Spontaneous trips rarely disappoint. A couple of weeks ago my friend Simon went to Somerset to have a high-top roof added to his VW camper. He asked the previous evening if I fancied a day trip and naturally I did, so I was up and heading West at 6am.
We dropped the van off a few miles from Weston Super Mare and walked half an hour to the nearest village, Banwell. I was vaguely aware that the town of Cheddar (I’ll try and avoid cheesy jokes) was nearby and that Cheddar Gorge was supposed to be an interesting landform, so I told the bus driver to take us there.
Cheddar village is pretty and clearly very touristy, with its plethora of shops and cafes. It’s a short and attractive walk from the gorge itself, its limestone walls towering dramatically above the buildings on three sides. The vast rock faces are interspersed with plenty of lush greenery, and the place has a rugged, isolated feel, like it could be a village nestled away in the Alps.
We had breakfast and did a bit of work in the Costa (Si’s choice) opposite Lion Rock, a distinctive hump of rock at the gorge end of the village. Admittedly it was the most picturesque Costa I’ve ever been in. With no plan to do anything specific, we wandered along the road to Gough’s Cave, a 115m deep, 3.4km long cave system. Si insisted on paying for us both to go in, so we bumbled in like stereotypical backpack-wearing tourists and made use of the free audioguides.
The cave system is really impressive, with its huge, high chambers, sci-fi-esque rock formations and dimly lit, glassy pools (I suspect they’re man-made…). The audioguide is interesting if you’re a huge geek like me, particularly the bits about how the rocks are formed and David Lafferty’s “underground endurance” world record – he stayed in the cave for 130 days in 1966. And I thought I sulked.
Gough’s cave took about 45minutes, after which time we were hungry already. We had a nice ploughman’s lunch in Café Gorge a couple of minutes down the road, then walked back towards the village to climb Jacob’s Ladder – the 274-step strong stairway up to the gorge walk along the top of the cliff.
Fast forward up the stairs and along the rocky, uphill route towards the top of the gorge, the path opened out onto a rugged landscape of dramatic, dark grey rock faces and thriving trees, shrubs and grasses. Behind us to the West was the comparatively flat landscape of Somerset, with its green fields, lines of dark trees and red-roofed villages, and we could see for miles out to Bristol Channel.
We strayed off the path towards the jutting out “fingers” of rock that towered above Cheddar. As I got to the edge of one I was taken by surprise at just how high and steep it was – I was surrounded by sheer, vertigo-inducing drops on three sides and I could see down to the winding road way below as cars scooted along like tiny, colourful insects. I found a climbing bolt up there, so I must do some research…
A few cringe-worthy selfies later and we headed back down the way we came, delighted to have made the journey to the gorge. I’d never seen a view quite like it before. After the 274 steps down we indulged in an ice cream before venturing into Cox’s Cave, which they’ve turned into the “Dreamhunters” experience.
This was an intriguing, bizarre and more than a little creepy walk-through video “tour” that left me convinced there were some funny mushrooms in my ploughman’s. Projected videos and a slightly eerie, slightly sexual (as Simon decided) voice told the story of the cavemen who used to live there. Combined with dim, multi-coloured lights and hanging fur “doors”, this was a highly trippy experience in a place that I think would be put to better use as an avant-garde restaurant or nightclub.
Van roof nearly installed, we headed back down the gorge to the village centre, tried some cheese samples, nosed around an outdoorsy shop and and grabbed a drink in a café before hopping on the bus back to Banwell.
Overall, Cheddar Gorge was way more impressive and unique than I expected. I’d recommend a visit, although at £20 per adult I think the tickets to Gough’s Cave, Cox’s Cave and Jacob’s Ladder are overpriced. You can access the gorge walk for free from other directions and this was the part most worth seeing.
I’ll go back and explore the area more thoroughly another time as it’s just a couple of hours away from Winchester. In the meantime I’ll do some research into climbing those big limestone faces…
curiousgnome 