Carlyon Bay and the Eden Project

On Thursday, we said goodbye to Anne - another kiwi on her way home to Christchurch. We went to a Greek restaurant in Chepstow with Keith and Elspeth before loading Anne's tv, portable and disposable barbeques, outside table and chairs, dvd player and remotes, some kitchen stuff and a rug into our car. She has sent boxes home and we continue to be amazed at how much you can collect that you want to keep. We are trying to minimise the amount we buy, but never say no to generous gifts, but still we have collected a few little ornaments (I am starting a little village of the places we go to that have shops and cottages - so far those from Europe stand 3 stories tall and are very thin, where the ones from England are one or two story cottages with little gardens around them ... anyway enough of the boring stuff). Friday I had a day off and I mentioned it to Harry numerous times during the week (30 days annual leave as well as up to 3 flexi time days a month - leads to a few lazy days - even with our life style it is quite hard to use them all up since Harry doesn't get quite as many as that). Friday was also the 65th anniversary of the Dambusters raid and remembered in style with a fly pass (Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane, Dakota and then 2 Tornadoes of the current 617 squadron) over the Derwent Reservoir where they practised in Derbyshire. John Munro, the last remaining pilot and a kiwi, flew over from New Zealand for the occasion. No, Harry didn't go to Derbyshire for the day(unless he just pretended to cycle to work) but came home in time to help pack for our first camping trip in England - in fact we can't remember our last time it was so long ago. It was also our first weekend away with some friends, Chris and Glen, so given that we have been here a year on Monday it has been a memorable weekend. Carlyon Bay is about 3-4 hours drive away, depending on traffic and how often one gets lost. The main aim was to go to the Eden Project and to practise camping. About the campsite first, very clean and well presented, but with no kitchen facilities - so thankfully Glen had thrown in his gas cooker and pots, and we had thrown in one of the barbeques Anne gave us. So, we were well prepared to cook sausages, hashbrowns, bacon and eggs for breakfast plus make ourselves numerous cups of tea. Chris brought the tent - brand new - and so we christened it on Saturday evening as we lay snuggled up in our sleeping bags listening to the rain hitting the roof. Pitching the tent was made easy as Chris and Glen had practised putting it up during the week and the rain stopped for a couple of hours - otherwise Chris's first camping trip may have been her last. We had dinner in a local pub (cooking one breakfast was enough for us - besides it took over 2 hours by the time we had lit the charcoal barbeque, boiled the water, burnt the sausages etc)

We didn't know that lots of Cornwall was deeply scarred from the china clay mining - once the clay was washed off the stones, the slag was left marring the countryside and is still there today. In some places there has been an attempt at clearing it and one of the attempts is the Eden project. A quarry sitting in a valley has now become a haven for crops, landscapes and wild plants with a large rainforest garden growing in a biomede (rather large complex like lots of caterpillar's big googly or big bubbles - reminds me of our often seen pictures of martians eyes) and another mediterranean garden in another biomede. We saw many Australian plants as well as a few New Zealand flaxes. The point of the project, funded by a huge government grant is that visitors will be inspired from nature, and work towards a sustainable world where everything is reused, recycled, reduced. The Jack Johnson song comes to mind (Manuel and I used to sing it in the car when he was in NZ).

Well, if you're going to the market to buy some juice

You've got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste

And if your brother or your sister's got some cool clothes

You could try them on before you buy some more of those

Reuse, we've got to learn to reuse

And if the first two r's don't work out

And if you've got to make some trash

Don't throw it out

Recycle, we've got to learn to recycle

They had some cool things at the project like chairs made from recycled plastic, coasters from recycled yoghurt pots, glasses from recycled beer bottles. Anyway, we were quite keen to know the history of the project and so watched a video that showed it ten years ago as a barren, exhausted china clay pit. And indeed it was rather a large scar on the landscape. I guess they have achieved the aim of the project to beautify the countryside and provide hope for the future. Wandering around we found out that hemp had been used for a number of interesting things like Abraham's lamp oil, Armani's suit, Botticelli's canvas for Venus, Buddha's diet, Ford's flivver fenders, Gutenberg's bible paper, Napoleon's russian goal, Nelson's braces and halyards, The Body Shop's lip balm etc etc. But more importantly did you know why the Cornish pasty has a thick pastry bit around the bottom. The crimp, as it is known, was used by miners to hold the pasty - they threw the crimp away because there was arsenic in the mines and on their hands (not sure what that has to do with sustainability but another useless fact to remember for a pub quiz night). Glen also mentioned that cornish pasties used to have meat on one side and then dessert (like apple) on the other - a two course meal in one. Quite clever - but yet to find one to try.

Sunday, dawned and after our hearty breakfast we had a walk along Carlyon Bay - beautiful golden beach (very small pebbles rather than sand, a bit sharp on the old feet) with cliffs at one end (oh that wonderful salty smell of sea weed - no I'm not joking!!). We felt quite angry when we read there is to be a huge development of apartments along the coastline and already the beach has been ruined by iron walls and enormous stones placed to provide support for the building (I deliberately didn't take any photos of the changes that man is making). The access to the beach will still be available to the public - but the huge numbers of people will rather change the atmosphere of the sleepy little town and the beach and we thought of New Zealand losing its motor camps to similar developments and wondered if it will ever stop!!!

While we were camping, Portsmouth beat Cardiff in the FA cup final (Cardiff hadn't got to the final for 80 years), the Queen met Prince Harry's girlfriend at Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly's wedding, interest rates continue to rise and the price of houses continue to drop.