Scotland

We had been looking forward to our Scotland adventure. We picked up the rental car Thursday night then got up early Good Friday to head North hoping to avoid any Easter holiday traffic. The only time we managed to get caught up was in Glasgow where I managed to take an unscheduled detour (in other words I didn’t listen to the GPS and sent us off down a merry path to mayhem!).

The roads are fantastic between England and Scotland, providing a smooth and easy drive. The countryside didn’t really change a lot in regards to scenary until we got to the lowlands outside of Glasgow. However we did get our first hint of a snowy weekend when we stopped to look at a church on the roadside. As we were looking around it started to hail/sleet/snow. One thing I have taken away from this trip is that snow falls in many forms and directions!

As we got into the lowlands and then the highlands the remoteness of the area is what inspired us most. It is obviously unlike Australia where you could drive for hours and see no one, however this did have the remoteness of the high hills and deep valleys even though there were other cars around. You could park on the side of the road and just walk off into the hills and be alone. We didn’t do this of course as being unprepared in this climate could well mean you don’t come out again. Unlike Australia I did felt comfortable with the remoteness here for some reason.

The first night we stayed in a little town on the edge of Loch Lomond. Tourism in Scotland truly does survive on B&B’s. We went to a medieval themed restaurant for dinner which was situated in an old church. With Clannad (OK so their Irish) playing in the background, iron cast chandaliers, antlers plastering the walls, chunky wooden tables and grand chairs you really could think for a moment you were in the past.

On Saturday we took off to Kinlochleven to get there in time for Steve’s ice climbing session. The climbing centre here was rather cool with bouldering areas, kids gym, rock and ice climbing and a cafe and bar to boot. You could spend all day here. We were staying at the pub across the road which was pretty good value being so centrally located. Steve enjoyed the ice climbing and managed to even create an injury to himself from falling ice that dislodged while he was climbing. I didn’t realise the face bled so much!

Sunday we looked for a church to attend but to no avail so we headed out for a tour of the area. We ended up driving through Fort William, up to Loch Ness then out to the Isle of Skye where we got a car ferry at Armadale back to the mainland via Mallaig. We were priviledged to see some wild stags, a wide range of colourful birds, squirrels, majestic mountains and a Scotsmen in a kilt playing his bagpipes over the highland mountains.

Some highlights of this day trip would include the Eilean Donan Castle which featured in the Highlander movie, driving through all types of snow, beautiful loch after loch of water, tall trees, colourful mossy woodlands, taking the cable car up to the ski fields outside of Fort William and remote homes located in magical locations.

Monday it was time to start heading back to Bristol and although we were going to go halfway then stop overnight we decided to push through all the way so we could have a good nights rest at home. On the way back we drove through Stirling and into Falkirk. Now this town was on my list of places to get to at some point due to the Falkirk Wheel. It is a magnificent piece of engineering. The working of it is not so complex but the design is beautiful. What is the Falkirk Wheel? A very large canal boat mover (in short). It lifts the canal boat from one waterway up to the other waterway via a wheel system. The design is architectually sleek and in my opinion very beautiful.

In all, we loved our time in Scotland and are keen to head back again at some point for a look at the puffin colonies and even more remote areas of the country.

Fossil Hunting in Lyme Regis

Depending on the outcome of the weather forecast this was going to determine the weekend destination. As I believed my weather forecasting abilities were better than the Met Office we ended up at Lyme Regis for a day of fossil hunting. Of course, this turned out to be in the pouring rain. Obviously I will not be changing my day job any time soon.

Located just under 2 hours away from Bristol, Lyme Regis is located in the South where the county of Dorset meets the English Channel. It is a charming fishing village known for among many things, its fossils. During this trip I learnt about a woman named Mary Anning who is said to have put fossils on the map in this region. Her father was a keen collector and their family sold the fossils to try to make ends meet. She has a very interesting life story should you have the chance to read more about her. A little side note is that Mary is the lady we speak about in the tongue twister “she sells sea shells by the sea shore…”

I figured our fossil collecting expedition would be as fruitful as our gold panning trips in Australia. Read here – a few grains of gold were found at Sofala and Hill End. We were very surprised though how quickly we found the fossils. I have attached a few pics to show you. The very first bit of clay that Steve picked up actually had a shell fossil inside. There were many other stunning examples in the large boulders such as the outline of the ammonite on the rock. The fossils in this area are from the Cretaceous and Jurrasic periods.

