The Eden Project

 The Eden Project Binomes.

 The indoor canopy walk.

 The Rainforest Binome viewed from above.

 The platform we viewed from.

The potent nature god, Dionysus, here depicted as a bull.

 Gorran Haven.

The harbour. 

The very steep, narrow road we came in on.

Thursday, August 31^st.

John and I had a great full English breakfast prepared by our hostess, Marilyn, and had a chat with her husband, Edgar, about farming in Cornwall. Unfortunately he was too busy to give us a guided tour of the farm. He told us that his family had been there for 60 years and that they were originally a dairy farm, but now have beef cattle, sheep and farm wheat, barley and hay. He also told us about the problems the industry had had in the past with hoof and mouth disease and mad cow.

Then we left and drove to the Eden Project. This is a massive complex designed and created by Tim Smit. It is a educational, environmental, exhibition consisting of large golfball looking domes, called binomes. One is the rainforest binome and the other is the Mediterranean binome, which features the areas of the world with similar climates: the Mediterranean, southern California, South Western Australia, and South Africa. We wandered around the Rainforest Binome, looking at all the plant exhibits before climbing up the indoor canopy walk and to the actual roof of the dome where we got a bird's eye view of the complex. Then we explored the Mediterranean Binome where I enjoyed the grass trees I had seen in Australia and had a baobab smoothie made from the seeds of the baobab tree.

We also visited the Space section where we read about the different attributes of all the planets and saw a display for each as well as some history of the space program and the space station. It was a great place to be today, because we were indoors and it rained hard off and on.

We stayed for about 4 hours before leaving to go to the small seaside village of Gorran Haven. This is where John went for holiday visits with his family when he was a kid. Unfortunately, it started raining hard just after we got there. We went in a small cafe and had a crab bap (crab cake burger) and a drink and watched the rain pour down the small steep streets to the sea. It let up long enough for us to take a short walk around before leaving for our accommodation for the night. This time we are at a horse farm near the town of St. Austell. We met our hostess, Karen and checked into the lovely house where we have our own rooms and a sitting room too! Then we both had (separately) baths. Later we went to a local 16^th century pub called the Polgooth Inn (which means goose pond in Cornish), for a couple of pints and dinner. We both had a three fish (hake, cod and monkfish) dinner with potatoes and fennel. Then we went back to the farm where we Skyped my dad and then Denise.

Padstow and Port Issac

John and I at Watergate Beach.

Watergate Beach. 

 Mawgan Porth.

 Bedruthan Steps.

 Padstow.

My screen saver.

 Port Issac.

 Port Issac from the opposite hill.

Billy and Trish from Australia.

Wednesday, August 30^th.

Well that was an interesting evening. Mr. Semi Planner, John, had booked this accommodation without realizing we had to share a double bed. Very cozy and quite warm as well. But we had shared a tent for weeks, so this was no problem.

One thing I forgot to write about is the narrow winding roads here and the hedgerows or forests that come right to the edge of the road. That plus being on the wrong side of the road makes for some interesting semi-blind corners and turns. John rides his bicycle along roads like this. I would find it intimidating as there are no shoulders and it is tight enough for cars let alone a bicycle as well.

It rained overnight and was still cloudy and misty this morning, but we set off anyway, after a cup of coffee and a chat with our hostess Jill, and headed toward the north shore of Cornwall. Our first stop was at Watergate Beach. This is the surfing capital of England. We found a restaurant overlooking the beach and had a full breakfast while watching the surfers. It's amazing how many people were out there or taking lessons, when the weather was cool and the water is cold. However, they all were wearing wetsuits. We walked up and down the beach enjoying the sunshine when the clouds cleared. Then we drove to another smaller surfers beach called Mawgan Porth for a short visit.

When we left there, we came across a place advertised as the 100 Beruthian Steps. We stopped at the parking lot and asked what that was, and the attendant told us it was like the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road in Australia, so we decided to go see it. What it is actually is some rock formations just off the coast and 120 stone steps down to them. At low tide there is a beach there and you can walk around the formations, but unfortunately we were there at high tide. But it was still beautiful.

