After a comfortable night, we went down to the diniing room at
Camelot Castle Hotel for breakfast. It was table service this
morning. Following breakfast, we ventured outside to put the luggage
into the car. The wind was incredible. We were somewhat protected
from it as we loaded the car. I thought I would try to take some
photos of Tintagel Castle from afar but as soon as I moved into the
full fury of the wind, I felt that either the camera would be torn
from my hands or that I would be blown over. (This is not a
sensation that I feel often!) I retreated into the car and we began
our journey without even a remote chance of visiting the castle or
even of taking a photo!
Our first stop was St Materina's Church. This is the church of the
township of Tintagel but it is located away from the main township,
on top of a cliff.. As we approached, it rained heavily so we waited
in the car for a while. During a break in the weather, I found that
the church door was open, stepped inside and closed the door behind
me. The church is, luckily. very solid being made from stone and its
walls are very thick. It is believed that it dates from the late
11th or 12th century so it must have withstood many gales. One of
the locals came into the church and I asked him to rate the wind
from 1 - 10. He thought it was only a 6!
The thickness of the walls can be seen by
looking at the windows in the photo above.
St George with his dragon
A carving of an angel on the end of a stall.
Here are Faith and Hope but Charity was nowhere to be found!
We then headed for Cheddar Gorge. A slight
detour was made on the way as we noticed a sign indicating that
there was a 16th century church at Launceston. This was found to
be true and the building was open. Most of the present St Mary Magdalen's
Church was built from 1511-1524.
You may be able to see that the
walls, especially the one on the right, are not quite
perpendicular.
Each pew had a different carving.
The Pulpit
After the church, we went to the castle. Unfortunately, this
was also closed because of the wind. We were, however, able
to access the lower regions of the building.
After some lunch, we found that time had
marched on but we hadn't! We needed to get moving if we
were to see Cheddar Gorge. It was 4:00pm by the time we
arrived so we only had time to "do" one of the caves.
This was Gough's Cave.
This is considered to be one of the finest caves in
England. It was worth visiing but we didn't think it was
as good as many of the caves we have visited in
Australia!
The remains of the 9,000BC "Cheddar Man" were
found in the cave. This is a replica. The actual
remains are to be found in the Natural History
Museum in London.
In fairly recent times, one of the cheese
companies in the area has been maturing some of
their cheese in the cave.
Again we needed to get moving fairly
quickly as we had booked to see the pantomime
"Mother Goose" at the Hippodrome in Bristol. This
lovely old theatre was built in 1912. The star of
the production was none other than Sir Ian McKellen,
the actor who played "Gandalf" in the Lord of the
Rings Trilogy of films. We both enjoyed the clever
lines and double entendres throughout the
production.
After a short wait
outside the stage door at the end of the show,
Sir Ian appeared long enough for Satoshi to
take this photo. He is well over 80 now
but still going strong.