Before I went down to Lyme Regis I did wonder how they stopped the area from being stripped of such amazing history. However after having seen it for myself, there are so many of them everywhere that you tend to go “oh theres another one” and walk on by. This doesn’t detract though from the sight of them. The cliff face that they fall down from is a dark gray in colour and very slimy to pick up however the fossils come in all sorts of stone and clay. Most amazingly are the array of colours of the stone, many transulent whites, pinks, greys, purples.

Also this area features quite a bit in Jane Austen’s books. The Cobb has been in a couple of the BBC adaptations of her books. It was originally built to provide a manmade port for ships and has since been rebuilt in Portland stone (1900’s) and was joined up to the land at some earlier point. There is quite a drop either side and a rather big slant on top so you have to be pretty careful walking on it. In a “safety conscience” Britain I am so glad to see they haven’t yet banned people from walking on this!

We really enjoyed our day down here even after having been drenched through to the skin.

Movie: Vantage Point & 10,000 BC

Vantage Point directed by Pete Travis stars Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox (of Lost and Party of Five series) and Forest Whitaker. Recently I saw “The Last King of Scotland” and Forest gave a an incredible performance in that one. But, back to Vantage Point. Based in Salamanca, Spain it follows the attempted assassination of the US President told from different peoples perspectives. Each perspective adds a bit more to the riddle of the story as the assassination plot unfolds.

At about the 3rd “rewind” and replay of another perspective the idea was starting to grow thin but thankfully it then starts to play out through to the end. The plot was interesting and it sometimes reminded of Babel. One scene in particular is the perception from a distance of a altercation between a man and a woman. From the first vantage point it appears to be one sense of emotion but from a different vantage point the scene tells a different story. The point being that what you see is not always the reality. Overall I would rate this a 2.5 out of 5. I would probably watch it again just to pick up on any extra subtleties that I missed and to see the performance of Forest Whitaker again.

10,000 BC

Roland Emmerich has also produced Independence Day and one of my top films The Day after Tomorrow so I was expecting quite a bit from this one. To be honest the CGI just wasn’t that convincing in the Egyptian building site scenes however the boats floating down the Nile were magnificent. You win some and you lose some. There was also possibly some issues with the movie quality either at the cinema end but it looked more likely to have been bad camera quality or something to that effect as it had blue and red interference during a particularly darkly lit scene in the movie. The acting was rather bad, the locations were stunning and the plot interesting. I wouldn’t be inclined to see it again and would probably rate this one 1.5 out of 5.

Hope for Planet Earth

Last Monday night we attended a presentation entitled “Hope for Planet Earth”. Put together by a Christian organisation called the John Ray Initiative their key vision as a charity based educational group is to bring together scientific and christian based understandings of the environment and how we interact. In short – understanding climate change and our responsibilities in relation to the earth as custodians of this while we are here.

At the end of the day there are often a lot of christian organisations valiantly trying to convey gods word but they often fall short because of a lack of resources or possibly drive to meet the high expectations of a media savvy society. So often the talent that many christians possess in their day to day jobs is often not used effectively. Why are our expectations of quality lowered and accepted if it is run by a christian organisation? In short, I wasn’t expecting a lot out of this but was keen to attend.

We were both pleasantly surprised. Yes, the hall was freezing, it was 4 minutes late starting (just within my tardiness tolerance range) and the sound issues were unpleasant. However, the content was informative, well balanced and took a new perspective on what we have heard many times before from many different angles. Key things I personally took away from the presentation were as follows:

1. In Mark 12:33 we are given the great commandment to love God with everything in us (I paraphase here) and to love our neighbour as yourself. I get this but hadn’t been applying it far enough outwardly. Our relentless drive for more is obviously impacting our environment which in turn significantly impacts poorer nations more so than us due to the effects of drought, floods, deforestation etc which creates environmental refugees. We might quite enjoy the warmer weather here in England however the pressures placed specifically on struggling nations means the concept of loving your “neighbour” is broadened.

