The Eden Project

We didn't have very long to stop here and it's really a multiple visit place. I'd heard of it, but never seen it. We decided we had time to stop for an hour just to check it out. M&K had been before but of course, I hadn't. It was totally awesome (the only word I can use to describe it).

Cornwall is full of clay pits. Clay and tin mining and smuggling. Daphne Du Maurier's book Jamaica Inn was set in Cornwall and on my last trip into this part of the world, we stopped at Jamaica Inn. I thought I had written about it, but can't find anything. So maybe not.

This place was an old clay pit. And some very clever people, got together and decided to start this project.

Their book says: “The Eden Project, an educational charity and social enterprise, creates gardens, exhibitions, events, experiences and projects that explore how people can work together and with nature to change things for the better. Project one: creating a global garden in a 50m-deep crater that was once a china clay pit as a symbol of regeneration.”

It opened in 2000 and has grown from 5 staff to over 500 plus volunteers.

There are 3 domes which encapsulate different environments.

And those domes contain some of the most wonderful things I have seen in one place. It just shows what can happen when people put their mind to something. In the middle of Cornwall, in the Uk where it's cold and wet outside you can see plants and animals from Africa, and other rainforest countries, and from Mediterranean countries. We only went into the rainforest area. So there is much more we didn't see.

It's a place for children and adults. Every penny they make goes back into the project to improve and add.

The giant bee reminding people of the place insects play in the ecology of the world.

One of the signs that I found most attractive!!

So every time I eat chocolate, I'm saving rain forests?

We wandered the rainforest. Plants galore. Many I'd seen before, many I hadn't.

I remember these ones from somewhere in my past. It's an anthurium andraeanum or the Flamingo Flower. I seem to remember having one when we lived in Brisbane.

I had to keep wiping down my camera lens. It was so hot and muggy that it kept fogging up. Makes for some great photos sometimes. Here's one.

Right at the top of the dome was a viewing platform. As you can see there are at least a million stairs to get up there. Would give a great view, but not on our agenda for this day. Or probably any day if truth be told!!!

The whole project is about sustainability. There is a place to eat and they make all their own food, from the project, they recycle all their water. I went to the toilet while we were there. The toilet bowls are stained and there is a sign above the toilet to say that they were clean, but that the recycled water can leave stains. I commented to M&K that with our obsession with white being clean, many people would have problems using recycled water for flushing loos, simply because of the staining.

Long benches for eating at. Lots of good food. And a great feeling about the whole place.

And this was the kitchen area. You could look down and watch what they were doing. Not a great photo..........

One problem with the place is the hill it's on. It's a long way down. Stairs or ramps. But I wouldn't want to push a wheelchair up the ramp. We went down by the stairs and I came back up by the ramp. It was a loooooooooooong walk.

Periodically on the way down, I spotted these cutting off corners.

These were stairs for children to run up and beat their parents up the hill. I can just imagine M as a little person, going up these and thinking they were wonderful!!

It was definitely a place to return to at some stage, next time with more time to explore.

That's all for today folks.

Madeleine

Sunday, 30 December 2012

English Bed and Breakfast

The English B&B are interesting experiences. Usually upstairs, often up many scary stairs. The ones in Bradford on Avon were stone stairs outside, and exactly the wrong height for normal people and therefore very uncomfortable to walk up. They looked lovely, but were really hard to go up

The place in Bath, was awesome. Except for all the stairs. You can in at road level, to M&K&F's room. The only thing on that level. To get to the dining and living area, you went down a long flight of stairs. To get to my room, you went up a long flight of stairs from the road level (or 2 flights from the living/dining area), then you went around a corner, and down another small flight of stairs. There were 3 more levels above me, but they weren't my problem.

Tonight, we had one long flight of stairs to a landing, then a couple more off to each side.

Stairs here tend to be steep, and long.

My legs are not used to stairs.

The other thing that English B&B's seem to have a lot of is mirrors. The last place we were in, had ginormous mirrors in each room. Even large ones in the bathroom. They seem to like mirrors in front of the toilet, so when a woman stands up, she can see everything she doesn't want to see.

