3 Walks, 3 Environments, 3 Tired People

Playing on The Cronk

So, today dawned grey, however, Matt did his weather check and was confident that the day was going to get better and better as it went along.

After breakfast of toast for me and toast and black pudding for the boys we headed out to explore Ballaugh.  There isn't much to it - the pub across the road and a Spar around the corner.  The Spar was ok - has the essentials, but considering it is much bigger than the Co-op in Ingleton, it didn't seem to have much variety.  I guess I have become, in part an 'Ingletonian'!

A beach of many stones

We brought the slow cooker and a hunk of meat from the freezer with us along with all the veggies in our fridge, so I put together a stew and then we headed out.  First stop was our local beach, The Cronk.  It was a fantastic beach: a bay of a good couple of miles, sandy with loads of big rocks scattered along it, and a good collection of rocks too - all sizes, shapes, colours and make up.  In fact we all came home with a pet stone as we found them so interesting (mine, I think has evidence of fossils on it).  It was very windy, the water was grey and angry, but it was a good walk, against the wind to a huge pile of rocks which had obviously been put on the beach to stop the fields above from eroding further.  It was hard work but rewarding.

Once we had caught our breath, we walked back, collecting plastic as we went (thanks to David Attenborough, all children seem to be aware of the plastic problem now).  The sun came out right at the end, making all the stones shine in the sea spray.  All very lovely.

Fantastic (working) beer taps

As it was pre-lunch time still, we decided to head to Ballaugh Curraghs, which we had read about: a wetland area where you can go spotting wild Wallabies.  In the 1970s some Wallabies escaped from the nearby Wildlife Sanctuary and have adapted and bred well.  Now there are over 100.  The area was hard to find, there were no signs on the road, and the back roads to get to it were full of pot holes.  However, we finally got there and found a way marked route through the Nature Reserve.  It was a really interesting area: think mangrove swamps, but in cold, temperate Isle of Man.  The land was very very boggy, the trees, thin with gnarled roots and trunks, covered in green moss.  Weeds growing in the water, moss everywhere and a real mysterious feeling about the whole place.  Add mist to the area and it would be very eerie.

A wild wallaby. In the Isle of Man. In winter!

I wouldn't have been surprised to see a crocodile or snakes etc.  However, we were here to see Wallabies.  We didn't really expect to find any, but luckily Matt saw something bounce out of the corner of his eye...we looked hard and we saw one.  Yay.  It blended in with the trees very very well, however, it didn't move, so we got brave and got closer to it.  As we got closer a whole load of Wallabies which we hadn't seen bounced away - a good 4 or 5 of them.  Matt managed to get a good picture of one of them.  We were very happy.

We carried on with our walk through the reserve, we didn't see any more but it didn't matter.  By now, it was quite late, so we decided to find somewhere for lunch.  We headed to Sulby where Matt knew of a pub on the TT circuit.  The Sulby Glen Hotel, which is located on the Sulby Straight which is the fastest bit of track on the circuit.  It was big and empty, which didn't matter: lots of TT memorabilia to look at, a friendly bar man who turned out to be the older brother of Dan Sayle who is a very well known side car passenger on the island (6 time winner).  We chatted quite a bit and had lunch: jacket potatoes for me and Tom and a spicy chicken baguette for Matt.  There was a pool table so the boys played a game.  Tom has got better in that we are pretty sure he wouldn't ruff up the baize, but he still needs work on his shot.

Looking towards England

Snow Angel

We then headed up the mountain road to The Bungalow from where there is a steep mile climb to the top of Snaefell which is the tallest mountain on the Isle. It was frosty, then icy and then snowy, and windy but it was worth it.  The sky was blue and the views amazing.  From the top we could see the peaks of the Lake District and the coastline of Northern Ireland.  It was truly beautiful.

Panorama

Atop Snaefell. Chilly

There was also quite a bit of snow at the top, so Tom and I had a snowball fight, Tom made a snow angel and we were generally quite silly whilst Matt took arty photos. Problem with that is we both got a bit cold and wet, but it was worth it.  We walked down and then headed home.  It was after 4pm when we got back - a proper full day of exploration, and we didn't go further than 5 miles from our house.  I wonder what we will discover tomorrow...

On arrival home, I got on the mulled wine and Matt ran a bath.  He's still feeling quite ill from his lurgy and needed to warm up quickly.  He's off alcohol again, which is always a sign he is properly ill.  Then we watched some of the Winter Olympics before having stew followed by pancakes - it is Shrove Tuesday after all!