The Odyssey continues – highlights from Week 2

It’s been another huge week with many OMG moments – read on…..

What a week it’s been! I’ve finally found some time to sit and collect my thoughts 🙂  We’re fur-baby sitting today so apart from walks and feeding, we’ll be doing household tasks and catching up on things!

We have wheels

We hired a car for the week, a cute little Fiat 500. Just in case you didn’t know the Mathematician stands at 193cm (6’+ in the old scale), but surprisingly the little Fiat accommodated him very well, despite our earlier concerns! It was a zippy little thing except for going up hills.  We managed to do 610 miles in the week, so we certainly gave it a good nudge!

Bath, Glastonbury and the sea front

As with every trip over here we always visit Bath, as it’s where the Mathematician worked when we exchanged jobs, house and car with our English counterpart many years ago.  Unfortunately it always seems to rain when we visit and this day just happened to one of the coldest days we’ve had so far. Regardless of the weather we enjoyed our day immensely.

Glastonbury is also a favourite place and with the improvement in the weather we took the opportunity to walk up to the top of the Tor to St Michael’s Tower.  The views were awesome with green patterned fields everywhere below us and the Tor tantalising us as we followed the path. The town of Glastonbury is an eclectic mix of shops and people, to say the least, but it’s always fun to visit!

The sea front is a bit of a misnomer but the locals were out in their droves, sunning themselves and eating ice cream while promenading. I must say it’s not my idea of a beach but then we’re very spoilt for choice living in Australia!  We found a delightful church, St Andrews in Burnham-on-Sea, which had  definite lean, please don’t adjust your screen 🙂

To London for the Annual Bloggers Bash Awards

I have finally written a wrap up post about attending the 4th Annual Bloggers Bash Awards (click on the link).  All I can say is that I was humbled, and thrilled, to receive 3rd place in the Hidden Gem category.  This was my first nomination in the awards and to place as a runner up was amazing – I may have let out a little squeal when I heard my name but I was too busy rushing to the stage to collect my certificate before they changed their minds!

Here’s a sneak peek of my happy face:

Melanie and I met up in London on Friday afternoon, I’d booked an Airbnb in Chiswick months ago and we were thrilled with our home for the night. I was told more than once that it was pronounced Chis-ick not Chis-wick 🙂

The Eden Project 

I have been to the Eden Project before, coincidentally 5 years ago to the day with Melanie, and this time it was the Mathematician’s turn to see it.  We had a lovely 3 hour drive down through Devon and into Cornwall, in the glorious sunshine with more green fields and superb views along the way. Grant was as surprised and interested in the Eden Project as I was hoping he’d be, sometimes I can talk things up too much and he can be disappointed, but not this time!  We spent ages wandering around the biomes reading the information boards, taking photos, soaking in the atmosphere and exclaiming at the huge project it was to turn a once ugly claypit into such a place of beauty and life.

From the guide book – The Eden Project, is an educational charity and social enterprise, creates gardens, exhibitions, events, experiences and projects that explore how people can work together and with nature to change things for the better.  It is a 35 acre living laboratory, has 2 huge Biomes housing wild landscapes, crops and stories from the Rainforest and Mediterranean regions.

The Rainforest biome was very humid and the temperature was up to 41 degrees C which meant they closed the walkway up to the top!  We were hoping to do this but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.  I remember doing it with Melanie and being scared as it sits way up in the air, sort of floating in space.  We enjoyed the Mediterranean biome with it’s more temperate climate and some delightful colourful displays from Western Australia!

My huge OMG moment

But best of all I crossed something off my bucket list.  Last time I was there, I commented about the zip wire you could do across the top of the biomes and how it was something I just wouldn’t even consider doing. I’m scared of heights and being out of my comfort zone so I just couldn’t imagine putting myself in that situation.

Well this time I did it!  I was determined to give it a try and face my fears. I decided to put my trust in the staff who were very accomplished and confident, and in their equipment.  I listened to the instructions and did what I was told.  I also hired a case for my phone which was mounted onto my helmet so I could video my ride!  What a great way to capture my amazing feat and I have included it here for your viewing pleasure.  Make sure the sound is on!

This was a real OMG moment for me and nearly rivalled winning my award at the recent Bloggers Bash!!  I certainly have had the adrenaline pumping around my little body lately!

Beautiful Cornwall

After I had calmed down from all that excitement we drove onto Newquay for the night and we were amazed to see beautiful proper beaches with real sand, real surf and people out swimming and surfing!  It was a gorgeous place.  We took a huge long walk out to the Fistral Beach, along the harbour and enjoyed the warm late afternoon sunshine. The next day we drove to Padstow, a quaint little village with heaps of character, stopping in at Bedruthan Steps, a National Trust site with spectacular views over the dramatic Cornish coastline on the way.  The stacks of rocks were very impressive and the sheer drop and cliff edges had my heart pounding!

Our next stop was Port Isaac of Doc Martin fame and it didn’t disappoint either.  I like the placement of the car parks out of town with a good walk into the villages, although paying for parking isn’t something we’re used to! We wandered around, with the help of a map showing the significant buildings in the show. There were crowds doing much the same as us, but it was all fun.

We moved onto Tintagel next and then through Boscastle – these were places we’d enjoyed visiting many years ago and it was great to see them again.

The weather was absolutely perfect for our few days away which make our photos look like postcards!

What’s our ‘Odyssey’ all about?

Odyssey – a long wandering and eventful journey. An exciting adventure.

I’ve decided that this three month trip will be known as our Odyssey, as it will be a long wandering and eventful journey. My posts in this series, so far are here:

The Odyssey begins – departure, arrival and home

Highlights from Week 1

I’ll be trying to update Our Odyssey series once a week, mainly so that I don’t lose track of what we’ve been doing. The hardest part of that is that it’s been hard to find the time! I’ll aim to post an update on a Thursday or Friday but don’t hold me to that schedule 🙂

So that’s a quick run down on our activities for the week, I hope you’ve enjoyed travelling with us and will join us again!

Feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment below. I always love hearing from you and try to answer all your comments 🙂

Deb xx

Linking up with Denyse’s #Lifethisweek

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