Wardrobe mirrors. you know the wardrobe doors that are mirrors. Yes, those one. At the end of the bed, so that the first thing you see when you wake up is your morning face. Not a good look. Luckily I'm very good at ignoring mirrors. I know they are supposed to make small areas look bigger, but hey.................

 I think these were “in” in the 80's.

Showers: Most of the B&B's we've been in have private showers. However, I reckon that you often need an engineering degree to work them. This one seems simple enough. In the last place, they had an old system and a new system hooked up together and you had to turn this dial, and then that one, and eventually you got some hot water. Similar situation in Bradford. I actually need someone to work it out for me before I can have one.

The B&B we are in tonight is quite simple. One shower head, and a tap. One of the places we visited today had two shower heads and a number of taps. Didn't take a photo cause I felt it would be a bit impolite to ask if I could photograph their shower!!

All very interesting. My legs are getting used to the stairs and don't groan as much as they did a couple of days ago. Hills they are still struggling with, but improving. I'm used toa city where you drive everywhere, and if you walk, it is mainly flat, and houses are one story, so no stairs to go up. Certainly not steep narrow ones.

Catchya all.

Madeleine

Thursday, 27 December 2012

Solar Powered Bins

I love Google.

I've been seeing these all over Bath

Not quite sure what the purpose of a “solar powered” bin was. So I Googled, as you do.

Turns out they sense when they are full and compact the rubbish. They have lights on them which say when they are full and when needing compacting. Although why the lights flash I'm not sure as they appear to do the compacting automatically.Maybe to warm people to leave it be while it compacts. Saves on time and money having to empty the bins and apparently

“Banes council is also considering paying for an upgrade to the system which would send a text message to refuse staff saying the bins are ready to be emptied. '

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-19547200

Love it!!

Madeleine

Tuesday, 25 December 2012

Roman Baths

Awesome. They give you a little thingee that you hang around your neck and gives you an ongoing dialogue about what you are seeing. Each display has a number, and you typr in that number, and you get the history of that display. There is even a special one for children, which apparently is great and keeps the kids interested.

What to say about the baths. So much information.

As you come in, you can see Bath Cathedral overlooking the Baths.

And the statues along the walkway. Many of the important Romans have been sculpted and watch over the baths. They are quite recent in comparison, late 1800s.

Looking down from the terrace you can see some displays that depict what would be happening at the time

And an entrance to the baths and niches where people would sit and enjoy themselves. A bit like our swimming pools today.

The water is steaming hot, and I tried to get a photo of the steam coming off the bath, and the bubbles as it boiled. I'm not sure how well I succeeded. Will have to wait until I can see the photos on a bigger screen. This I gather is the main bath, and it all flows from one into another and as it goes becomes cooler so it was suitable for people to bathe in.

This is the best picture I could take of the way the underground water flows from one bath to another.

The water looks really murky and yukky. They were apparently using the baths up until about the 1970s until someone got sick with meningitis. There are signs all around about not swimming in the baths. Talked to one of the tour guides and he was saying that if you fall in accidentally they will offer you a place to dry out and to dry your clothes and help you medically if you get sick, but if you jump in on purpose, you are on your own. I wonder how many people fall in accidentally on purpose.

There's a whole museum part as well that talks about the original religious aspect for the baths. One of the things they talk about was that people would send curses to other people. If you threw the curse into the water and it floated back up again, then you would be cursed rather than the person you were aiming it at. So they used to write the curses on metal and throw them in. I wonder how many feet were cut over the years on rusting metal!!

Apparently there was a whole process people went through when they went into the bath, from a changing room, where the temperature was warm, through to a room where they oiled themselves up, and then into a “sauna” room. Not sure where they went from there.

This is I think the Great Bath.

And then you came back to the present with the usual gift shop, and then out onto the road and back into the 21^st century.

Madeleine

Monday, 24 December 2012

Meeting Finn Talon

Of course, it didn't go the way I expected.

I had an image in my mind. Busy Heathrow airport. People bustling all around. Disembark from the plane. No customs to go through, just off the plane and there they are. Mark, Kathryn, Finn in the pram. Mark and Kathryn and I have a hug and a Madeleine sandwich. I look down into the pram and say “Hello little Finn”. he smiles angelically at me. I gently pick him up and we gaze into each other's eyes.