2. Population growth. Limiting population growth or the opportunity to industrialize in developing countries is short sighted. We need to look at our use of resources. We have had our time of getting to a point where we can generate income and resources to be sustainable, now we need to look at how we use these wisely. Did you know that the resources used to raise one child in Britain is equivilent to resources required to raise 12-16 children in a country such as Bangladesh. With low wages, limited or no access to public services such as hospitals or aged care facilities etc a support system is required and this comes in the form of a large family. Each one of those family members is needed in order to survive. This is what our nations did before the “nuclear” family scenario set in. Over the years wages got better which we feed back into taxes which supply our basic services, we have money for our luxuries and less need for a big family to take care of us in old age. We have gone from an average sized family of 7.3 children to 3.2 children between 1800-1900 (note latter half of 1800 was a key time in the industrial revolution) to today in England it is at 1.86 children per family. What does this mean? We need to limit our excessive need for more and live within our sustainable range. Also, we need to support our neighbours in the developing countries so they can get to a point of sustainable balance.

3. Carbon air miles. The big issue on many peoples minds at this stage. It is driving many people to buy locally etc which is great but we need to ensure that we are not inadvertantly punishing struggling nations from becoming sustainable themselves. Think about where and what you are buying. Where it can be sourced locally do so but think about other products that are assisting developing countries in getting out of the poverty cycle.

4. Alternative fuel sources. Initially a fantastic idea however the issue now is land usage. Greater deforestation is occurring in some developing nations in order to grow this crop which kind of defeats the purpose in many ways. In addition land for food production is now being used for this fuel source leading to food shortages in the nations most needing it. Biofuels are not the be all and end all answer to our woes. Biofuels possibly make us feel better about our carbon emission decrease but don’t address the issue of consumption.

I am still digesting the information at this point and wanted to download from my head what I got from it. It is an ongoing dialogue with myself and I am sure in 5 years time I will look at it again and say “what was I thinking?” given new information and advances in technology etc. Anyway, that’s the download at this point. Hopefully it has given you food for thought, digest it, rebuke it, add to the discussion or whatever takes you fancy.

Trip to the seaside? Maybe not…

The plan was to drive west and get to the seaside. However, as our plans generally seem to be quite fluid when we travel this never eventuated. We did see a lot of the countryside heading out towards the sea but that was about it.

I have put in a few pics of that tour which included a lovely walk around a tiny village off the main road called Lower Quantock. We couldn’t believe it when we rounded a corner on the narrow, winding country road to find a little village of thatch roofed houses. There was a little village church as well to look at which was deserted but open for people to browse through.

Next we headed towards Minehead but got as far as Dunster before we realised that it was getting too late in the day and we needed to start heading home. Before we did though we stopped off on the side of the road for a cappucino (very civilised aren’t we) and some toasted bread that we had left over from our trip to Wells the day before. Shaz we took this pic especially for you so you can see that the toaster you gave us is being put to good use!

Bit of a lazy entry this week as we didn’t do any traveling in the weekend just past. Our big trip to Scotland is coming up soon so we need to focus on planning that one especially as we are hearing stories of snow storms and the like up there. Brrrrrrrrrr.

As we were heading back into Bristol the sun was setting as we got a lovely view of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This is an amazing design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel who won a design competition in the 1830’s and we now have this bridge as a result of that. He also designed the Temple Meads Railway Station, the bridge crossing the Wye in Chepstow, the rail line from London to Bristol and so much more.

Shakespeare and Castles

This weekend it was a trip to see the birth town of Shakespeare – Stratford Upon Avon. Located approximately just over an hours drive away from Bristol. I had always imagined Stratford to be a tiny village with nothing but thatch roof housing and cobbled streets. This was not the case. It is a quaint town (in key areas) but other than that it is a thriving, working tourist hub. The constant ways to milk a tourist can get a bit annoying with high priced goods, food and drink. Also, anything and everything slapped with a picture of Shakespeare on it is game for tourist selling i.e. Shakespeare headed cuff links? What the???? We visited his wifes house (Anne Hathaway) which was very nice however it would look spectacular in summer when the gardens are in full bloom. It was actually reasonably priced at 6 pound each entry.

