Wookey Hole

Having sat around for a couple of days, we decided that we had better go exploring again.  We set off to explore the Wookey Hole caves.  After driving through the Chew valley to get there, we reckon George Lucas must have been there sometime in the early ‘70’s.  Seems too much of a coincidence really!

 

It was another interesting drive – the beautiful country lanes and gorgeous cottages, spring green woods and rolling hills were lovely; idiots driving badly in the opposite direction were not.  We made it safely to the village of Wookey Hole and bought our tickets for the caves.  The cave visit is by tour only, and while the entry booth seemed pretty quiet there was quite a queue at the cave entrance.  The crowd wasn’t too bad once we went in as the cave chambers are pretty big; if only people could be a little more considerate so the guide didn’t have to shout to be heard it would have been better.

The caves themselves are really quite beautiful but the whole thing has been really commercialised with coloured lights and the theme of the Wookey Hole Witch which is a bit tacky really.  The later chambers were the best as the cheesy story is over – and gives way to actual cheese.  Truly, they cave-age the local cheddar in the caves and you can tell by the smell.  And the long shelves of mouldy rounds of cheese.  Yum.

After exiting the caves we sat in the valley and had our picnic lunch before trying to exit the complex.  Honestly, it was worse than a Las Vegas casino – there was a History of the Circus exhibit, a paper-making exhibit, a history of cave-diving exhibit, an indoor funfair, a hall of mirrors!  All we wanted to do was buy some cheese and get out of there, which was easier said than done.  We finally made it though, and while the cheese was a little expensive it is also very nice.

The drive home was reasonably uneventful (we are gradually realising that being nearly run off the tiny roads by hoons in big cars doesn’t count as an event in England) and we have spent the afternoon in domestic tasks.

Siobhan is discovering that when you aren’t working full-time, cooking actually becomes quite fun, and after the success of homemade flaky pastry (very rich) for the onion and feta tart the other night, she turned her hand to bread-making (thanks Fleur and Nick for the loan of the book “Dough”).  This first effort has actually turned out well, so she might try getting even more creative as the week goes on.  Certainly the weather forecast makes bread-making look quite appealing.