From a tropical rainforest at Eden to the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the round table

Arriving at the Eden Project

The Eden Project is an amazing construction, deep in a china clay quarry, so the huge biomes we’ve all seen are not visible from outside. There is also a huge stage from which I bet no sound escapes. At this time of year the external planting is unsurprisingly not at its best, but still had impact. The tropical rainforest, and Mediterranean biomes, however, are fab. We did two guided tours in the rainforest, both of which were very good. The first took us up to the lookout, without the crowds and was well worth doing. The 20 minute walk to the project from the campsite was quite pleasant and entitled us to a free £6 guide book, and just added to our already huge step count!

The photo below shows the clay quarry as it was in the early 1990's and the view of it today

We had considered staying an extra day, but it didn’t seem necessary, so we continued to our next stop, Cherry Cottage Camping near Camelford. Another small, quiet campsite, midway between Bodmin Moor and Tintagel. We walked into Camelford for a look around, another pasty (we’ve had quite a lot of pasties, unsurprisingly), a saunter up the river. Then a look in an amazing retro clothes store, so many clothes at stunning prices, though I didn’t buy anything. A nice enough pint in the Masons Arms, though we didn’t rush back again, and that was Camelford!

A not very good photo inside the tropical rainforest biome, but it does show, just about, the lookout high in the top. See the zig-zag access way leading to a platform just behind that big palm in the centre? That's the top. We had the opportunity to go up there on the guided tour, we did, many others in the group didn't. It's exposed and wobbly 

Saturday was Tintagel, because the buses don’t run on a Sunday. In fact they only ran every 2 hours on a Saturday, but that was enough. The bus at £2 for me and nothing for him from right outside the campsite was great. We arrived in Tintagel, to walk down to the island, only to find a sign saying it was closed due to high winds. We could walk down to the beach, the tunnel underneath, and the headlands on both sides, which were a bit windy it has to be said. We got an email saying our prepayment will be refunded, so I’m sure it will be, which we are probably quite pleased with. I think the island itself might have been a let down. A quick stop at the Knights of the Round Table Great Hall, gave us a little overview of the King Arthur story, before a quick cuppa and the bus back. It was a lovely morning, the views are stunning, and the weather was great. Till we were on the bus when it threw it down. Perfect timing!

One of the views from the top. 30m up he said, but a fully grown tropical rain forest could grow to 150m

Sunday Bodmin Moor then. We’ll just cycle the couple of miles to the nearest carpark! It was a bit hilly, but probably better than walking. I guess! We only did a short walk, terminating on Rough Tor, but again, timed with the weather perfectly. As we got back to the bikes, the top of the Tor had vanished into the clouds. The original plan had been to stay the night where we were before moving to 'Riverside' near Plymouth today. The forecast for today however is for dangerously high winds, so having done what we wanted we leapt into Ted and headed south again. Huge amounts of rain once we arrived and overnight, which didn’t seem as windy as we expected, but we are in a very sheltered river valley. I spoke to a guy this morning who lives on the cliffs about 15 minutes away, who said it was horrible overnight, his wife got no sleep! The right decision then we think.

I did take lots of photos of interesting plants. This is a Eucalyptus flower the sign told me

A ‘chilling day’ today. Blog, washing, and a cycle to Sainsburys. Brian had said that the cable for his rear gears was on its way out, but on the way back, the cable to the front gears went. He managed to get back with his share of the shopping, in his smallest gear, with his little legs going round very fast! He is currently at Halfords, where hopefully they will be able to fix it!

A carnivorous pitcher plant, enticing its insect victim in with nice nectar, the slippery sides causing it to fall into the gloop at the bottom where it's devoured. What a horrendous death, makes you glad not to be an insect!

