UK: DEVON AND CORNWALL 10/10

Above and below: Porlock, Somerset

Twin towns in North Devon: Lynton & Lynmouth, one high on the cliff overlooking the other. Connected by a water powered funicular railway - water is pumped into one of the two carriages which then descends, pulling up the other carriage. Lynmouth was severely flooded in the early 1950s, about 34 people died. Devon received about 250 times normal rain at the time and a conspiracy theory surrounds experimental rain seeding operations that were occurring at the time.

recreation of the interior of a cottage in Clovelly

Clovelly, North Devon. A very pretty private village (wattle & daub buildings), owned by a (minor) member of the aristocracy since 1738, although it's been a village for over 800 years - the church is Norman.

Cars have to be parked at the top as there's no vehicular access - the above sleds are used to bring goods in and donkeys tow them up again...now this is the sort of system the Australian Greens Party would like to see everywhere... did I mention donkeys somewhere?

Clovelly, but taken at dusk

well, had to include one photo of the quintessential English countryside

Tintagel, although King Arthur has now vacated

Ric Stein's restaurant in Padstow (Cornwall). Would like to have had lunch there (to be "seen"), but according to the prices on the menu, the two chips we could have afforded would not have been sustaining enough

St Ives (Cornwall). Again, very quaint and pretty.

View from the St Ives B&B where we stayed - run by a funny little old lady who was preoccupied with taking her cat to the vet. She had a habit of popping her head in the bedroom door unexpectedly; not sure whether or not she was an ageing voyeur. Quite a few surfers, good waves.

Michael's Mount (Cornwall). Origins of the castle are shrouded in history, but very ancient. Can walk to it at low tide, but a ferry back at high tide. Von Ribbentrop, Nazi War Minister & ambassador to Britain at one stage, intended living there after the Krauts had invaded Britain - bet you didn't know that

Mevagissey, Cornwall. When I first went to these Cornish coastal villages in the early 60s, they were mainly fishing with some tourism. Now, it's the other way around, although this village still has fishing as a significant industry. In most of these villages, cars must be left outside the village boundaries as the tourists are so prolific and the roads are so narrow and congested... Enjoyed fairly inexpensive but good quality pub food in most places. Tried about 20 different ales during the trip and managed to find about four that were palatable. Also tried a couple of scrumpys...strange liquid...

Above & below - the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Originally the gardens were part of a great Victorian estate, but fell into "disrepair" after WW1. Restored in the 1990s, it includes huge numbers of Rhododendrens, tree ferns and Camelias. Has interesting functional "hangovers" from the Victorian era including a pineapple pit, where piles of fresh manure provide the heat to allow pineapples to be grown in England under glass. Hope they washed the pineapples before they ate them.

Eden Project inside the Mediterranean biome in the Eden Project, Cornwall

...and the tropical biome - hot, sticky, but with interesting examples and displays of native huts and aspects of food production and processing.

Scrap metal sculptor near the entrance to the Eden Project. Although the theme of Eden is serious, there is humour throughout - this sculptor is appropriately a plant - an industrial plant.....

Eden Project: This is a project designed basically to show the extensive relationship between people and plants. Very interesting and exhausting to try and see in a day. It has two "biomes" (below, built from steel frames and polymers), the largest in the world, one devoted to tropical plants, the other to the Mediterranean regions. The outdooor plantings show plants from the temperate regions. They are trying to raise money for a third biome for desert region plants. (the whole area was originally a quarry & a planet scene in Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy was filmed there by the BBC). Are you paying attention ? there will be an exam on this topic later. a very amusing animated display based on a recycling theme

Fowey

Charlestown

Polperro, Cornwall (above and below). Once a hotbed of smuggling (brandy & tobacco) and, more recently, fishing, its main source of income now is tourism - walking, scenery, interesting buildings...

Dartmoor sheep

Dartmoor (Devon), above & below. A mixture of scenery...parts of it owned by the Duchy of Cornwall (Prince of Wales - Prince Charles hugs his trees here and even the sheep are organic). Also, since the Napoleonic Wars, traditionaly used by the army as a training ground.

above and two below; Widecombe-on-the-Moor, a pretty little village on Dartmoor

"Ee luv, it's bin a grand day out!" (no, it's not Lynne & me enjoying chip butties)

Devon village

Sidmouth, Devon

Sidmouth

Tolpuddle, Dorset, famous for the Tolpuddle Martyrs - a group of men who tried to establish the first trade union. They were transported to Australia (where else?) in 1834 for their "sins."

Thatcher managed to do the same in the 70s - Australia now has large numbers of Scots, Irish and English union leaders still managing to stir up trouble!

..back for a couple of days in London...spent a great day at the V & A...loved this piece of Barry Humphrey trivia in the performing arts section (Sydney Opera House, altho' the sails are a bit droopy). So much to see, it would take days to do it justice ...is this a pub or a garden centre in Kensington....? not sure how well this would go down with the Bogans in Oz as a watering hole...?

above and below - being the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, one of the "greats" of the 19th century, had to visit his house in Down, Kent