The winner for the weekend though was Warwick Castle. If coming to England and putting together a must do list, this is it. At a very costly 17.95 each it is worth it. It was bought from the Earl of Warwick by the Tussard Corporation. Inside they have set up the rooms with lifelike figures of past inhabitants of the castle posed as though they have been frozen in time. The displays are spectacular and the other attractions are just as fasinating. Is summer they have jousting and falconary. We watched the archery demonstration and another demo on what pottage was made of – truly disgusting! The area was first used by Ethelfreda (daughter of Alfred the Great) in 914AD when she ordered the building of the “burh” which is a fortified mound to protect the hill top settlement from the invading Danes. Over the centuries this mound has been added to and fortified as was the fashion or need at the time until we have the castle as it is today. During Victorian times up to modern day it has been used as a home to the Earl of Warwicks (of which there have been many spanning the centuries).

The gardens are stunning especially the Peacock Garden although it can be a bit smelly here. 🙂

Anyway, enough talk, here are the pictures. In short though, I would highly recommend a visit to Warwick!

Wookey Hole

This week we bought a car. It is a ’99 Rover 400 which we immediately named Roger. So, with a stunning weekend of weather on the charts we headed for Wookey Hole just outside of Wells. Home to yet more underground caves we wanted to get a feel for this area next. Having yet again stopped off at Wells to stock up on breakfast and coffee we headed to Wookey.

Upon arrival it was quite apparant to us that although it is a lovely village the Wookey Hole attractions were very much geared towards kids with witches, wizards, clowns (which I REALLY don’t like), bad special effects and music, it wasn’t going to be something we were interesting in paying 14 quid each for.

Therefore we went for a wander around the area where we eventually bumped into some other walkers. They recommended to us a walk to Ebbor Gorge so we headed off to find the public footpath. Now when I say footpath they are very rarely paved walkways. Public Rights of Way are common in England and Wales with quite often clearly marked walking signs. We found the entry point we were after and headed off to find the gorge. By the time we found it our boots were covered in mud but we had fun spotting all the local wildlife. Thankfully Steve had thought to bring the binoculars so that made it easier to look at the birdlife close up without disturbing them.

The gorge itself was quite small but a great walk which lead you right up to the top. We found some interesting holes in the ground which we think were badger holes and another one where a rabbit had dug out their little home but had done so in amongst a midden. Old pottery including a ceramic waterbottle and a clear glass medicine bottle had been partially uncovered. We took some photos but left the items there as they are a dime a dozen over here. They might be of interest to the next person who comes along.

Although the day was very sunny with clear blue skies the temperature remained low. Frost was still lying on the ground at 1pm today. What do you do after a long walk and cold weather. You head to the pub. We drove to a little town called Priddy and had lunch in the local pub complete with crackling wood fire.

All in all, a fantastic day.

Movie: Jumper

With a fantastic premise this movie was a “must see” on our list. Besides the fact that Hayden Christensen was starring in it we put this to one side and saw it anyway. Just as I anticipated it would be, his acting was complete rubbish but Jamie Bell and Samuel L Jackson are well worth seeing.

The premise of the movie is about David Rice (Christensen) who is a genetic anomally in which he can teleport himself and other people or items that he is touching. Once having discovered this talent he takes off from home where mum left mysteriously and abruptly when he was 5 and dad is a bit of a bully. Sadly he leaves behind the “girl next door” that he has been in love with since they were 5. He uses his teleporting skills to “jump” into banks to fund his lifestyle, teleporting in and out of countries as he pleases. What he doesn’t know is that there are other jumpers like himself as well as a group of bounty hunters called the Paladin that are organised to capture and kill jumpers. The Paladins are an ancient organisation that have been hunting jumpers for centuries (i.e. witch hunts in the medieval ages etc). Things start to go wrong for David when the Paladins catch up with him at the same time he hooks up with Mille, the girl next door that he left behind. Help and a person to explain what the Paladins are after comes from a fellow jumper named Griffin (Jamie Bell) to try and stop key hunter Roland (Samuel L Jackson).

