At long last and after much pining, Laura finally had her wish granted to go to the village of Cheddar in Somerset and sample the splendid cheese of the same name and explore the Cheddar gorge. In a similar way, Tyler also had a wish fulfilled as we tacked on a trip to the fossil-rich Jurassic Coast on the southern shores of England.
We drove out after work on Thursday and arrived at our Airbnb in the charming little hamlet of Lower Longleat. Tyler and Claire ventured off to the local grocer early the next morning to fetch some essentials (croissants) and we had a nice big breakfast before the short drive to Cheddar. Our first stop was to go through the main cave that was excavated by a man named Gough back in the early 1900s.
Not far into the cave he found the remains of Neolithic man now known to be about 8-10,000 years old. There were a few stalagmites and stalactites, along the way and a few beautiful chambers with cascading walls of oozy limestone.
We then wandered around town a bit enjoying the beautiful weather and the quaint village before wandering into the local cheese shop. We tried most of their unique flavors of cheddar with Callum weighing in on Ale and Smoked cheddar and Claire not too big of a fan. Some of the cheese was aged inside the cave we had toured in a traditional way - cool!
We then did a circuit of the village and decided on a restaurant to have lunch. The kids both ordered pancakes (first time we had seen them on a menu in Britain) and they came absolutely drenched in maple syrup.
The next stop was a multi-media cave show in a smaller cave that illuminated what life was like for pre-historic people. The kids really dug it.
We then started an epic hike up around the rim of the gorge. It was supposed to take 3 hours (which we thought was a very high estimate!) and about halfway through we were at the 2 hour mark, so I guess not.
We made frequent stops as we climbed up, up, up as we saw wild goats and bighorn sheep and enjoyed the views. About half the time was spent trying to find Claire the perfect pair of walking sticks. It was a fun day with great weather and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
We then drove about an hour further south to Dorset where we spent the night in a little motel near to the coast. We woke up and had a belly busting full English breakfast at the motel diner and then made our way to Charmouth Beach, known as one of the best fossil hunting places for kids.
It was a blustery and chilly day hovering in the low 40's. As we walked down the shore we happened upon a kid slightly older than Callum breaking away some layers of mudstone to reveal a plethora of little ammonites piled up inside.
We spent about 4 hours walking up and down scouring the shore and chipping away at the mud in the cliff walls finding a whole bunch of ammonite and belemnite fossils. The coolest thing we found was a huge 100 lb boulder with a crystallized ammonite inside about a 18 inches across. Its hollow segment compartments were still open but lined with orange and brown crystals. We managed to bring back a small chunk.
We had a quick lunch at the local beach café before we drove about an hour east to see a different beach that was incredibly beautiful, but didn't have any fossils.
We took a million photos as the view continued to more and more amazing. On the beach the kids couldn't get enough of being 'buried in the sand', so we obliged and buried them in the gravely pebbles of the beach while we enjoyed the cold sunshine and stark white cliffs.
It was an amazing short weekend trip to a beautiful part of England.
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