It’s been a long time since we have visited The Eden Project – 25 years in fact. We last visited the year that it opened and I think that it is fair to say that it has changed enormously in that time.
No longer is it obvious that this was once a clay pit, as all the sides are now covered in lush vegetation with wandering paths leading you down to the biomes, which are cleverly concealed from view until after you have passed through the ticket office.
In keeping with the eco credentials of the Eden Project (they make a bing thing of that everywhere) and that we didn’t have a car, we travelled there by bus. To be clear this wasn’t a double decker, nor a single decker but a mini-bus which is tiny. That, and a timetable that had only a few buses a day from St Austell and back, was a sad reflection on just how few people are travelling there by public transport. If they wanted to be really green they’d encourage more people to get there by bus.
We headed down the meandering path to the building that links the two biomes. On the left is The Rainforest and the left The Mediterranean.
Rainforest Biome
The first thing that you notice when entering this biome is that it is hot, thirty degrees hot in fact. I was certainly ruing my decision to wear jeans by the end of the visit.
We were lucky to have entered very early and (just) out of season so there weren’t many people in there. This meant that the only sounds you could hear was the sound of running water and you could see the lush vegetation everywhere without people to spoil the view.
Following the footpath round you slowly rise up to a walkway in the canopy and our second rope bridge of the holiday. Standing amongst the trees you could (almost) believe that you were in Costa Rica.
Mediterranean Biome
As you enter the second biome two things are noticeable: it is much cooler and the sounds are not water but, in this case, the sound of birds. It felt a peaceful place to visit but looked sparse in comparison to the Rainforest.
This biome seemed much smaller than the other and despite being called “Mediterranean” it also featured plants and trees from California, South Africa and Australia too.
This side felt much more familiar than the other with many plants that we have in our own garden or at least those that I have tried to grow – I have never successfully managed to get Californian Poppies to grow in my garden, sadly. There were also some interesting sculptures too which I didn’t remember from our first visit but on looking back at the photos were there.
We enjoyed both the biomes so much that after lunch we went back through both of them again.
The Core
There is one other building that you can go into, and that is called The Core. Mainly a place for educational work, there is an interesting art installation on the ground floor called “∞ Blue”. This must be 40ft high and weighs 20 tonnes. It has smoke drifting out of the many holes in its sides, which at irregular intervals suddenly send out smoke rings like some teenage smoker. It was a fun thing to see, and the kids in there loved it.
And that was our day done. We both really enjoyed it and can imagine coming back again – it’s one of these places where the tickets are valid all year. I can’t imagine us coming back in the next 12 months but I am sure we won’t be leaving it another 25 years either.