In fact, it was quite different from that.

A while before I was due to leave, Mark sent me an email to ask, how would I feel if they sent a taxi for me. Disappointed yes. But, my brain had already been thinking about the difficulty of them getting to the airport, on the tube, with a pram. Then coming back with them, me, a pram, and all my luggage. Practicalities interfering with dreams.

So I went with that. In fact it is quite a long way from the airport to their house and would have taken about an hour and a half on the train, there and back. Not fun at all with a grizzly, tired baby, and a grizzly tired Mini.

The flight was delayed, we had to circle the airport for a while before landing. Then there was an incredible queue waiting to go through customs. Tired Madeleine, chatting to a young Australian, waiting to meet her little grandson for the first time.

More delays. Humph!! All I wanted was to get the trip over with and to finally meet little Finn.

I was told that the taxi driver would meet me at the information desk, holding up my first name. So when I finally came out of customs, I saw this wall of people, some waiting for family/friends, others holding up names. Tired from the trip and the long wait in customs, I looked around and spotted an information desk. No man with my name on a piece of paper. Started wandering, looking carefully at each piece of paper, then spotted another row of men (I think they were mainly males), in a line, so started down that line and there was my name.

The taxi driver was not very happy. He had been waiting for ages, so off he went, with me and my short, tired legs trailing behind.

When we got to the parking station, he was even more grumpy with me as well as he had had to pay something like 8 pounds for the pleasure of waiting for me. Kept making comments about me paying for it. I just said something about Mark would deal with it all.

Ages later, we finally arrived at the house.

Then there was the kerfluffle of paying the taxi driver, getting my luggage in, and Finn was asleep. Bugger!! So much for dreams.

Finally the little man woke up and Kathryn picked him up. He took one look at me and started to howl.

So much for the instant bond Mini was expecting.

Madeleine

Thursday, 20 December 2012

Dubai Dunes

Awesome tour. Problem is my SD card on my camera failed so I've got no photos of the beginning of the trip. The ones in here are ones I've grabbed off the net. I discovered the problem when we stopped part way and one of the women suggested that she take a photo of me on the dunes and when she'd taken it, there was nothing on the card. I found another one in my bag, luckily, so have photos of the end of the trip, belly dancer, the dinner, but only one fuzzy one of the dune bashing – which was exciting and scary all at the same time.

The driver picked up me and three Japanese boys from our hotel. I gather from their English that they were only there for a few days, then spent Sunday flying back to Japan and back to work on Monday. Oh, the joys of being young!!

We then drove all over the place to pick up another couple from what appeared to be quite a fancy dancy hotel. She was Muslim, wearing her black robes and scarf. He was dressed normally (jeans and tshirt). I did notice later that she had jeans under her robe and at some stage during the trip, she took it off in the back of the car and just went in head dress and jeans. Before she went back into the hotel, she had re-dressed herself in her robe.

We met up with another 2 WDs at a petrol station outside of town. Toilet. The last to be seen for a while so figured I would go. Big mistake. Disgusting. Water (?) all over the floor. Toilet seat wet. Smelly. I'm not usually fussy about toilets, but would not let my bottom touch that seat and then washed my hands well afterwards.

Seemed to hang around to ages at the petrol station. The guide in my car's English was not so good, so asking him questions, you were likely to get an answer that didn't fit the question. Seemed a lovely young man though. We left the petrol station and drove a while further, and then stopped, with more white 4WDs, and the driver got out of the car. All the drivers seemed to be doing something with the tyres. So nosey Madeleine had to poke her head out the window and they drivers were all lowering the pressure in the tyres. On the way home, we had to stop and re-adjust the pressure in the tyres again.

Went into a conservation area (I took a picture of the name of the place so I would remember and that's one of the photos that is gone. So might google it another time. The sand is incredibly fine and soft. A darker brown than the beaches in Perth. When we were at the garage, I took some photos of the sand and the rubbish that had blown (or been thrown) up against a wall. It's really quite beautiful.

