I have to say, I found the whole place stunning. The first view you get of the huge bio-domes set in a chalk quarry made me go Wow! Much bigger than I'd expected.
After walking down into the site we went for a coffee between the biodomes. Lovely restaurant, you cam see all the food being prepared, and the payment system is based on trust. You take what you want, remember what you've had and pay on your way out.
We went in the rain forest bio dome first. It felt very hot as we got in, and got hotter as we went up, I think it reached about 35 degrees. Exotic plants, lizards, streams, waterfalls, ponds, lots of information, it was a great experience. Bit odd to see a Robin on a banana plant - he must have been hot!
Bit difficult to describe how exotic it was, so here are some photos:
After about an hour in there we visited the Mediterranean bidome. Funnily enough it felt really cold at first! We had a sit down and lunch in there where they serve good Mediterranean food. We had spicy chickpea stew with huge hunks of bread, polenta coated mackerel and a nice bottle of chilled white wine.
Then a walk round. Again, superbly done and best demonstrated with a couple of pictures.
There's an outdoor area as well featuring spring flowers, vegetables - some of them in interesting planters:
Various sculptures, a WEE man:
and some lovely walks.
Well,worth a day out, especially as you only pay once for a years entry. Trouble is, it's a bit far from Sheffield!
Our friends Andrea and Donald came back with us into Devon to stay for a we days, and when we got back we found a peahen and two peababies at the window waiting for their grapes. Daddy must have told them!
We ate out in the local restaurant again, and I had a saladette to start. The name amused me! Spinach leaves, croutons, lardons and a poached egg. Lovely. Followed by a lamb steak on a risotto with sherry sauce and a very decadent strawberry shortcake, I completely forgot I was supposed to be on a diet!
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