It was a much slower day today (thank goodness!). After a delicious English breakfast complete with local sausage and eggs, we dawdled around a bit before setting off fo Cheddar Gorge. Cheddar Gorge is an area full of sheer limestone cliffs and caves and guess what it's famous for... anyone who said cheese, take a Kewpie doll. Well, cheese and cider. We tried some scrumpy (the local cider) with our morning tea but it didn't do anything for me (tasted like apple beer). They store the cheddar cheeses in the caves here to mature (or they used to) because it's at a constant temperature of 11oC. Like most tourist attractions in England, Cheddar Gorge was very crowded and busy. It's also a haven for rock-climbers and abseilers. You can do both of those and adventure caving but we decided... no; I would definitely break a nail doing that. We spent a few hours at the gorge looking at the shops and visiting the caves etc (I'm sure that my kids will be happy to know that I have now had enough caves to satisfy me for a while - no lighthouses though). The drive back to Shepton Mallet was very pleasant but a little scary on the narrow roads.
When we got back, we had a quick coffee and then went for a walk. I love the whole public footpath thing in England. You can walk across whole swathes of private property because there has always been a public footpath there. Anyway, it was very nice and took us past several lovely old stone buildings, the cider brewery (smells of rotten apples) and near a massive old viaduct - very impressive. We're having dinner at the Dusthole which is just down the street and is actually called the King's Inn but is known as the Dusthole because it used to be frequented by quarrymen on their way home from work. Back to Whitstable tomorrow. We're going to park ourselves in the Two Brewers pub tomorrow evening so that anyone who wants to see us can come to us - we'll never make it around to everyone otherwise!
Getting hungry now - time for dinner!