Sat., 11 June, 2011 We went to the Post TT races at Castletown. We really didn't pay that much attention: after the TT and Mountain Circuit, the Billown Circuit is a bit anti-climatic (though the Dunlop brothers were racing there). We ran into several people we know and smoozed for a while and picked through a photo vendors offerings. I bought three Guzzi racer photos: Dickie Dale on the V-8 going down Bray Hill, Arthur Wheeler on his 350 single and Ken Kavanaugh on dustbin 500 single. Bill Burke and Ken Richardson decided to come with Mary and me up to Peel where we went to the Transport Museum next to the kipper smokehouse. The museum was closed despite it being well within opening hours. We went to the main House of Manannan Museum nearby and asked about the Transport Museum and were told they were a 'bit independent'. So, we checked out the Mountain Milestones exhibit there. It has a video with historical footage and some neat artifacts including the sidecar that crashed and burnt after it did the first sub-20 minute lap of the circuit. There was an great photo of Beryl Swain, the first woman to race the TT, at her kitchen table cleaning the ports of her two stroke cyl. Later, the FIM in it's wisdom, took her license away because it wasn't appropriate for women to race motorcycles. Keep 'em in the kitchen where they belong.

We drove up through Sulby Glen to the Bungalow and wandered around there enjoying the great views. We chatted with a rider who had been knocked off his bike by a car years ago and his right forearm was paralyzed. He had converted his bike to left hand throttle and front brake, sharing the bar with the clutch lever.

We drove from the Bungalow to Brandywell where we turned off the course to Barragaroo then backwards on the course to Doran's Bend and back to Peel and got fuel (1.419Pounds per liter), then down the southwest coast to the Calf of Man. We wandered around on the rocks by the water in glorious sunshine and read the plaques about the lives lost in ship wrecks there. From there we went to Port St. Mary and had a fabulous meal at a restaurant we stumbled upon run by an Algerian chef.

A near perfect day. The Isle of Man is such a special place, such a great mix of ancient and modern, and so beautiful. I look forward to my next visit here.