With the UK lockdown still in force over this Bank Holiday (i.e. National Holiday) long-weekend, there have been concerns people will be tempted to flout the requirements and come to beauty spots and beaches to enjoy themselves despite the constraints. And so last weekend and this, police have closed the road through Cheddar Gorge to all traffic, save local walkers and cyclists.

And so when I went out for a short cycle ride as part of my daily (allowed) exercise, I thought to cycle up the gorge. Now it is all uphill and steep in parts. I am no super-fit person, and certainly not a MAMIL (middle-aged man in Lycra). I did it slowly and used the cunning excuse of stopping to take a photo as I went (and catch my breath). And the reason I wanted to take some photos is that I have never seen the gorge this quiet on a sunny spring day. No cars, and no people (save the odd cyclist passing by). Just very loud birdsong, some very content wild goats and stunning views. So I thought to put them here for everyone to see.

It can be easy to forget just how lucky we are to be just a minute or two, literally from some spectacular and beautiful scenery.

Take care and stay safe.

Tsk, tsk, another gap in blogging. Note to self ... try and make time

So yes, life has been busy, and the cottage is still getting lots of lovely guests and consistently lovely comments and reviews. And suddenly here we are at Halloween with Christmas on the horizon. Here in Cheddar for the last good few years, the festive season starts early. The first Friday in December has now become the tradition that is Cheddar Festive Night. The best bit of this is that the whole of the lower gorge road (The Cliffs) and the road on down in to the village (Cliff Street) is closed off for the evening.

And then up and down that route lots of people, of course mostly local at that time of year, come to Cheddar to enjoy a host of Christmassy stalls, events and entertainment. Much of it is raising money for good causes and it can vary from commercial craft stalls through to a small charity setting up a mulled wine stall on a table outside a house. So quite "home-made" and parochial in places, but that gives it real charm.

Just wandering the lower gorge without the normal traffic is a treat. Indeed although traffic is not formally banned, the main (upper) gorge road is not a through route and so traffic stops, and that makes for a noter possibility for the fit (although in the dark not so wonderful).

And most all the good shops are open with Xmas offering - lots of tasters, lots of samples. For those getting to the top of the route earlier on, you can get in to Cheddar's main caves for just £5 (all going to charity)

So if you happen to be in the area (or indeed maybe even choosing to stay at the cottage), this Friday 6th December is a good event to aim for.

Three years ago the AONB and Sedgemoor District Council invited interested parties to a meeting: they wanted to challenge Cheddar to become a fully fledged Walkers are Welcome destination. We were up for it and so Gorge View Cottage became a founding member of what became Cheddar Walking. And in record time we got our accreditation and launched. 
Three years on and the steering group has achieved a lot to be proud of: 10 fully tested walks with self-guide walking sheets published (downloadable for free from the website or for a small donation pre-printed from the National Trust Shop); 45,000 downloads to date and over 6,000 printed copies bought; then we've supported 3 local festivals with guided walking activities (and we're set to help again with the 2019 National Trust's Top of the Gorge Festival in its third year); and this month we finally completed a long project to fund, design and install three promotional information boards (or as we prefer to call then - "inspiration boards") laying out the 10 walks.
The walks vary from a 30 minute loop on mostly lanes, to the challenging 20-mile section of the West Mendip Way from the coast (Weston-Super-Mare) to Cheddar (you can bus out and walk back).
Anyone coming to stay at Gorge View Cottage gets all these walks in a folder along with many others from the AONB, National Trust, RSPB and Somerset Wildlife Trust. Pop a walk sheet out for the day and then pop it back for the next guests. And all these walks can be done without any car being involved. In fact probably 70% or more of our guests do at least one walk and almost all of them thoroughly enjoy and recommend them. The Mendip Hills, the Gorge and the Levels all have something for everyone.

And a big thank you to the wonderful Cafe Gorge and excellent Cheddar Medical Centre for allowing us to place these information boards on their railings for all the visitors and community to see and get inspired to walk a little.

