Cycle Ride

Yesterday morning we rented bikes to explore the island. On the advice of the store owner we took the bikes on the ferry over to the Naval Dockyard in order to cycle back to Hamilton. Most of the cycle ride was along an old railway track. The rails and sleepers are long gone. Much of it is paved over and in a lot of cases simply gone. The old bridges are gone as well as the trellises over dips in the land. While the majority of the trip was fairly even, following the railway grade, where we came to missing trellises/bridges the was an inevitable dip and a climb out on the other side.

Along the way we took a couple of stops. The first was Scaur Hill Fort. We spotted a sign pointing to it up a footpath up a hill through the trees. Helen wisely pushed her bike up the path whereas I decided to cycle up it. At one point I ended up falling off my bike and landed in a bush which was not too prickly. The fort was pretty interesting. It was built in the 1860s at the time when fortifications of this sort was becoming obsolete. It had a few innovations to deal with the changes in warfare at the time. Best of all it was empty of visitors. I don’t know what it is like on cruise ship days but yesterday we had the place to ourselves.Later on our ride we were getting hungry and passed close to Gibb’s Lighthouse which was situated on a high point. Helen wasn’t so keen on ascending that far but was torn when she realized we could eat lunch there. We had seen little signs of places to eat along the way so lunch won the day. The path we saw leading to the lighthouse rapidly became very steep which required us to carry the bikes. We eventually reached the top feeling pretty exhausted.Lunch was nice. I had a cornish pasty, the first in many years, and Helen had fish and chips. We decided not to climb the 180 odd steps to the top of the lighthouse as our legs outvoted our minds (my mind at least). The remainder of the cycle ride was uneventful but quite pleasant.

Back at the hotel we crashed for a bit before heading off to the football ground to watch the soccer. The game was so-so with the visitors winning 1-0 from a penalty in the first four minutes. We ate fish and chips (Helen seems to be missing it) from the concessionary stand and had a few beers while we watched. I’m glad we went as we picked up the local atmosphere. In the second half the local team seemed to be getting the upper hand and every one was quite excited and cheering on.

Plans for today are not extensive. There are some underground caves which seem pretty interesting. I also fancy a pub lunch which we don’t get in the US. The weather is not expected to be brilliant so somewhere underground may be appropriate.