Day 95: Northwards to Bath

Long day of driving today, though not quite as long as our journey across the southern coast! Up early again thanks to farm noises, had our farm breakfast and were off on the road by around 10am.

We drove back the entire length of Cornwall, which although quite narrow is surprisingly long! Back onto the freeway we kept heading north-east for our first stop of the day: Cheddar Gorge. This is the area where the eponymous cheese originally came from, and it was very nice countryside too. Stopped at a nice pub for lunch, and as it was Sunday we both tucked into a roast which was quite good!

Drove a bit further into the gorge where the main town is, and of course it's just a tourist trap. Found a back street where you didn't have to part with a wheelbarrow of cash for parking and had a quick look around. As you'd expect, most of the cheeses sold here are now made elsewhere, despite having names like "The Cheddar Valley Cheese Company" and so on. Managed to find somewhere that was actually making and selling their own cheese, so we bought a block to support them! Also had an icecream since it was a warm sunny day.

The gorge itself is actually quite nice as well, lots of people out hiking and rock-climbing. Very steep cliffs in places and quite narrow over the road, though obviously I didn't get any photos as I was driving! Had the enjoyable experience of also listening to football updates on the radio as it was the last day of the season, and all the teams in the Premier League were playing at once. Not much to play for since the champions and the relegated teams had already been decided, but still a fun experience - rather reminded me of the old days tuning into the cricket on AM radio.

Finally in the late afternoon we arrived in Bath. Navigated to the accommodation no problems, a small self-contained flat on the lower-ground floor of a three storey mansion. The owners live upstairs and then also rent out the top floor on Airbnb. As it was 4pm on a Sunday, all of the supermarkets had now shut, but we managed to find a Tesco Express (about halfway between a supermarket and a 7-11) that was still open and grabbed some dinner supplies. Spinach & ricotta pasta with a tomato and mascarpone sauce was the other of the day! Spent the evening in working on stuff - I'm now chronically behind in both videos and journal entries!Read more