A few weeks ago we were surprised but delighted to get a visit from our neighbours in Cheddar Gorge. No-one (person that is) actually lives in the gorge, but it is well populated with goats and sheep. The goats were released in to the gorge area to keep down the scrub and whilst they have done a good job of that they've basically gone feral and the population is pretty large. The sheep are Soay an ancient British breed that are also fairly feral.
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Most days you can bump in to the goats and sheep (almost literally) as you drive the gorge road, early morning or late evening when they are down nibbling the verges. Seemingly completely oblivious to cars bearing down on them (and at this time of year) their babies. Luckily I have never seen any sad roadkill so it all works.

Anyway it seems that their populations are growing so much that they are looking further afield for good food. And last year for the first time in most people's memory a few ventured in to the upper village and raided the gardens. It seems they have a strong liking for tulips and a couple of neighbours were very annoyed to have their spring beauties systematically eaten. And now it is happening a second year, and we had a few visits.

This particular mother and her lamb (kid?) seem a regular in Birch Hill and a number of neighbours have tried to shepherd them back to the gorge. Luckily for us we don't have any tulips and nothing at the moment in the garden that would be a huge frustration if it got nibbled.

If you come and stay at the cottage we cannot guarantee any close-up encounters on the cottage patio, but if you do the gorge walk then you'll almost certainly spot some sheep and goats. Some of the billy goats are very impressive with long goatee beards. You will probably also smell them from a distance - the goats have a very soured goat milk odour!

"Cheddar Man" is pretty famous because the nearly-full skeleton discovered in Cheddar Caves over 100 years ago is the oldest example of Homo Sapiens ever found in Britain. How old is he? Well just around 10,000 years. As part of the Cheddar Caves attraction there is a bloke who dress up in old skins and a wild wig (in my mind a cross between Fred Flintstone and a Monty Python character). Entertaining and importantly a fun reminder of the deep pre-history of this place.

But now we have more information due to very recent DNA testing, and to be revealed in a new documentary on Channel 4 on 18th February ("First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 Year Old Man"). Before I look at the big news story today as part of the fanfare for the documentary, it needs to be pointed out that DNA testing of the skeleton has already thrown up a fascinating fact. DNA from Cheddar Man was compared with local testing of residents. And amazingly there were two exact matches with two children in the village, and an almost exact match (just a single mutation away) with the history teacher in the local school. Indeed our children's history teacher. It cannot get much better than that for your teacher to be a direct descendent!

But the earlier idea of what Cheddar Man might have looked like is harder. Of course wearing animal skins, but what of skins, hair and eyes? Research for the new documentary was funded by the Natural History Museum in London, and from that they realise that far from the fair-skinned, brown-eyed, fair-haired examples of reconstruction to date, in fact the new  and more precise reconstruction shows Cheddar man to have blue eyes, set in a very dark-skinned face and with dark curly hair. All very surprising but somehow wonderful.

I'd love to include a picture here but at the moment the images are very much copyrighted and as and when I can get a photo from the exhibit in the NHM I'll add it to this post. meanwhile you can see it, and learn a bit more on this good Guardian Online article. 

The UK is blessed with a huge range of public pathways criss-crossing the countryside, enshrined in our Public Rights of Way and captured in detail on the wonderful Ordnance Survey maps (the best in the world in my opinion). The pinnacle of these paths are the 13 National Trails: long distance paths including the formidable Pennine Way, awesome Cotswold Way and the astonishing South West Coast Path. But just under this top level are a wide range of long distance paths that deserve top status but have yet to quite make it. And we have one literally on our doorstep: the Mendip Way.

It was opened in 1979, and is defined in two contrasting halves: the West Mendip Way running from the coast at Uphill (between Weston-Super-Mare and Brean Down) to Wells, travelling through the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and then the East Mendip Way continuing on from Wells and ending up in the lively town of Frome. In total 50 miles (or 80km) with around 31 miles of that on the West Mendip Way.

