After travelling all the way to Cheddar Gorge it was closed.
Well, not all closed, just the road through the Gorge. They were doing repair work which was going to take quite a few weeks. All the ‘attractions’ were open even though it was late September and the main tourist season is generally over. The advantage of visiting out of school holidays is that it is not the school holidays! Consequently there is a severe lack of kids. The downside is that we swap the noisy fast pace for getting stuck behind someone with a walking frame who is trying to remember why they were there and which way the were going. On the other hand the seniors are appreciative of Bertram and give him good advice about photo positions and locations. Kids just stare and make inappropriate comments.
My chauffeur parked up nearly opposite ‘The Christmas Shop’ which surprisingly was open and seemed to be doing good business.
Going up behind the shop building is Jacob’s Ladder. This is several hundred plus steps from the bottom of the Gorge to the top at that point. For the privilege of puffing ones way up the steep climb they charge enough per person for a cup of coffee and a cake. Bertram discovered that there is no charge to come down the steps. possibly only due to the administrative overhead of dealing with the few, like Bertram, that were prepared to walk down into the village and walk up the less steep back way. It does need to be admitted that the route is probably problematic when the place is heaving with people and cars.
After Lunch I went on walk along the top of the South side of the Gorge. You can see the views here
From Jacob’s Ladder Bertram walked a short distance up the Gorge past many shops until I saw a large grey mass jutting out from the side of the Gorge. Below it a sign announced the Lion Rock Tea Rooms so I knew I had arrived. I moved on a bit to find a good place for a picture.
You can see that I had to climb a bit and it was a little precarious, but I managed to get down safely. I wasn’t impressed though as I couldn’t see much resemblance to a Lion.
I went back to the Tea Rooms and found a better place to view the rock and this time it looked a bit more like a (very grumpy) lion. Maybe also like a lion who has had an accident with a tree at full pelt while chasing an antelope and not looking where it was going.
Maybe erosion has taken its toll.