Thursday, North to Laxey

There was a custom bike show on the promenade in Laxey today. It was OK, but the town of Laxey was pretty cool. It was a lead mining town and had this huge water wheel which was used to pump water to the mines to wash the ore.

Wednesday

Today I travelled the inner roads from one location to another. The majority of the traffic stays on the main road around the Island, which is also the race course. So when the race is on the only travel is on these iner roads or the outer roads. These roads are generally quiet and take you through a tranquil setting so far from the racing madness just a mile or so away.

Monday I made my way up to a tight corner as you climb the mountain from Ramsey in the North.









Sunday,Mad Sunday to all the revellers. I found myself in Peel for the festivities there. This is a small fishing town on the west coast.

Isle of Man 2007

While moving around the island which is about 32 miles long and about 20 miles wide and quite varied in terain, I found that using the inner roads were the best way to get from place toplace. The main roads and of course the racing course are pretty busy with the thousands of visitors, most on motorcycles. Once they close the roads for the racing moving around the island gets tricky. The inner roads are generally empty as the navagation is dificult due to the lack of signs at intersections. It does take you to some tranquill places far from any sign of motorcycles.


Hi Everyone;
The 100th anniversary of the Isle of Man TT is finally here. It is probably the biggest event I will cover in my 30 year career. I will be here for some of the practice and all of the races. Unfortunately the race images will be held back from the public until the publications have gotten all that they need. Eventually I will show you all the images. For the mean time I will be posting some of my pictures of the island for those of you who don't really care about the motorcycle racing. It's a beautiful place on it's own with lots of history. Enjoy the images. For all the racing stuff, go back to my website. I will try to keep you informed and entertained.

If you want to see more of the IOM trip, visit my website.
www.billpetro.tv





This guy had a 3 legged Manx cat, which was interesting until the tail slipped out.







I can't believe that it has been allmost 2 months since the IOM. The time is being robbed from me again and I just don't get enough time to keep this diary up. So Here are a few more pics from that trip. They are not in any order or anything. I just like them for some reason or another. there is a lot more on my website if you are interested.

Tap on the sholder

This is the anxiety filled moment while the rider waits for his tap on the shouder to signal his start. While looking at my images for the day I noticed that for the most part, everybody respected the ruling about wearing fire retardent suits in the pits. So what are the umbrella girls doing there?

Creg ny Baa

As you approach the outskirts of Douglas, you will have a fast left at Kate's cottage and then along strait to Creg ny Baa Hotel and pub. This is a cool place to watch from and if you really want to have your Guinness and be right there for all the action you can pay the 10 pounds and sip behind the protection of the cage. Only the od photographer or marshall can get any closer. This shot was take late in the day on Mad Sunday and people are everywhere, but during racing those hay bails are restricted.

The mountain road

After Ramsey you start your climbe to to Bungalow which skirts the highest point on the island and on down to Douglas. About 6 or 7 miles of this sort of road. By this time, late afternoon only the diehards ar left and they are going to get as many laps of this free time on the mountain circuit as they can. There is no problem with all the other traffic, because it's just another obsticle to avoid. The mountain road between Ramsey and Douglas is restricted to one direction til about 7:00pm I think.

By the time I get to Ramsey, it's mid afternoon. the town is full of people, especially around Parliament square. I got the feeling that this was show off corner. The pub on the corner served the pints and I think a lot of the guys on bikes just went around the block over and over again.