August 5 - Saturday
We were at CAT at 0930 and were at the front doors to the information center to pick up our free audio guide before they even opened. The weather was overcast but no rain - yet. With our guides we slowly walked from station to station. We took a lot of pictures of alternative forms of energy, building, and farming to name a few examples - you'll have to visit for yourself to learn more or you can visit their website: www.CAT.org.uk
It's a good site. We stopped for lunch at their cafetria. It's vegetarian and everything produced from the kitchen was produced on the grounds of CAT. Lots of fresh food. It was fantastic. I had a coucous salad and veggie quiche which I shared with Jon who got something else, I think it was a veggie pasty. We lingered over lunch talking about what we had seen so far. We figured we were about half way though the exhibits. There was a bulletin board near the exit and we checked it out. There was a posting looking for help building a home made from alternative building materials and which will also use alternative forms of energy to run it somewhere in Spain. Jon said he was familiar with the area and so it's an idea we're toying with should we decide to return to Europe after New Zealand which we've been considering. We finished the day out in the bookstore again and again we were on the last elevator out of CAT. Our brains were stuffed with information and we were brimming with ideas and inspiration. We hope to take this expereince with us to New Zealand where we'll be able to put a lot that we've learned to practice as we help build homes, develop and maintain gardens, farms and who knows what else.
There was another cyclist camping in the field when we returned. We could see someone checking out our bikes as we looked down on the field from the road back to camp. Later in the evening the man stopped by. He was from the London area and has gone on many bike tours of the area. He also has two recumbents but has never toured on them. We chastised him for that and encouraged him to do so on his next trip - he has no excuse! We chatted for a bit about the recumbents. He was interested in our lawn chairs. We told him we got them in Italy and that they weren't really for touring which he agreed with when he felt how heavy they were. The weight has been worth it though, and I'm glad that we have them. We talked a bit more about cycling until the rain really started coming down at which point the man went back to his tent and we battened down the hatches, snuggled up with each other and our books and read and talked for the rest of the night!