Managed to get this photo of a gecko. They were brought in to keep something down, could be insects, or possibly ants 

This is a Roul-roul partridge bird. There's quite a few of them strolling around in the biome completely unafraid of people. They were introduced to keep down the cockroaches that probably arrived hidden in some plants

Arriving in Tintagel and this is the historic old post office in the town. The town is a bit of a tourist spot with lots of souvenir shops and cafes, all built on the legend of King Arthur who, they say may have been born here during the 4th century. Others say that's complete nonsense, but his legend of the knights of the round table and gallant knights such as Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad live on. Certainly the ruins of the castle post date his supposed life, but archaeologists say they have found evidence of an earlier castle on the site that could be from his time, so who knows.

Taken from a distance away on the coastal path this is the 'island' (it's not quite an island, just about joined to the mainland) with the castle ruins straddling the mainland and island. It was very windy so English Heritage, who own the island and castle had closed it, saying it was too dangerous. The surrounding land is owned by the National Trust and they seemed quite happy for people to wander the cliff paths in the wind!

The 'island' and castle ruins from the other side, still in a very strong wind. This is just by the church that has parts that pre-date the castle (is free to enter, was open and in much better condition)

The headland walk by the island. Just at the top is the new bridge constructed by English Heritage to give easier access to the island. Not today though!  There are two caves down there, the one on the left is a tunnel right through, access only at low tide (we waited so we could enter) and there's another one further right that might be Merlins cave. 

The tides gone out and access to the cave is possible

It's quite nice inside. This is looking through to the other side, paddling only from this point, we declined!

Looking back out the way we came in. This coastline is really very beautiful and we could have walked a very long way along the coastal path. Maybe another time

St Materiana's church near the castle. Parts of it date from 1080, which pre-dates the castle ruins

Quite a nice old church inside. The arch on the left by Jackie is said to be the oldest part

This is King Arthurs Great Halls and worth a visit inside for £6 each. In the first hall you sit down and get a recorded presentation of the King Arthur story and who couldn't be convinced, right down to him withdrawing the sword from the anvil, as only the rightful king would be able to do 

Then you can walk through to the great hall, which is quite impressive down to a round table with thirteen segments each with the name of the person who they think would have sat there. King Arthur has a space as does Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad

Fabulous stained glass windows all with a story attached to them. You can even join the King Arthur and the round table society here. They are looking for new members

More stained glass windows and, on top of a special stage, an anvil with a sword in it. If you could withdraw that sword you would be a rightful king of England!

Next day, a 5 mile, mainly uphill cycle to Bodmin Moor from Camelford. It was very steep in places, so we did get off and push on a couple of occasions (my bike gears were playing up that's my excuse, but Halfords in Plymouth are fixing it and it'll be fantastic on Wednesday). The return, fortunately was mainly downhill, apart from a couple of sharp uphills

We left the bikes in the car park and set off uphill. The bump on the left is Showery Tor and, on the right is Rough Tor, we did both. We were going to walk onto Brown Willy, the highest point on the moor, only a couple of miles further on, but we shortened our day. The forecast was for heavy rain to start by 2:00pm and dangerously high winds by the evening, so we hurried up and down so we could drive on to Plymouth that day to avoid driving in high wind

Showery Tor summit with our next objective, Rough Tor in the distance. It was a dank sort of day, not exactly raining at this time but almost. Dampness was in the air and the wind was strengthening

A tunnel or old room through the rocks as we neared Rough Tor summit. Jackie had a scramble through and climbed out 

Rough Tor summit. The view was quite good despite the cloud and wind

And the view of where we started from. The car park where we left the bikes is in the gap in the trees in the centre, Camelford is just visible in the far distance on the left. We had to cycle back to there

And this was as we got back to the bikes. Showery and Rough Tor are now shrouded in cloud and light rain is falling. Good decision not to go further. We were relatively wet by the time we had cycled back

We made it to the Riverside campsite in Plymouth where we're staying for a week. Hope the weather isn't too bad. On the plus side, I've found out there's a Parkrun just 2.3km away, so I'll be going to that on Saturday!

We've started to watch that new David Attenborough series on Britain and I complained I was feeling a tad cool. Rather than turn up the heating saying she didn't want it hot when we went to bed, she dumped her neck warmer on my head. Quite warm it was, particularly with the help of a GnT!