Zoë Bowyer

The ferry over to Rathlin Island was rather a rough journey on Monday. For the second time that I remember I felt sea sick; first time was also on the Rathlin ferry. D tried to distract me by talking about the Jim’ll Fix It where the lads went on the rollercoaster and one of them boaked and it went over everybody else on the rollercoaster. Needless to say this did not take my mind off the churning in my guts. I rushed out of the cabin and hung my head over the side of the boat. I gagged a few times but nothing came out. I saw puffins flying. They look like they are not really suited to flying, kind of like their bodies are too big for their wings to hold up.

One of the other passengers put on a puffin suit whilst on the boat and told us to catch his minibus up to the Bird Sanctuary.

When we got off the boat we found that there were two minibuses to choose from. The Puffin Tours and Rays Minibus. Ray was offering a free bus so we went with him. Ray told us many times why his bus was better than the other bus. He stops at the toilets before driving over to the Bird Sanctuary (great views but no loos). He also stops at the cafe for people to get a cuppa before they head on (there is a possibility that he owns the cafe/pub so it is obvious that he would stop there).

Ray doesn’t much like the other bus. Ray is the local man and the Puffin Man travels over from the mainland. Ray says that he doesn’t mind a bit of competition but the other minibus driver is being a bit of a sly dog and tells people on the boat that he runs the Official Island Bus. Ray himself is using devious techniques to get one over on the competition – running a free bus for example!

So, when the two buses passed on the narrow Rathlin road the Puffin Man waved at Ray and Ray just glared back at him.