Our next stop was the fishing village of Padstow. Apparently this town has been put on the map because of a local man, Rick Stein, who has become a famous food author and owner of a chain of very successful seafood restaurants. As a result the town was very busy and the restaurant was lined up well down the road. The port was pretty and there were a lot of shops, restaurants and stores, but I couldn't see any other reason for so many people to be there.

From there we continued north east to the historic fishing village of Port Issac. An aerial shot of this town appeared as my screen saver at home and when I checked where in the world it was, it turned out to be an hour and a half from John. So I asked if we could visit it. Visitors cannot park in the village as the streets are too narrow and steep, so we parked outside and walked around the headland to the village. We spent a couple of hours there walking around, exploring and then hiking up the headland to a view from the hill. Really a pretty town. We had a couple of pints in a pub before going to a restaurant for a sea bass dinner. Then we drove back to our farm Bed and Breakfast and spent some time computing.

It is always interesting the people you meet while travelling. I was wandering around the port and two motorcyclists saw my beanie with the Australian flag on it, and said hey you are one of us. I told them how I got the hat and asked where they were from. Turns out they are from Broome in Western Australia. They are probably in their late fifties and have been travelling the world on their motorcycles for seven years! They both retired early and occasionally go home to make a bit of money. They have traveled the world thoroughly and are camping. Amazing. I would have loved to talk to them longer but they were on their way. Personally I can't imagine riding through some of the countries they have, riding in the crazy traffic, camping that long, all the rainy riding and the hassles of getting visas and then taking your bike with you on the flights to other continents. Not to mention where do you put your bike and stuff to keep it safe when you are exploring? Nice people who are living a very different life from most people.

Cornwall

 St Michael's Mount.

 The village on the island at the base of the castle.

 The town of St Aubyn.

 The fishing village of Newlyn.

 The Minack Theatre.

 Penberth Cove.

 John at Land's End.

The St Ives harbour at low tide.

 St Ives.

The tide coming in.

Tuesday, August 29^th.

John and I got an early start for our Cornwall excursion. We drove straight to St. Michael's Mount. This is a castle/church/house built on a rocky hilltop island just of the south Cornwall coast. We arrived there about 9:00 and caught a small ferry to the island. We walked through the old village and then up the cobblestone path to the castle on the rock. It is co-owned by the National Trust and the Aubyn family. We walked though admiring the drawing rooms, the library, the map room and the like before entering the church which was built during the 12 century. Really a beautiful place in a location that has been utilized by people for 3000 years.

When we left there we drove to Newlyn, a small fishing village, on the south coast. We wandered around the port there for a bit before heading off to see the Minack Theatre. This is an outdoor theatre carved from rock right on the coast that John had been to before. There was a sold out play about to begin and we were only allowed to walk through the gardens and admire the view from above the theatre. It looked amazing, but I couldn't help asking the attendant what happens if it rains, and she said everyone gets wet.

From there we drove to Penberth Cove, a beautiful tiny fishing village that she recommended. It was very scenic and had been used as a location for a very popular TV program called Poldark. There were a couple of really old cottages here and a number of small fishing boats. We hiked up a hill to get a better view of the area.

Then we drove off again to Land's End. This the most westerly part of England. There is a very commercial area here for families and kids, but we wandered around admiring the rugged coastline and enjoying a Cornish pasty and the colourful heather on the heath.

Finally we drove to St Ives, which is a very picturesque village on the north coast of Cornwall. We checked into our AirBnB accommodation and met Jill our hostess. She took us out on her terrace overlooking Carbis Bay and served us a coffee. She is a rather eccentric lonely woman. We moved into our room and then went for a 20 minute walk to the village of St Ives. The tide was out and we walked along the beautiful fine sand beach to the harbour. All the boats were beached and awaiting the return of the water. We made a reservation at a restaurant that John had been to before and then wandered around the harbour and the town. We went to an old pub and had a couple of pints before finally going for dinner. I had a monkfish curry and John had a steak. Then we walked back to the accommodation, luckily I had brought my head torch as the wooded path is unlit. We had a very full and enjoyable day.  