With amazing locations and such an intriguing storyline it was a pity that it ended so abruptly and unsatisfactorily. Jamie Bell’s character fell away when things were getting good and the whole ending to the movie felt rushed like they ran out of time or just couldn’t be bothered anymore. I haven’t read the novel so maybe this might hold some insight into where the movie has left off but I am assuming that a second movie is a possibility.

Memorable quotes:

“You think you can go on like this forever? Living like this with no consequences? There are always consequences”

2.5 out of 5.

Movie: National Treasure Book of Secrets

Nicholas Cage and his side kicks yet again are searching for clues to clear the name of his great great grandfather, William Gates.

I was really looking forward to another instalment of these treasure hunting movies but it just seemed to fall short of the first. The storyline was interesting but the clues were uninteresting and uninspiring and the lack of humour from the sidekicks this time around was quite evident. I still enjoyed my 2 hours of escapism but was disappointed at the lack of sophistication that the first movie brought to this series.

2.5 out of 5.

Cheddar Cave and Gorge

After having been sick yet again for the last two weeks we were looking forward to travelling again. This time we headed for Cheddar, about 40 minutes car drive or 1.5 hours bus ride from Bristol. As we are carless it was the bus for us. So we rocked up to the Bristol Bus Station for our 9.20am number 376 bus to Wells where we would then change to the 126 to Cheddar (Weston Super Mare is the end destination that you are after).

When we finally arrived at Wells the weekend market was on so we stopped for a coffee and sausage in a bun for breakfast. I also bought some extremely stinky cheese from the French Cheesemaker. This cheese looks fantastic but even wrapped in a plastic bag the stench is incredible! Note to self: not a great idea when travelling on buses and in confined spaces like the caves.

It was then on to Cheddar, the home of Cheddar cheese making and the gorge carved out by glacial ice flows in the last ice age.

When you get off the bus in Cheddar, get off on the second stop at Tweentown. This is the closet point to the gorge and the tourist area. We decided to take the Tour Bus option for 14 quid per head. This is a great option as the open top bus gives you stunning views as you head up the gorge. It also includes entry to the key main attractions, two caves, the prehistoric museum, Jacob’s ladder and of course the bus ride. If you find you don’t have time to visit all the attractions then your ticket is valid for 10 years so you can come back and continue at a later time. This is a great choice if you are staying in the area for a while.

The open top bus tour was very crisp up top but the views were fantastic and well worth the money. There were a large number of rock climbers out in the gorge and Steve is rather keen to return to do some climbs. The first cave we visited was Gough’s cave, the main one in the region and for my money, the best one. My favourite aspect was St Pauls Cathedral (as it is named) which has a “waterfall” of frozen calcite. With a small pond underneath as well it provided an incredible reflection of the staligtites and staligmites. Cheddar Man was found here in 1903. A fully intact skeleton of a past paleolithic inhabitant of the cave.

Next it was on to the prehistoric museum which was quite interesting and then Cox’s cave with the Crystal Quest. To be honest, this is incredibly lame and quite tacky with almost a disco feel to it. However, they do have the entrance to Jacob’s ladder which consists of two hundred and something odd steps up to a spectacular viewing area of the gorge and surrounding area. You can continue along the edge of the gorge on a 3 mile (5 kilometre walk) but we just didn’t have the time. We did climb the tower though for the best views of the area.

As we were starting to get a bit hungry by this time we headed back down into the main street and wandered through the numerous tourist shops. These were great fun with the cider shops, sweet makers and of course the Cheddar Cheese company. We bought some Cheddar Cave matured cheese which was stored in Gough’s cave to mature (as they have been doing since the late 1800’s). Of course we had to have some nice hot mulled cider to accompany the cheese. Let me tell you now, Cheddar cheese that we have grown up on in NZ holds nothing to the real thing. It is so much more rich and creamier, making your mouth almost tingle from the taste. Delicious!

We had a huge day and our legs were actually quite sore from all the walking given that we have been sick for 2 weeks. The weather was perfect and we greatly enjoyed Cheddar. This is another spot on our list of places to return to for either rock climbing or at the very least a picnic and walk along the top of the gorge.