Day #9
We had breakfast at the Pilchard Press again, We get all the local gossip off the guy who works there, who is friendly (and also worldly having already toured Australia). We enlightened him on the Aus-NZ rivalry (he was already aware of the US-Canada one). Amy also asked him why one of the buildings said "Save our Fish". He explained the "oppressive" fishing quota laws were hurting the fishing trade out here (He of course wasted no opportunity to rip into those public servants - I didn’t tell him we were public servants - I just said "yeh - damn filthy government" - lol). Because the fish quota is based on fish type, they often catch their quota (his example was cod) in the first 2 months of the year. Apparently then because their nets are not fish "smart", they will often catch cod with the other catches but they have to throw them dead back into the water. They find this very frustrating. (I could have mentioned that this was probably intended for large commercial fishing - or that at least no profit was made from it - but I preferred to just avoid conflict and agree with him). During all this a big black cat (called Bruno) came in with his pet (a man called "Dave") and surveyed the room (Amy loved this). They left together. Later the cat came back looking for Dave. (The owner Graham said that if the cat loses Dave he will go all across town looking for him - very cute).
St Austell
After breakfast we decided to head off on our "Botanical Gardens" run. It was an hours drive to these places and they were near a town called St Austell. I am now used to driving in the UK (except for when it started raining and I put the left indicator on) but I still don’t know what one of the road signs means. It is a blue disc with a red "X" cross through it (and a red ring around it). I have asked 2 people what it means and I get different answers (1. Retain previous speed limit, 2. This is a clearway). I think I will need to find some authoritive advice on this (hmmm … the internet!).
We arrive at St Austell (these towns are all starting to look the same now :( ), and we go to a café ("Tengo") to get some lunch and directions (damn! It has a free internet wireless hotspot - why didn’t I bring my laptop?). The girl behind the counter tried to give directions as best she could but because English roads are narrow and windy people generally have to give fairly long and convulated instructions. Combined with a thick accent, we find it quite difficult to make sense of them (no fault of hers) and I tend to rely on intuition more than anything (it is not too bad a strategy - the towns are small [geographically speaking] and pretty quickly you will hit one of their "main" roads. They are all very well sign-posted, so I havent really gotten lost yet)
Eden Project
We leave St Austell, and start along the A30 (one of their "main" roads) out of town. Pretty soon, we start seeing road-signs pointing to the "Eden Project" (our intended destination). Finally we arrive there. It is still taking me a while to work out what the Eden Project actually is. There are a lot of Billboards/Posters talking about Charities and Saving our Earth but not what they actually do. When you look at the place from the carpark, you see a large kiosk, a convention centre, an 'Elvis' ride, and 2 large Domes (called Biodomes) all nestled inside a gigantic crater. I eventually find out that the crater was an old abandoned clay pit (probably 500m across), and this is a revivication project (it is as they said "a work in progress"). It is getting more impressive now that I realize what they are doing. There are beautiful gardens everywhere (especially when you see photos of the mud pit that it used to be). Eventually we head down to the Biodomes. There are 2 of them linked by a causeway (well cafeteria actually). The first Biodome we enter is the "Tropical" dome. The temperature inside this dome is 20 - 30 deg C. Feels like I am back in Australia! This feels good on my chest as well (still trying to stave off a chest infection). There are tropical plants everywhere, (it doesn’t interest me so much - it is just like Mt Tamborine to me - but I am sure the locals would get a huge kick out of it) and there are things called "Cool Houses" (for locals to go into if the temperature gets too much for them - lol). The other dome (Biodome) we went to was a "Warm temperate" climate dome. This was fairly cool (not as cold as outside though) and was emulating a Mediterranean climate. It had some group singers in there (a bit weird) singing songs (like "Chattanooga Choo Choo" - like I said, weird). After this we went to the kiosk, had a cup of tea then left.
Lost Gardens of Helligan
We drove back through St Austell to a place called the "Lost Gardens of Helligan". It is called this because it was an estate (with marvellous botanical gardens) of some person that died (or something), fell into disrepair and then was forgotten about. Some adventurers chanced upon it something like 100 years later and have restored it back to its former glory (well at least that’s what all the brochures say ;). One impressive thing about it is that it has a jungle area. It is hard to believe that the jungle could survive here, but I guess they have used frost-resistant ferns and plants (I am no botanist ;), although one placard did say that a whole bunch of chinese trees were wiped out in some severe frost in the 19th century. The other cool thing was that normally you have to pay to get in but it was after 4:30pm and the ticket office was closed so we got in for free! Finally we came to a farm area with lots of animals (Amy was in love), and even a naughty rabbit who sneaked into the chicken coup while we were watching. It started getting late (the sun was setting) so we decided to make tracks back to Mousehole.
Dinner
We had a pub dinner down at the Ship Inn (every 2nd place at Cornwall is called "Ship Inn"). I had the usual pint of Cornish Ale then called it a night. Amy tried to strike up a conversation with the bartender. He was in bad need of a personality. He was sullen and when asked about the place he said “that it is ok, I guess”.
Amy then looked for an escape route from the conversation (she did claim that he smiled twice during their conversation but I never saw it).
After that we went back to bed (tomorrow is check-out and move time again).
One thing about the streets around here: They are very narrow. Cars regularly pass each other within 6 inches. The locals are used to it but I find it nerve-wracking. Also cars park, blocking one lane off. The rule here is that as long as there is enough space to fit one car then whats the problem? Lets just say that you have to be vigilant of oncoming traffic.
