Just when you thought it was safe...

Question: what do you do when, having been away for over five weeks, you've finally got on top of all the washing and admin at home?  Answer:  you decide that the Eden Project looks fun and drive over 200 miles for 2 nights away.

Eden Project - Looking fun!

Yes, less than one week since our epic jaunt you find us parked up at the other end of the country at the CC site in Looe.  It's a bit of a homage for me because, as a child, when I heard that people had time off in lieu, this was genuinely where I thought they came.  It appears that we chose the wrong tome to come though as Cornwall appears to be closed at the weekend.  We checked bus times to the Eden Project for tomorrow on the handy leaflet from the tourist info place, but they all appear to run M-F only. I could be wrong of course as bus timetables with their many codes generally confuse me and this particular one is choc full of them: XX, SSH, WW, XXX, LOL and TTFN.  I may have made the last couple up.

The result of all these codes being that the first bus we tried to catch down into Looe didn't turn up - but it will at that exact time tomorrow.  Unless there's an R in the month.  I think. To fill in the time before the next possible bus sighting we took in a couple of rounds on the on-site Crazy Golf.  Not a bad little course and only £1 for the clubs which you can use as much as you like till 6pm. We only had time for two games but as honours are currently even at one game all I'm sure there will be more to come.

We eventually trundled down into Looe, a very pretty if somewhat steep sided fishing village with a gorgeous sandy beach.  We noticed the contrast with the Lake District right away, up there the mountains are huge but generally outside the towns, the large glacial valleys allowing plenty of room for towns to be built on the pleasingly flat areas between the high peaks.  As many of the glaciers never made it this far south (probably held up around Bristol, that M4/M5 interchange can be hell) the valleys down here have only had to deal with very pretty, though comparatively puny, little rivers resulting in steep narrow valleys everywhere.  Thus your average town in Devon and Cornwall requires you to have the skill and dexterity of a mountain goat if you want to escape to explore the interesting stuff around the edges.

One refreshing thing about Looe is that it seems to still be an active little fishing town with a busy and purpose built dockside and a harbour full of genuine fishing boats as opposed to those just running tourist trips.  We had a very pleasant few hours wandering around the town before catching the last bus back to the campsite.  Well I think it was the last bus.  They could still be running now for all I know.  I'm planning to call Bletchly Park in the morning to see if they can help me with the timetable for tomorrows trip to the Eden Project.