Cornwall 2014 Pictures Day 2

Inside the rainforest biome it really was stiflingly hot and humid. 25 minutes to walk around was more than enough in those conditions. While in there we saw a variety of sculptures and tropical plants including bananas and cocoa plants and explored on the ground as well as an elevated 'treetop walkway' before we descended past a nice waterfall on the way towards the exit.

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Entering the rainforest biome.		Renée in the rainforest biome.	Big leaves and flowers.

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Tropical wetland.	Another pretty flower.	Renée starting to feel the heat and humidity.	A largepalm tree.	More pretty flowers that look like pipe cleaners.	Bananas!

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More bananas!	A nice stream.	Some wooden sculptures.	Papaya plant.	Views from the Rainforest Canopy Walkway.

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Some mobile art above the walkway.	Another view from the Rainforest Canopy Walkway.	One of several tropical birds in the biome.	Another pretty tropical plant.	Big waterfall at the top of the biome.

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The waterfall is the source of the stream we saw earlier.	Descending from the top of the biome.	Cocao plants with beans growing.	A mockup of a banana plantation.	Cashew trees.

We went straight next door into the mediterranean biome which felt much fresher and had a variety of interesting plants from cacti to cashew bushes, as well as a nice large Wisteria display dangling from the biome ceiling. There were also plenty of sculptures in here too. 10-15 minutes in here was enough to see everything before exiting outside.

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Entering the temperate biome.	This biome feels decidedly greek in nature.		One of many strange sculptures.	Grape vines.	More sculptures.

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Another sculpture.	One of several chilli plants.	More sculptures.	A huge wisteria plant dangling from the biome ceiling like a curtain.	A nice flower display adorns the entrance doors too.

Outside we explored a bit (while still cooling down from the rainforest biome!) there were more sculptures as well as a fair few eco displays. It was nice to get a good look at growing crops like maize, wheat and rice. We just looked briefly in the 'Core' exhibit. After a bit more exploring we took a look back at the food available, and decided we would eat elsewhere. We decided to take the road train back up to the top of the quarry at 12PM.

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A cool spider sculpture.	Renée enjoying a scenic bench.	A water feature by the bench and spider sculpture.	Wild flowers.	Another spider sculpture, this time on a web.	Maize and corn growing in a demonstration display.

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Maize closeup of a corn ear.	Rice.		Potatoes.	A pretty pond.	Lots of eco displays inside 'The Core'.

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A sculpture called 'Seed', made from a 167 tonne block of granite (70 tonnes now).	A Hummingbird Hawk Moth feeding on Buddlhiea.			Getting on the road train to return to the visitor centre.

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Views of the Eden Project as we ascend to the entrance.		A school class enjoying the ride up too.	Someone enjoying the Sky Ride, a zip wire over the quarry.

After a long walk from the visitor centre back to the car we drove to St. Austell. There didn't seem to be much of interest here so we decided not to stop and carried on to Truro. Here we found a car park by the cathedral where we parked up. We found a nice Cornish Pastie shop in the town centre and bought pasties at 1:20PM. I had a vegetable wholemeal pastie and Renée had a cheese and onion pastie. They were both amazingly delicious! We both fancied something sweet after that so we then had banana and nutella crepes in a nearby 'smoothie bar'.

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Truro Cathedral.		Walking around Truro town centre.		The pasty shop that we bought from.

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You can't come to Cornwall and not have a pasty. We duly complied! Yum!		A local hoping to benefit from and crumbs dropped.	Renée enjoying a banana and nutella crépe.

After a bit of looking around the shops we were tired. So we left at 2:15PM. We returned to the BnB in Falmouth for showers and a rest. Then at 4:30PM we headed out to Maenporth and stopped for a short while to look at the beach.

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Maenporth beach.	Maenporth surf.	Gulls and swans on the rocks by the beach.

Then we carried on down some excitingly narrow windy roads to Mawnan then back via Mawnan Smith to Falmouth. Then followed a circuit of Pendennis Point before returning to the BnB.

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Looking back to Falmouth and the Penryn river estuary from the north side of Pendennis Point.	Looking across the River Fal estuary to St. Mawes.	360 degree panorama at the tip of Pendennis Head.

We returned to the BnB and parked up. For dinner we went to Balti Curries. I had a delicious and huge Vegetable Biriani and Renée had Chicken Tikka Masala. With assorted Naan breads on the side we were rolling out of the restaurant totally stuffed. We decided to check out a quirky looking general store opposite called Trago. It was a good call as we found some good gifts for a fraction of the price of the other 'tourist trap' shops. Then it was back to the BnB in time for Eastenders at 7:30PM and to retire for the night.