This week the Mendip Way was relaunched following an extensive piece of work to improve and better way-mark the route in both directions. The Mendip Hills AONB worked in partnership with the Mendip Society, Mendip Ramblers and the Rotary Club to get this work done and now Visit Somerset are actively promoting it. The whole Mendip Way can be completed in just three days but most people might choose to add some days and take time to relax and enjoy the walks and the stopovers a little more. If you want to do the trail as a continuous walk, maybe even with luggage transfers between stops to keep the load light, then Encounter Walking Holidays can tailor a walking holiday just for you. But alternatively if you prefer too stitch together your own holiday then one strong possibility, especially if you'd like to cover just the West Mendip Way, is to base yourself in Cheddar. Indeed Gorge View Cottage is just 2 minutes away from the Mendip Way route. 

The options then are to do two or three "bus walks", all covered in detail and freely downloadable from the Cheddar Walking website (walks 9 and 10). Day one could be a bus to Weston-Super-Mare, with an optional 3 mile walk along the beach, and then with the Mendip Way proper starting from Uphill, and continuing 13 miles to Shute Shelve, via Crook Peak, Wavering Down and Kings Wood to where the Strawberry Line rail path passes underneath the Mendip Hills, and the Mendip Way, in the old rail tunnel. At this point, unless you are on a serious roll, you can break and bus the short way back to Cheddar for a gentle evening.

Picking up the next day and busing back to Shute Shelve you'd have a gentler 7-mile walk via Shipham, skirting the Mendip Hills high-point at Black Down but worth a detour up for the views from Beacon Batch. Then on down through Black Rock reserve ending up walking down one side of spectacular Cheddar Gorge through the National Trust owned land.

The final day would be a 12-mile walk. Bus out to Wells, and then a route that takes you out of England's smallest "city" past the cathedral and along the exquisite Vicar's Close before heading on up to Wookey Hole, then to Ebbor Gorge and a perfect lunch halt at Priddy Village. The final leg across the top of the Mendips and through Draycott Sleights reserve finally brings you back down to Cheddar again.

You can find out a whole lot more on the AONB web site and soon they'll have the detailed East Mendip Way guide published too.

Some cryptic acronyms in the title for this blog, but what it refers to is the National Trust's South West Outdoor Festival 2017. The second such festival, the first being in Heddon Valley, North Devon in 2016. This time it was centred at the top of Cheddar Gorge (much of the gorge is NT land).
It all happened this past weekend and offered a huge range of outdoor activities at a serious level: not just mountain biking, hill running, kayaking, but (given where we are) rock climbing, pot-holing, caving, bat watching and ... some lovely walking!

The walking was organised by Cheddar Walking, the Walkers are Welcome initiative in Cheddar that we at Gorge View Cottage helped start and still help lead. Whilst most people (circa 1,500 at the festival over the long weekend) were there for more extreme sport, of course some wanted less physical things to do, and to take in the beautiful area. We organised five half-day walks over the three day from the Festival Site near Back Rock Reserve: to Priddy village, along the West Mendip Way; to Yeo Valley's stunning HQ canteen in Blagdon, a walk taking you over Beacon Batch the highest point of the Mendip Hills; and of course the classic circular Gorge Walk.

Despite the weather (wet and windy at times, but sunny and clear at others) all our walks seem to stay dry, the views revealed themselves and those joining us had a really good time, some wonderful sights, and good-to-moderate exercise.

All this was also strongly supported by the Mendip Hills AONB and the Somerset Wildlife Trust who protect and promote this stunning area. A big thanks to them both.

Of course any of these walks can be self-navigated if you come to Cheddar, just ask us for the directions when you are staying or check out the Cheddar Walking web site.

So following a poll featured in the Daily Mail to find what people think is the "Best View in Britain", whilst the view from the summit of Mount Snowdon came in first, Cheddar Gorge was a creditable fifth. The views from inside the gorge looking up, or on top looking down are all spectacular, but the view that people find the most iconic is the one from the highest point on the east side looking over the gorge to the reservoir and on along the Mendip Ridge towards the Quantock Hills.

