Bibury, Longleat, Cheddar Gorge or Chicken George

We were up and out early this morning as our plans were to drive past Bath to Cheddar Gorge which was to be a bit over two hours.  Every drive here takes so much longer than you think because the roads are obviously narrow and winding but the expressways don't really run close to places we wanted to go.  Generally a 50 mile drive at home would take less than an hour...here it could be anywhere from two to four depending on traffic conditions.

It was another beautiful day (thanks Kay) and we decided to detour when we saw a sign to Bibury.  It is a tiny picturesque village on a stream.  We had some postcards to mail and the post office was there so we took care of two things at one time.  It is a really pretty place...we took some photos of ourselves and others then headed on to our second stop which was Longleat.

The last of the hyacinths are starting to open on our front porch and they smell divine!

One of the village houses

They are everywhere!

Yay..I got a photo of one of the food trucks!

Long story behind this but apparently the tour buses drop off their
elderly passengers here so they can meet up with each other...so crowded we couldn't go in!

This is Kay being spontaneous and going to Bibury..she said we was able to do
it because she had researched it first...bahaha

They appear to be trout in the stream

Longleat is an estate owned by a Marquees which we found out is the title just below Duke.  It was massive and so much so they have a zoo which they call a safari on the property.  Besides the house and formal gardens, zoo etc., they have the largest hedge maze in England which was why we wanted to go there to begin with but the maze was closed for maintenance.  The family actually lives in the house so like Highclere, they don't allow pictures to be taken inside.  It was of course on the gaudy side to suit my taste but the pictures of the Marquees showed he looked more like a hippie with long hair and a beard.  He is 84 years old now.  Anyway the mansion or manor was used for a hospital and a girls school during the war.  After going through the house and gardens, we walked through a little of the zoo...oh and they have a train and a paddle boat ride that takes you through the water on the property.  We had a bite to eat and headed on to Cheddar Gorge.

Just an idea of the scale of the lion

There were 4 peacocks Debbie!

I made a comment to Kay when we were planning the trip that Cheddar Gorge sounded like Chicken George which was a character from one of the civil war era films.  Now every time she says it she calls it Cheddar George and we laugh.  There are two reasons to visit here...this is the area where cheddar cheese is made in this country and the second is it has a vastly different landscape than anything else we have seen.  Many caves and people who rock climb and hikers flock to this place.  You can't believe the difference in the landscape in just one round of the bend in the road!  The pictures will show you.  We were surprised to see goats all over the place and they weren't afraid of the cars.  By the time we got into the village it was five and the time that everything in all areas of this country close for the day.  So our goal to have cheddar in cheddar was not met...bummer!  We did walk around and talk some photos, Kay got some ice cream and we started to head home.  Our plan was originally to head to the coast since we were pretty close but since it was so late and we had a long way to drive home we decided to not go.  Once on the M5 heading home though, we were able to see the ocean and Wales and the causeway to Wales from the expressway...very cool.



We were so exhausted when we got home, we fixed something to eat and headed to bed without writing anything.  Another busy and fun filled day...well done us!

A Gypsy Caravan holding up traffic going the other way...thank heavens!

Yay..another food truck although it wasn't open

Rock climbers we saw

We always have to visit the Christmas Shop

Close to the ocean now...

We saw it...well done us!

Almost a full moon tonight