Eden at Night

It's that time of year when a trip to Eden and paying just £5 means that you get a pass which will last for the year. The only catch is that you must be a resident of Devon or Cornwall and photo/address proof is required. So this afternoon Jo and Paul picked us up and we all drove over to Eden to get our passes. It was very quiet in the car park so we were able to park quite close and as we strolled down there were many visitors leaving. They really should have stayed to see the place lit up as it was so pretty ...

There were white lights along the walkway ...

and when we reached the bottom we found blue lights in all the trees ...

We could hear the music coming from the ice-rink so popped in to have a look ...

On the wall there was a line painted which showed how far up the floodwater had reached when Cornwall was hit by the floods last November ...

We then made our way into the tropical biome and it very soon began to get quite hot! Mike took his coat off but the shades had to stay as the lights were really bright ...

We could just about see the balloon ...

but it was quite dark in there and my photos didn't come out too well ...

True to form we lost Mike! Jo and I stopped for a drink of water and to remove our coats and when we got moving again Paul was there but Mike had disappeared! He'd chosen the spot where the route split to do his vanishing act so I went looking in one direction and Jo and Paul went the other way. I passed the waterfall ...

and then finally got down to the lower level having got caught up amongst American and Japanese tourists but no sign of Mike. Jo and Paul found him and we all met up just outside the biome where I was waiting in the cool air which was heaven. It's mega hot in there! We then went over to the Mediterranean biome which had lovely food smells wafting up to us. There were stalls set up providing Spanish food for the visitors but apart from Paul none of us fancied what was on offer ...

The restaurant area had been caught by the floods and was still closed ...

but we knew that there was a cafe at the exit so planned to eat there. We then headed off to The Core passing this beautifully lit shelter ...

If you look really closely you can see Paul doing his version of a pole dance! The bridge was visible in the distance all lit up with blue and white lights - we'd be up there soon ...

Then we entered The Core to an almost deserted building ...

It was so different being here at night! After passing the wall of handprints ...

we took the lift up and then the next lift took us right up to the bridge ...

We could look down on all that we'd seen and it was generally agreed that it had been a brilliant idea to come at this time of day ...

As we walked through the cafe we found that there wasn't a great choice of food so the suggestion of returning to the Portreath Arms was made and unanimously voted for! The Arms was very quiet and so no problem getting a table where Jo and I enjoyed salmon, chips and salad and the men had steak and kidney pies. All very yummy and a great end to the day.