The full list was: Snowdon summit, the Three Sisters mountain range in Glen Coe, Stonehenge, St Ives Bay, Cheddar Gorge, Loch Ness (from Dores), Buttermere in the Lake District, the Palace of Westminster (viewed from Westminster Bridge), The Giant's Causeway in Co Antrim and finally Loch Lomond.

So we feel Cheddar Gorge is up there in the best of company. See more on the Daily Mail article.

As some of you may know from earlier blogs Gorge View Cottage was a founding supporter of the Cheddar Walking initiative. It was set up from scratch last year to help gain "Walkers are Welcome" accreditation for the village (which it duly did), and to encourage visitors and the local community to enjoy more of the lovely local walks - long and short, flat and hilly, focused on history, nature, geology and more.

One target was to get a walking festival going and we have done just that in collaboration with the Mendip Ramblers. They hold a free three-day festival every year somewhere in the area, over the August Bank Holiday weekend, and yet had never held one in Cheddar. So a perfect opportunity for us to help the Ramblers with local walking knowledge and with venues and parking. This was a great chance for us in the steering group to learn what is involved from the very experienced Ramblers group.

It was by all counts a real success with very strong numbers turning up to enjoy themselves. Over 325 walkers went out on 12 walks over the three days. Each day three walks set of in the morning (15, 11 and 7 miles approximately) and in the afternoon a shorter 5 to 6 mile walk was led out. People came from far and wide to take part, stay locally and enjoy not only the walks but the beautiful countryside, views, and warm welcome from local businesses and hostelries.

Of course you don't have to wait for a festival to enjoy the walking here: Cheddar Walking has developed a range of self-guiding walk sheets for anyone to use - you can download them here.

It is a pretty familiar refrain that people don't visit some of the attractions on their own door steps because - well - there are things to do at home and being so convenient you can always just go and visit. But years roll by and it doesn't happen.
We are generally good at getting around locally but are certainly prone to this catch too.
So the lovely treat of the recent weeks has been to make a point of visiting more of the lovely Somerset Wildlife Trust's (SWT) nature reserves. They publish a great guide to over 19 sites across Somerset (copy in the cottage) and we are really spoilt by having five main reserves (and several other minor reserves) pretty much on our doorstep most near the head of the gorge.

Black Rock, Long Wood, Velvet Bottom, Ubley Warren and Draycott Sleights are the five and this blog noted our walk to Velvet Bottom back in June 2012. Yesterday we walked Black Rock and Long Wood which connect with Velvet Bottom as part of the Cheddar Complex Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Black Rock is a wide gully and easy walk along a track past old lime kiln ruins and ancient quarry works. This contrasts nicely with Long Wood where (as the name suggests) you are amongst ash, hazel, beech and oak and conifers (but the SWT are slowly clearing conifers to replant with native broad-leaf varieties. A circular walk (muddy in places even in this hot spell) rises steeply to the north edge and then drops you back to the valley/gulley bottom.

At the bottom you sense this is a dried river or stream bed and whilst dry you can hear the stream. In turns out that the stream disappears in to the ground and in to the cave systems below (eventually coming out in the main Cheddar Caves at the other end of the gorge). Its like a water spring in reverse. These points are called "swallets" and as there is a clue that there are caves below so the local cavers have built a concrete access hatch near the swallet so that they can enter the systems below. Further down the dry gulley on the return path you  come across a dry swallet called Long Wood Valley Sink. It turns out that when stream is in full flow it cannot get down the first swallet and starts to flood on down the valley and then goes to ground at the sink. But the winter before last when we had a lot of rain this sink was so choked with debris that the flooding went on down Long Wood valley, through Black Rock and down the winding road through Cheddar Gorge ripping up the road as it went. This then caused the gorge to be closed for weeks as they waited for the flooding to stop and repairs to take place. The rains would not stop, the folding continued and eventually the Mendip Caving Club (with SWT and Natural England helpers) took the initiative to clear the sink and later rebuilt it to be much more robust for the future.

And all this just on our doorstep!

To find out more about SWT's reserves folow these links:
SWT Cheddar Complex Nature Reserves
SWT General Reserves map