Exeter

 Part of the old Roman wall around Exeter.

 Shops around the Quay of Exeter.

 Exeter Cathedral.

 Cathedral yard and a building that dates from 1596.

A statue outside the cathedral.

Chrissie, Maya, Tim, John and his mom, Kirsten.

Monday, August 28^th.

John had to work this morning. He had a mediation to do and his sister, Chrissie was co-mediating with him. I stayed home and took care of her poodle cross puppy Maya for a couple of hours and booked a few flights and hotels with Denise.

When he came home we went for a wander around Exeter enjoying the very warm, sunny day. We walked down along the Quay and back up around town past Exeter Cathedral which I had visited in 2014. We shopped and did some groceries on the way home.

Chrissie prepared dinner for us along with her boyfriend Tim and John's mom, Kirsten. After dinner we sat in the garden enjoying wine and good conversation before heading off to bed.  

Semi Planned, or The Story of the Wrong Horse

The imposter...

What's with that?

King's Bruton Boarding School.

John lost in memories.

Bruton village.

The Church of St Mary's.

Exmouth Beach.

Apparently a common sight in coastal towns.

John's sister Chrissie.

Lodgers Kaitlin, Jazz and Roy.

Sunday, August 27th.

The plan today was to drive to see the white horse of Uffington in Wiltshire, that XTC used for their 1982 album English Settlement. John entered 'white horse Wiltshire' in the GPS and away we went. We drove out of Wales and back into England and an hour and a half later we saw a white horse on a hill, but it looked much more modern and realistic than the stylized one I was looking for. I thought that perhaps it was an indicator to point the way to the real one on the other side of the hill. So we drove up the hill and parked. There were other people up there flying kites and picnicing. I asked a guy where the horse was and he pointed us in the right direction. When we got to the edge we could look over the hill and there was the same horse imposter! I asked another bloke about the Uffington horse and he told me we were at the Westbury White Horse. Who knew there were two?? Apparently there are others too. He said the one I wanted was another hour and a half way, in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go. I was very disappointed, but at this point John realized where it really was and said we should have stopped there on the way to Wales from Dottie's place, but since we will be going back that way at the end of the week, we will visit it then. John and I have a tendency to not fully research or sort out our plans and although usually all goes well, occasionally things go awry. Hence the name of this post.

Anyway, we spent a bit of time on the hill enjoying the view on this spectacular, warm, clear day and then we drove to the town of Bruton. This is where John and his sister Chrissie attended boarding school. John was at the King's Bruton boys boarding school for 6 years, basically his high school years. The school was founded in 1519! As we walked around the grounds of the school, through the village and into the Church of St Mary, where John sang as a baritone choirboy I could see he was lost in his thoughts and memories as he revisited ghosts of his past. We ordered a pizza and sat in the grounds of the church soaking up the sun. They started construction of the Church of St Mary in the 12^th century and and finished it about two hundred years later. It is built on the site of one of the earliest churches in England, which was constructed in the 7^th century.

After lunch we drove south to meet John's sister, Chrissie, in Exmouth, at the mouth of the Exe River. The last time I visited Exeter she was in Spain, so we had not met previously. We wandered around the beach enjoying the sights and flavour of the place before going to an outside cafe for a couple of pints. Then we walked back to the carpark and drove to Exeter where John and Chrissie live. She has recently left her partner and moved in with John. We had a salad and salmon dinner and talked to John's three lodgers: Roy, and Jazz and Kaitlyn. John rents rooms here as a money maker but also because he spends about half his time at Dottie's place near London. We had a couple of glasses of wine and talked about life in Northern Ireland (where Kaitlyn is from), which is apparently still very conflicted. John served in the military there for a period of time. Then we talked about travelling and how John and I met among many other things.