mainland, anyway. And here is the 3.30pm boat back to Ireland, coming in reasonably on schedule.
The main reason I have headed in this direction this weekend is to attend the preparatory, ‘training’ weekend for my organised trek up Kilimanjaro, which is starting in late July. The weekend was held where England meets Wales at the beauty spot of Symonds Yat, above the Wye valley, another place (like Aberystwyth) that was a) somewhere I’d never been and b) really, rather attractive. This has got to be the most rustic passenger ferry in England. Or, indeed, Wales.
Being 42 