DAY TWO MONDAY, 17 JUNE 2013
Jackie writes: EDEN CENTRE: It's Monday, it's cold, grey & wet. so we planned to visit the Eden Centre. We parked the car at 11 a.m. and walked to the entrance. Little did i know that I would be walking for seven hours and I would circumnavigate the globe. If you felt a warm draft yesterday it was me passing by. THE ENTRANCE: We walked down a long walkway and out a door. . . . . . the first time you see this view is when you pass through the payment desks & a shop & café out onto a verandah and wow!! Star Trek: The Current Generation. This is the rainforest biodome. You can't see anything until you teach that point. The path zig-zags all the way to the bottom of an old clay pit; a good 20-minute walk. Then you enter the rainforest biosphere; the smells & humidity were all very real. Tom said it reminded him of Malaysia. [Tom's carer] Renor told us about some of the plants he grew up with in Philippines and how to cook them. ENTERTAINMENT STAGE: June had Jessie J, Eddie Izzard & The Mumford and Sons group on Saturday nights, all sold out. [Mumford and Sons are playing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA in July --ad] THE CORE: Full of displays & lectures about why we should give up all our modern technology, go back to living in the dark ages . . . . . . and simultaneously help feed & clothe all of Africa (oops, I'm sounding cynical). YEW: Following the winding path down to the spheres, and looking back up to the Visitor Centre, there was a lovely yew hedge all the way down. Yew is used for the anti-breast cancer drug Tamoxifen and is harvested at a particular time of the year; the clippings must be processed within three days of harvesting. THE PATH: It winds all the way down and used to be a clay pit. I think it took us 20 minutes to walk down and a bit longer to walk back up. We're getting closer . . . . Nearly there; the sun makes a rare appearance . . . . . . and even the birds and bees come out of hiding . . . . It's a good 20-minute walk from the top, but add on photo stops and pausing to read signs and chat to people, it took an hour.

FIRST: SOMETHING TO EAT