A blizzard, a Hole and more Mammoths!!!!

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After a very cold night, we pulled off from our muddy pitch and set off through the Mendips……



Woolly says – A day to look forward to as I would get at least TWO places ticked off in my I Spy book!!! We (well Ian and Jo) had dug out the old Sat Nav and had decided to run Sat and Tom Tom together to see how accurate Tom actually is! This caused me great amusement throughout the day as a quite demanding female voice told Ian and Georgie to turn left while the other huskier female voice begged for them to turn right, this happened quite a few times - note to Ian, check the Tom’s settings!!!! Riding upfront I was able to look at the lovely scenery as we took the roads through to Cheddar Gorge, as they got windier and windier Ian and Georgie kept smiling (through clenched teeth) as I bounced up and down telling them about the gorge, one of England's most iconic and spectacular landscapes. At almost 400 feet deep and three miles long, this is England’s largest gorge, and with its weathered crags and pinnacles, it is a most spectacular natural sight. The gorge would have begun forming about one million years ago during the last Ice Age (good film that) when water from melting glaciers formed a river, which over time started to carve into the limestone rock creating the steep cliffs you see today. Parking Georgie with the coaches to have a rest we took a walk towards the top, the views were spectacular and with the goats hanging onto the face of the rock I was quite awed. Deciding that a coffee and a bun (for me) were in order we passed Georgie on our way down and wandered alongside the river, pausing to see the weir (looked very cold to me), looking in the shops as we passed, Jo headed into a Teddy Bear shop dragging me and Ian behind her, but I was so glad that she did as I got to meet two very friendly Mammoths (we have swapped email addresses), it was lovely to see them, but then as if things couldn’t get better we went into another shop and found loads and loads more Mammoths!!!!



Revived we took off for Wookey Hole……By this point Woolly was getting over excited so we sat him with his new I Spy book on cars to calm him down, trying to follow the diverse directions from the two females on the windscreen we followed the signs for Wookey Hole, driving got more difficult as the roads became narrow and then….



Woolly says – it started to SNOW!!!!! Tonnes of the fluffy white stuff, covering the road instantly and giving poor Georgie a white coat, Ian being the excellent driver he is kept us from skidding across the roads and usually a very courteous driver he had to work on the principle that everything would have to stop for us as we had no grip at the rear and the front was sliding everywhere, not sure who was more scared! Ten miles further and there was no snow to be seen, Georgie made a lady laugh as we pulled up at a junction and a huge amount of nasty white cold stuff descended from her roof. We made it, I was so happy as we made our way to the kiosk, but then to find that they wanted £16.00 GBP for each person I had to agree with Ian and Jo that given it would only take an hour to go round that it really was a lot of money.



To be fair to Woolly both Ian and I had already been to Wooky Hole in the past and we just felt it was a bit pricey for us on this occasion, sorry Woolly.



Woolly says – to cheer me up they showed me the dinosaurs and there before my eyes was the BIGGEST Mammoth I have ever encountered, he was quite friendly and admired my scarf, asking if Jo could knit him one, I laughed at Jo’s face! Climbing back into Georgie we made tracks for Dulverton, through the beautiful countryside of Somerset, past engorged rivers and with the two dodgy females still arguing about routes we arrived in our port for the night, time for a small coke I think!

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