Cheddar Gorge

This weekend our lovely friends Tim & Becky came over from London to visit us. We wanted to take advantage of the beautiful Autumn sunshine and go somewhere pretty. We deliberated over Westonbirt Arboretum and Cheddar Gorge. Cheddar won. After all, it is the home of Cheddar Cheese, so why on earth wouldn't we want to go there?!

While I was the main advocate for Westonbirt, I was also very happy to go to Cheddar as I have not been before. The views of the Gorge on the website looked promising, so off we set. I really do appreciate that although we live in the city we are so close to so many beautiful places - you only have to drive a short distance to find your self in the middle of the south west countryside - and I love that.

We were seriously hungry by the time we arrived, so ate at the first place we could find in Cheddar that would serve us warm food. As we were munching away, John spotted two of his colleagues out in the garden, who had cycled all the way to Cheddar - far more noble than us hopping in the car!

With our tummies fully satisifed, we meandered through the village. I was amazed at the number of traditional sweet shops there seemed to be for such a small (yet clearly touristy) place. Our attempt at climbing the Gorge were pretty pathetic, but we still enjoyed the beauty of it all, and saw a couple of mountain goats grazing above us.

They were our inspiration while we tried to climb up the gorge in inappropriate footwear - we just kept thinking of how the goats must do it and tried to channel their hill walking skills.

And of course, we had to try & take some group photos while carefully precariously balancing my camera on some small rocks. The prospect of losing my camera down the gorge actually brought tears to my eyes! Thankfully it survived.