23-Mar-2026
Our lives are still being complicated by the bus strike. Yes! Still happening. It has been going on for ages, and there's no definitive resolution in sight. So, at the moment, there's a normal timetable on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and a skeleton service on the other days (and those bones include hardly any buses up to our estate).
As a result, days out involve juggling bus times, as well as the perennial challenge of juggling weather and juggling Things That Have To Be Done.
After running all those permutations, last Thursday seemed an ideal opportunity to go to Port Erin.
We got off the bus in Colby, and walked via Port St Mary to Port Erin (just like we used to do last year when we were temporarily living in Ballabeg).
Archetypal spring scene
We always stop to say hello to the ducks at the bridge
And on into Port Erin
That was a beautiful, sunny day. We ate our lunch in a sheltered spot overlooking the sea. And, having arrived in Port Erin, we called at the Railway Station cafe for coffee (and what turned out to be really fantastic ginger cake).
And then we realized -- how could we not have known? -- that today was the first post-winter day of operations for the Isle of Man Steam Railway!
Not actually the first train to run this year, but the first day on which it was running
We couldn't steam back that day, but we put steaming on the Must Do Soon list.
Now, what's interesting at the moment is that the Steam Railway is running extra services on the days when the buses aren't at full strength... We've had many a disappointing train-replacement bus service in our time. But I think this is the first time we've ever encountered a bus-replacement steam train service. Better yet, on strike days, you can use your bus card for the train, representing a Considerable Saving...
OK, let's do Port Erin again today, we said.
What happened to the mild weather of last week? So much colder... One of those WINDS...
Still, we found a sheltered hollow in the cliff to eat our lunch, and paced the beach for a while:
The end of this particular little bay, which is nicely overlooked
Back up on the top prom now
The station cafe had a nice fire going today:
And we travelled back to Douglas with a locomotive we'd never met before, the Caledonia:
It's always a fun journey. The steamier, the better:
And then we stumped up the hill back home.
There's not much good to be said of the bus strike. But there was this...