Corners of Cornwall -day 1 -Wells Cathedral and misty moors

The random window example

The eleven Aussies and four New Zealanders on our tour plus Warwick (the driver/guide) headed out towards the west of London this morning via Kensington, passing near trendy Sloane Square, and gradually out of the city and on to the motorway.

Cottonwool clouds floated low under a clear blue sky despite the nasty weather forecast.

As we headed into the rolling hills of the Wessex area the rain started to fall softly and continued to do so. The crops in the fields have dried off, and some have already been reapt. Some fields have just stubble. In others straw has been left to dry in rows, awaiting baling. Great rectangular bales sit in many of the fields.

We passed canals with many locks, and also travelled alongside the Great Western Railway as we headed west into the Somerset area.

We stopped in the town of Wells to see their beautiful huge cathedral. Many stained glass windows (some of which appear to have been put together again in random fashion) decorate it, along with effigies of leaders who are buried in the cathedral, (amazingly some of them appear to have ancient graffiti on them) and a medieval clock which shows the time, and the lunar cycle, and which chimes on the quarter hour, with moving jousting knights rotating far above the viewers.

this is approximately half the length of the cathedral.

This is the clock. The outside Sun shows the hour, the inside star shows the minutes, and the one inside that is the moon  phase.  On top is the little,platform with with the jousting knights that goes around on the quarter hour.

The unusual scissor supports in the cathedral.

The western outer wall of the cathedral has hundreds of figures carved into it. Sadly the rain was not conducive to an outside photo session. Trevor also found an old library, and we discovered the octagonal meeting room where the council would have made their decisions. (interesting stairs spiral up into this area). there is a stepped, carved stone seat for each councilor built into the walls. We could easily have spent another hour or two on top of the two we had exploring the local area with the historic bishops row where the clergy used to live, the swans who ring a bell for their food,  and the ancient city walls.

We then headed south west via The Somerset levels. This area was once no more than 1m above sea level, and was made useful with the help of some dutch engineers, but still floods easily. Alfred the Great, who knew how to make friends with the Vikings called this area home. The levels , as most of the country we have passed through today is made up of open fields, divided with hedgerows. Many trees, and often a thatch of blackberries line the roadsides as we pass, making it quite difficult to see the countryside, except for short glimpses. Our driver is not too talkative. These two circumstances combined mean that there has been a reasonable amount of snoozing. Our driver assures us that today is motorway day, and that we will indeed be on the back roads once we get through this quick scurry into Cornwall

As we passed through the Somerset Levels we saw the town of Street, where Clarke shoes had its home.

On to the Dartmoor National Park where, as it should be, the mist was shrouding the moors, but the heather is just coming out in purple, while the gorse is still flowering yellow. We saw many cows,  sheep and some goats, but none of the ponies you hear of.  In fact we could see very little except the narrow road between the high hedgerows due to the mist.

Stopped in briefly at Widecombe and admired their little Anglican church with flagstone floor, so different from the grand cathedral and the lovely quiet cemetery.
Dad-I think I may have missed my only chance to sing the song about Widecombe fair-was it something about  Tom Peace, the Widecombe fair,  the grey mare and Uncle Tom Cobbly and all. I'm so sorry.

We passed a very old bridge ( would have loved to take a photo) which the old tin miners used to use. It is formed from some long , thin slabs of stone (used for the roadway) laid on to other supporting stones.

Finally we arrived at the two bridges hotel-our home for tonight-and traipsed outside in a lull in the rain to take a picture for you of the old bridge in the mist.

Despite snoozing in the bus we are both tired and have been fed very well, so will no doubt fall in to bed and sleep well.