Tintagel, Launceston and Eden Project

This morning Mel, James and I headed off to the remains of the mysterious Tintagel Castle which is associated with various King Arthur myths, while John and Sam stayed with Ron and Jenny. We climbed a LOT of stairs!

       

But we got to see amazing views all around the headland along the way! It got very windy up on top which reminded me and James of home in Wellington - I think we were a lot more comfortable in the wind than Mel was!

       

Although Tintagel is essentially a ruin today, with erosion forces working against it, there is still a significant amount of foundation left and some amazing examples of the stonework. There is enough remaining to make it clear that in its day it must have been a formidable fortress with a great amount of land associated with it.

    

    

We also met a flock of very hardy looking sheep on the side of the cliff!

     

After a tiring morning of walking, we still had plenty of time before our Eden Project booking so we headed to Launceston Castle which was a much smaller affair and another Motte and Bailey Norman style castle similar to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. It was really quite beautiful and despite a few more flights of steps I'm really glad we came here. There were no complete building remains in the bailey, but most of the motte was intact and the views from the top were stunning - you can see how it was an important vantage point in its time.

More Stairs!

Foundations of long lost buildings

The view from one side out the top

After a late lunch at a nearby cafe in Launceston we finally headed over to our dinner booking at the Eden Project. The Eden Project is like a greenhouse crossed with a botanical garden on steroids. It's major attractions are the tropical rainforest biome and Mediterranean biome which are giant greenhouses kept to the correct conditions of where the plants normally grow.

One of the Biomes (photo courtesy of Eden Project)

I was also really keen to do the zip-wire skyride (longest zip-wire in England and it looked cool) and with the benefit of hind-sight we probably should have left for Eden Project earlier in the day, however we then wouldn't have seen Launceston Castle which would have been a shame too. But anyway I waited for about 1.5 hours all up to go on this zip-line where I got to fly like superman, head first down this amazing flying fox. It was worth it. But James was a bit upset because we only had half an hour left to go round Eden Project which to be honest is probably at least a half day activity. But we rushed around the Rainforest, had dinner, and then had a quick look around the Mediterranean (which is where we got to have dinner anyway, at a beautiful Mediterranean restaurant.

Ron and Jenny at Dinner

Martyn and Ron at Dinner