Day 8 - UK

2 April 2011

My intention had been to have a walk in the National park but the morning brought mist, rain and more gale force winds. My enthusiasm waned considerably.

Then I went to the bathroom to clean my teeth and noticed my nose was even more swollen and red. That would explain my blah feeling the last few days, not to mention my complete inability to remember anything. It’s definitely an allergic reaction. But I only ever get this reaction when I’ve had dairy products and I have been really good to avoid them so far. The only thing I can put it down to is the hemp milk. Fortunately we finished it this morning.

I’m on homeopathic hay fever tablets at the moment because I started sneezing as soon as I arrived in the country. I’ll just have to up the intake I guess.

We got our mobile laundry van on the road before 9am and headed towards Bath. It was a nice drive out of the park, misty to start with but then it cleared and suddenly we started seeing all these properties with the front hedges cut back to the heel of the branch and then laid down to create a living fence. I can’t remember the term but I’ve seen it done on a River Cottage show and it’s so cool I want to try it on our farm. I’ll need to plant and grow some trees in a straight line first of course. I’m assuming poplars and willows would make a good tree to do it with but I’ll need to research it first.

Late morning we approached a left turn with a sign saying Cheddar.

“Why don’t we go to Cheddar” I said

“I’m keen, as long as the sell cheese” Aaron replied

There was only one way to find out and so we turned left and were soon wending our way through Cheddar Gorge.

Oh. My. God!

“Oh wow. Oh wow.” was about all I could say for the first couple of km. The gorge is just stunning with it’s never ending rock cliffs. Around every corner there is a large carpark and there were hundreds of rock climbers and abseilers on the sides of the cliffs as we drove past, not to mention some very funky mountains goats. There are signs for tramping tracks and caves for caving enthusiasts. I don’t even rock climb but even I felt an urge to just scale the cliffs. I just wanted to pull Sarah out of my suitcase and say “Look. Go. Be free!”

Eventually we got to Cheddar. Do they sell cheese?! Aaron was not disappointed. Just try picking which cheese shop you want to go into. We picked the biggest one (of course) and happily tasted our way through their selection of cheeses and pickles. Aaron end up with a Shropshire blue and I with an oak smoked cheddar. I’m not much of a cheese fan but the oak smoked and the buffalo cheddar rather took my fancy.

But Cheddar is not just about cheese and outdoor adventure it seems. Oh no, it also has at least 2 cider shops. Praise the lord! Of course I had to go into the biggest cider shop and could only be made to leave under protest. There were ciders, beers and adorable ornaments and kitchen stuff with farm themes.

“Honey, I want to spend hundreds!”

Aaron quickly steered me back towards the counter to pay for my bottles of cider and his Hobgoblin beer.

I would have liked to spend a couple of days in Cheddar, hiking through the gorge, photographing impressive rock formations and cute looking baby goats, and then ending the day gorging on good food and drink. But alas we could only stay 2 hours and then we had to leave for our next destination.

Even the village of Cheddar was lovely

“I could live here” I thought. Of course I’d only be able to farm goats but we’re actually contemplating doing that anyway.

And so we eventually arrived in Bath. My intention was to try locate my friend Fiona, who resides somewhere in Bath and so we wandered through town until we found the Info centre. I couldn’t find her in the phone book and so we found an Internet café and spent an hour trying to answer emails, check out various websites and then try locate Fiona via the Internet. We were out of luck. The Internet did advise me she was in the latest electoral roll but the electoral office is closed on the weekend and so we were well and truly stumped. By then it was about 2:30 and neither of us had eaten since breakfast. I would have liked to spend a bit more time wandering around Bath but the crowds were quite claustraphobic and Aaron’s hunger was putting him in a decidedly bad mood.  Instead we went back to the car, had sandwiches and made our way to Wales.

England for the past 6 days has been decidedly grey and wet, and then rather stormy. I was hoping for some good weather. And would you believe it, as we drove across the bridge to Wales we drove from sombre grey to bright blue skies and fluffy clouds

I love Wales already!

There was a lot of driving today. So much that Aaron was exhausted from it and I am completely over it. We have a plan of where we should end up each day and we’re sticking to it whether some place seems interesting or not. Today I feel resentful of this holiday plan and wonder what the hell possessed us to do this. However, I think this is because I am in constant pain from sitting for so long and then when we stop the car in the evening, lying down on a thin squab for hours on end. My body feels constantly bruised and kinked.

Aaron seems to have reached his limit as well.