We had a lovely drive out to Cheddar in the heart of Somerset (found it very difficult not to mimic the strong Somerset accent) the magnificent limestone gorge is carved into the southern slopes of the Mendip hills above the village of Cheddar.
Reaching 500 feet in places, the sides of the ravine boast the highest inland cliffs in the country and can be viewed both from the public road running through the base of the gorge or from footpaths along the cliff tops. At the lower end of the gorge, closest to the village are riverside walks, tea room’s gift shops and the famous Show caves, a series of labyrinthine underground chambers accessible to the public. The caves are well worth visiting with lighting placed strategically throughout to showcase the magnificent limestone formations; each cave network has a different theme making the experience all the more enjoyable. Of particular interest was Cheddar Man, Britain's oldest complete skeleton, Cheddar Man, was buried in Gough's Cave 9,000 years ago a replica of the famous skeleton was placed in the cave exactly as it would have looked when Gough first discovered it in 1903, DNA tests in 1997 established that Cheddar Man still has descendants living in Cheddar, goes to show the residents of Somerset don’t move far from home.
Cheddar is also famous for the creation of Cheddar cheese (much to our disappointment Cheddar cheese is not mined in the Cheddar caves), the cheese has been made since at least 1170 although it is no longer produced in large quantities in Cheddar, we did buy a small selection of cheeses and a small bottle of Somerrrrrrrrrrrrset ciderrrrrrrrrrr to sample.
Keen to have a look out over the hills I decided to climb Jacobs Ladder all 274 steps from the bottom of Britain's biggest gorge to the top, where Pavey’s Lookout Tower gave a wonderful view across to Exmoor and the Mendip Hills, making it well worth the climb.
Back down at the valley floor level we had a quick tour of the very interesting Cheddar man museum before hopping back into the car and headed off to look at Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare. is an English seaside resort town in North Somerset with a Population of approximately 71,758 ,the town is situated on the Bristol Channel approximately 18 miles (28 km) south west of Bristol. The town is a tourist destination, with its most famous attractions the long sandy beach, and the grand Pier, although we did not have as much time as we would have liked to explore the town, (we took the long road from Cheddar to Weston-super-mare, which really meant we got lost) it is very neat and tidy with wide roads and footpaths, it reminded us of some of the Australian seaside cities like Mandurah. Whilst driving around we inadvertently found ourselves in what seemed to be a new housing estate, where all the houses looked exactly the same, not paying much attention we wound our way deeper into this maze and then found that we could not find our way out, whichever turn we took we ended up back in the same place, we could picture the headlines two skeletons found in new housing estate believed to be that of missing Australian tourists, steeling our resolve we decided to have one last attempt to make our way back onto an identifiable road, thankfully via a combination of skill and luck we made our way back onto the main road and headed off back towards Bath after a very enjoyable day.
|
