Cornwall & The Eden Project
The ‘West Country’ is surfing country and in the summer towns such as Looe, Newquay & St Austell are full of young people. Most towns have shops selling surfing gear and clothing and the VW Campervan is still iconic. The art and gift shops are full of pictures, ceramics & t-shirts depicting VWs of all colours and anything surf related. True to form we chose to have Cornish pasties for lunch. All of the bakeries and many of the coffee shops have these on offer in different sizes and flavours made fresh every day. We also saw signs advertising clotted cream to be sent all around the world and plenty of fudge shops!
The Eden Project is now seven years old and is the transformation of an old clay pit. I had thought that was all it was – a reclamation project. It’s actually a very educational and thought-provoking place supported by companies who are looking at new ways of doing business that won’t harm our environment. The Eden Project is in a fairly isolated position and had been robbed of all its value – 60 metres depth of clay. Now it’s waste neutral, carbon positive, self sufficient in water and they even made the 83,000 tonnes of soil they needed to start it off! The two Biomes have controlled humidity, birds, insects and ‘extreme gardeners’ to look after 1 million (ish) plants. Whilst the rainforest biome is more focused on conservation and methods of improving food production, the Mediterranean biome also includes areas representing South Africa and California.
There are several pieces of sculpture around the site including one called WEEE Man. This is 'waste electrical and electronic equipment' - it shows how quickly we tire of these things in our modern world. We were actually quite proud to say we are still using at least two of the items featured in the sculpture (although we have a few more in the loft!).
The 'Core' is the education centre, set apart from the domes. Here there are many interactive exhibits including a huge mechanical nutcracker. Added to this, they work with several initiatives worldwide that are conservation based and run workshops throughout the year for schools. My children went ice skating in the events area before we left and as the single admission can be converted to an annual membership, I am seriously thinking about going again when everything will be in bloom! The children have also said they’d like us (!) to try the zip line through the rainforest dome.
The next day we visited Boscastle. This small community was depicted worldwide in August 2004 when it flooded. Over 100 people were airlifted to safely, 84 wrecked cars were recovered from the harbour and it’s estimated that a further 32 were swept out to sea. To see it today, you would never know! The visitor centre was re-sited and it tells the story of what happened that day. It also shows that things have subtly changed since then. The car park area has been raised, the riverbed widened and lowered, trees felled along the valley and the lower bridge near the harbour has been removed. Boscastle will undoubtedly suffer a similar deluge again but next time the water will have a much less restricted outlet to sea and the town will watch with interest instead of terror.
Our final visit was to Tintagel. This is home to the legendary 'King Arthur's' Castle. Sadly just a ruin now. Despite this, the town receives thousands of visitors during the summer and the shops here are full of swords, shields, armour and all sorts of items relating to witchcraft (although the UK's only witchcraft museum is in Boscastle!). It is also the home to the UK's oldest post office; a 14th century manor house & cottage garden operated by the National Trust, which looked interesting but was closed.....
My only regret this trip was that we didn't get round to trying the Cornish ice cream!