Once inside the park, the cars were parked and I started to realise just how many people were involved. I reckon there would have been at least 30 4WDs, all white, some with Arabian Adventures on the side, many without. If you allow 6 people per car, 30 cars x 6 people that's a minimum of 180 people. And I'm just guessing about the 30 cars. Could have been lots more. I tried to ask our driver, and he reckoned there were hundreds of cars, which I must admit I reckon was a bit of an exaggeration LOL.

Our first stop was for a falcon show. The falcon, when he's not flying, has his eyes covered. Feels really awful for the little bird, but the owner reckons it's a bit like the blinders that horses wear. Helps to keep them calm. They are beautiful birds and later in the evening I was allowed to stroke one and look at it with it's eyes open.

They swing a lure around and the falcon goes for that. Eventually he is allowed to catch the lure and again, I got photos of him eating what he had caught, and the picture is gone. I wonder if Mark can do anything to fix the card. Humph. I keep realising more and mo memories I've lost with that stupid card.

He was awesome. Apparently they are trainable but if they choose to leave, there is nothing their owner can do. This little fellow had a GPS tracking system on his back, apparently a bit like carrying a back pack so if he decided to go bush, the owner could track him and find him again. I wonder if they return home if left to their own devices or whether they just go wild.

After we left the falcon. The fun started,/dunes and hoon drivers who were paid to be hoons. It was fascinating at times you could see the cars ahead and the ones behind. Our driver loved scaring us. They all seemed to know what they were doing and I suspect the guy who got himself bogged will be in for some teasing. Although very quickly there was someone to help. There was a sense of overall organisation and that someone was in charge. Never did find out who,but when I forgot my photo, the guy who found me (don't know who found the photo) was kind enough to go back for it.

I don't know how to describe the sand dunes. Awesome. Sometimes you could feel the wheels slip and slide a bit and hold your breath while the driver kept/got control again. Sometimes you came over the crest of a hill and couldn't see where the next bit of the road was.. A number of times, there were gasps from the others in the car.

The drivers seemed to know the distance to keep between the car in front, and there were no accidents, just the one car that got himself bogged. Which would have been exciting for the people in that car.

We duned for a while, then stopped at the top of one, or the bottom and got out of the cars and walked up to the top. The young muslim women offered to take a photo of me and that was when we discovered that none of my photos had been aceepted by the card. I've got no idea why. Humph!!

Then we did some more duning. I reckon our driver would have been quite happy as a hoon. His driving was wild on the streets and when he was on the dunes, he had this grin on his face.

I tried to ask him if he enjoyed the driving and got an answer that was no where near answering the question. I also tried to ask him if we went out by a straighter route without the dunes as it was getting dark and I had this vision of us trying to drive the dunes in the dark. I figured it would be a much easier drive home – and it was.

 

From here, we went onto a meal, belly dancing, and other evening entertainment.

Madeleine

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Camels and Dung

Interesting title for a blog hey? On our travels yesterday, I've no idea where we were in Dubai. All I know is that we were headed towards the Dubai Museum. We hopped off the bus and walked through a square. The group gathered around the guide and of course, Madeleine looks around for a picture.

The first thing I noticed was this:

Took a photo, but not sure if this was a religious thing or what. So I kept my distance.

The next thing I noticed was this:

Again, no idea what it was or it's purpose.

Then I noticed that many of the others in the group were congregating.

So it wasn't about anything religious. These were a couple from our tour who paid to have a camel ride. I was tempted, but the guide was hurrying us along so didn't. Not sure if I would have or not. We will never know.

One of the men did ask a question that I really can't answer. Do Australian camels have one hump or two? They are apparently different species.

Then right on cue, the camel did this.

I thought camel dung would have been larger. !!!!

Here's the offender close up:

 He's rather cute, and noisy. Very talkative. Complained constantly.

And here's the tent closer. They invited me to come in, but again, the tour guide had moved everyone along and they were starting to get out of range.

 

I know I am very rude. Our guide gave us a bit of detail about the guys in the white dresses. I'm afraid my thought was, do they wear underwear. Next time I followed behind one I checked to see any underwear line. Jury is still out on that one.

On that note Iwill close for now.

Madeleine

Friday, 14 December 2012