These are pics from our family trip to The Eden Project near St. Austell, Cornwall on 27th December 2008.
This is the site of the largest greenhouse in the world and houses lots of tropical plants and such like in an abandoned china clay pit. Its quite a famous tourist attraction but I had never been there before despite my parents living a short distance away. If I am not wrong it was in that stupid James Bond film with the invisible car.
I think it was Marmite a while ago that told me I should go but actually what attracted us on this occasion is that in the winter they have an ice skating rink available for you to break your neck on.

We had organised the visit with an old school friend of mine and his family. In the even his dad came along as well with some cousins but the more the merrier I sometimes say.

As usual we were early and they were all late, so we spent 10 minutes or so at the entrance where they have this scene which depicts what would happen if there were no plants in the world. At one point the plastic dummies of the man and the woman get naked to show that clothes are derived from plants. Just out of interest, the man has fuzzy felt style pubes whereas the woman seems to have gone for a shaven haven. They also die through lack of oxygen which is a bit sad. Anyway the naked dummies provides some entertainment for the kids even if the educational part of the display seemed to be lost on most of those visiting on this day.



So the rest of our companions finally showed up. They bought membership to the project so they can get in for free for a year. We didnt because we live in Singapore. Anyway the entrance fee was 30 pounds for 2 adults (the 2 kids go free in the winter) and we paid 5 pounds each for 45 mins ice skating.

When you clear the entrance you are treated to a view of the biomes.



And then you walk down for a closer look



There are 2 biomes, one of which is tropical and the other is meditteranean.
We went in the tropical one first. It was a bit weird going from 2 degrees C into around 30 degrees and you had to quickly remove your woolly hat, gloves and jacket. It really felt like being at home. My camera couldnt handle the change in temperature and it was a good 10 minutes before it stopped sweating so unfortunately I missed a few photo oppportunities.




^ mock up of a malay kampong.







I think living in the tropics made this all a bit underwhelming. I can see big plants by taking a 10 minute walk from my flat to Macritchie reservoir. They had banana trees and coffee plantation etc but I suppose the most impressive thing is the biome itself which covers 1.559 hectares (3.9 acres) and measures 180 feet (55 m) high, 328 feet (100 m) wide and 656 feet (200 m) long (thanks wikipedia).
I think a good idea to keep the tourists coming back would be to have some oompah-loompahs wandering around singing and stuff. Thats what i felt was missing anyway.

At this point my mate Dave said he regretted buying the membership as he would have to keep 'coming back to see bloody plants'. And he doesn't live in the tropics - well not unless the climate in Poole has changed since last time I was there.