Bristol, housesitting and days out

On the Cheddar Gorge cliff walk

It seemed a long journey from Lymm to mum’s but wasn’t too bad. We did it in the two hours I’d allotted, two hours to clean and tidy, two hours Lymm to Alvechurch, two hours with mum, two hours to Bev and Iain’s. We got here at 4.05pm having been up at 8am as we were expecting a delivery, so pretty good going really!

It was lovely to be back, the cats were very welcoming and seemed to still know us after nearly 2 years. Mr. Pickles has aged, he’s 20+ and has lost weight. He still jumps and eats though, mostly human food, given the option. As Bev said, he’s gone from not being bothered to having no boundaries about food or the table! He also seems to have gone deaf, but still has great cattitude.

Mr Pickles did want to join in with our mussels and prawn dinner. Not sure where Jackie's going to sit! He did have a few prawn tails and mussel bits which he thoroughly enjoyed!

Outside the ruined St. Peters church, Bristol

We went into Bristol on Tuesday, the bus is so convenient, and the power was going to be off all morning. Yummy food at St. Nicholas market, plus I bought shoes (at last) and Brian had a chat with Trailfinders about India. Not for the near future, but it’s a big place we’ve not been to, Brian has always been keen, and I’ve always not been!

Cheddar Gorge on Wednesday, a really hot day, so not necessarily the best thing, but neither of us had ever been. It was a lovely walk, not long, but up, to get above the Gorge on the south side, down, cross the Gorge and up to walk back on the north side. Still, we felt we’d earned our cream tea!

The route of the cliff-top walk at Cheddar Gorge. It's Britain's largest gorge, formed (it is believed) at the end of the last ice age by torrents of water from melting glaciers. A road runs through the bottom now, but it doesn't detract from the fabulous scenery. From the top it's possible to look right down into the gorge and an amazing panorama of surrounding countryside. It's not a particularly long walk, took us just over two hours to complete the whole route starting and finishing in the village of Cheddar, but well worth the effort. It really is Britain at it's best!

Looking down to the road far below

Thursday the forecast wasn’t so good, so we thought we’d go and look at the SS Great Britain, having checked that we really didn’t go last time we were here. We really hadn’t, so we did. It was well worth the trip and the £18 each. The ship was scuttled in the ‘70’s off the Falkland Islands, so getting it back here, let alone restoring it was a huge task which they’ve done really really well. It’ll never be seaworthy again, but just preventing further breakdown is a challenge. Below the ‘waterline’ a sheet of Perspex with a thin layer of water on, internally and externally, they have two dehumidifiers working constantly drying and warming the air. The cost of that alone must be scary. The volunteers and staff all seemed to thoroughly enjoy their jobs and to be very knowledgeable, which all made for a great visit.

Today we’ve pottered as again the forecast wasn’t great. Bev and Iain are due back from Cornwall at some point, so we are really looking forward to catching up before heading back to The Midlands sometime over the weekend.

Down there is the twisting road snaking through the gorge. The cliffs are home to many nesting birds, including rare Peregrine Falcons and, during nesting times (April to August) many areas are off limits to rock climbers. We have never climbed here as it's a bit to difficult for us (minimum E1 grade I believe), but it is a very popular area for climbing

We stopped and chatted with many people on this walk, it was a lovely, sunny day with almost no wind, almost too hot really and here a very nice couple took our photo. The round lake in the distance is Cheddar reservoir

We didn't know the two girls throwing their arms in the air, but we shouted what a great picture it made so they obliged (Jackie wouldn't walk back there to pose!)

We even saw some mountain goats

This is round on the North side now and here Jackie is admiring the cliffs on the South side. You can just see people on the top on the other side. That's where the photo of the two of us and of the two girls was taken

We reckoned we'd earned the cream tea afterwards in Cheddar village

We had a bit of rain overnight and here Mr. Pickles is licking the water from the hot tub pump

I was going to delete this photo of Milly cat, but then I thought 'no', actually I think it's a great photo

This is timid little Tinsel cat with her funny eye.. She's a sweet little thing

Mr. Pickles on the hot tub cover

The SS Great Britain in the dry dock at Bristol in which it was originally built in 1843. It was designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and was the first iron ship and also the first to be driven by a screw propeller, both inventions by Brunel. At the time is was the biggest liner in the world and carried people to and from Bristol to New York, then to carry emigrants to Australia. Converted to sail only in 1881 it was badly damaged in a storm trying to round Cape Horn and limped back to the Falkland Islands where it was retired. It was used as a floating warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until finally being scuttled in 1937, where it lay rusting on a beach near Port Stanly. It was finally rescued by roughly patching gaping holes in the hull, floated onto a pontoon and towed back across the Atlantic to it's original dry dock in Bristol where it is now a museum. The story of its salvage is nearly as amazing as it's life as a sea-going ship

A photo in the museum of the SS Great Britain in the Falkland Islands before its rescue

The bow in the dry dock. The 'roof' is a glass ceiling with a layer of water on the top to give the illusion of the ship floating in the dock. In fact serious corrosion was occurring to the lower hull, to the extent that it had to be drained, sealed and air conditioning units installed to keep the humidity below 20%. Apparently at this humidity (desert conditions) corrosion almost stops. The metal ducts either side are blowing dry air constantly over the hull

The recreated screw propeller and rudder

But it'll never float again. You can see plated bolted up this side that patched together a giant crack that appeared right up the side of the hull after it had been scuttled. 

This is inside the bow and has been left as it was to show the box shape of the keel and the way Brunel designed it. The many holes show how much it had deteriorated in the Falklands. It must have been touch and go whether it was capable of being salvaged and towed all that way up the Atlantic

But many parts have been restored to show what life aboard would have been like...

This is the First Class dining room. Very different from the Steerage sections at the back for those with little money for a passage to the New World

And even Isambard was there for a photo!

Mr. Pickles this morning at breakfast. He figured something must to to his liking, little did he know it was just a grape on the spoon!