Isle of Man 1st Half

I have to make this quick because I've run low on minutes and that pound is a real killer. Come on British economic recession!

So I had an uneventful flight to London, easy if not long tube journey to the flat with Hala and Adam and then a few hours wait before our flight to the Isle of Man. These two have been with each other every day since I've left them and it feels a bit weird that I left at all and now am just meeting back up with them on their same trip. They are on their same journey while I am just starting another, but after a few days now, we are back in stride and I feel like I never left.

So we landed in Castle Town on the Man, and Adam's mate, Hanlon picked us up and took us back to stay at his mum's house- where he lives. We hit the pub, had a few pints, grabbed some chips from the chippy and went to bed. The next morning after some preparations we were off and ended up walking about 16 miles which doesnt sound like al ot to some (DAD) but tired us right out. We guerilla camped in a farmer's field and while we were setting up the tents, Adam's knee got really tight so he could hardly walk. It still bothers him and the next day we didn't get very far before we were all really tired- my legs were definitely sore- and Adam could hardly move. Good thing for us Hanlon picked us up with their Irish mate Colm and we met their other friend, Gregg at the far north for some camping by the beach. Of course the object was to get wasted. I had 4 beers over many hours and was never tipsy while Adam proceeded to drink about 10 pints of lager and the Irishman had 15 bottles of Grolsch. The weather was great taht night and the stars were all around us. It was a beautiful night.

Then there was the next day. We got a ride down to Peel which is a gorgeous little fishing town. There is a big hill between the castle which is built on an island and the city which looks like other norse places like Bergen, and we set up camp on it. We met the boys in town for a few beers and we hiked up the hill to sleep. As we reached the tents it began raining heavily. But we made it in time and got to sleep. After a couple hours, around 3 am i woke up to gale winds and rain soaking my tent and me from all sides. i sleep in my own and hala and adam share a tent. Basically from 3am onwards, I was awake and jsut trying to be comfortable in my progressively more flooded tent. The tents are from Tesco, a grocery store basically, so tehy are cheap and about as waterproof as a paper bag. As soon as they are saturated, the crazy winds were blowing water right in my tent. By 5am I and everything in my tent was completely soaked and i was just able to stay warm in my wet bag by curling up and breathing into it. I was trying to brave it through until 8am because everything is supposed to open at 9am. At 730 I'd had it because while i was thinking it was going to get better, the wind and rain only got worse. So I yelled over to the other tent something to the tune of, "Well im having fun but im getting the f off this hill!" I jumped out of the tent, laughing maniacally in my soaked t-shirt and boxers- thankfully not cotton- and grabbed my at-that-point-relatively-dry pants and put them on in what turned out to be quite a storm. I heard the other two stirring but I was freezing and I was switching back and forth in my head about my attitude. One minute I would ask myself, well do you feel alive now you asshole, which would make me smile, again rather maniacally, and I would take the adventurous situation in stride. The next I would realize how god damn miserable I was, shivering my skinny white body off lieing in a freaking pool of water on top of a hill early in the morning on the damn isle of man.

In the end, the second moment lasted longer and I grabbed the stakes from the ground as wind and stinging rain pounded in my ears hurting them. With my soaking sleeping bag, clothes and pack still inside, i folded up the tent which must have weighed about 50 lbs with all that water weight and awkardly carried it down the half out to the bottom of the hill where the wind wasn't so bad. The pair joined me shortly and we made it to a public bathroom where I was able to go through all the stuff and roll up my wet gear and strap it to my pack.

Walking around in the early morning in the now gray town with every cafe closed, freezing my butt off, shivering, and with a 50lb watered down pack on made me not care for Peel as much. Finally we were able to find a cafe that was open and sit and have some tea, although still dripping wet and shivering uncontrollably. Finally we decided a laudromat was the best idea to dry ourselves since we would probably have to camp in the rain again tonight (this all happened last night and this morning). After afew laps around the town we settled in a dry cleaners who pitied us and offered us her large dryer at cost and we stripped down threw everything we owned in the industrial sized dryer and waited in our underwear- which apparently is no big deal. My shoes are still wet. Damn my cold feet.

Greg, Adam's mate, picked us up right when we finished and gave us a ride back to the capital city, Douglas, where there was internet because we were hoping to find some couch surfers to stay with and we knew they were all in Douglas.

So this is the situation as it is now. Our options are varied but not great. Greg already turned down Adam's hints at needing a place for us to stay tonight, which is well within Gregg's rights since he has already driven us around. We are meeting Hanlon for a tea in a few minutes and while he also has already hosted us beyond any reasonable asking, he might extend his grace further and offer us a dry bed. Thats option A. Option B would be a couch surfer and Adam staying at his Nana's who I guess isn't keen on even him staying and wouldnt consider hosting the three of us. Option C, and a distant 3rd place is camping outside again in the rain and hoping we get a place out of the wind and that the tents hold otu better than before. Or we could pay around $100+ for a hotel room. As of right now I don't know what will happen, all I know is my feet are cold and wet. Ok ok, its not that big a deal, but I am very aware of the status of my feet since the rest of me feels much better.

In all so far my time on the Man is similar to what I thought it would be. The landscape looks much like pastoral Ireland which I spent a few days in, and that was no shock to me. Fields of green grass speckled with white sheep flow up and down the hilly island and are interupted only by small villages and towns here and there. We have seen a lot of it recently and although I wish I could continue my quest to walk around the Island, it looks like the weather, adam's knee and my own physical shortcomings have already made that impossible (insert smarky saying from Jerry about how he is in such great shape and I am going to hold him back in Nepal). I still got Mt. Sinai to put my legs in order.

It's great to see Adam again and we are getting on very well. I know it will be hard for Adam and Hala to say goodbye when we leave on Tuesday afternoon but they are already planning- indeed have already booked- a week on Iceland together. What a small world it is when you live large.

Ill let you know my status on the rest of my trip to the man when we return to london on Tuesday, hopefully the weather will turn for the better again, and my shoes will dry out by then.

I miss you all, I apologize for my britishisms, and although my langauge my sound whiney, I really do realize that these lows make me feel alive and the adventurous.