Today I caved in to my love of cheese and went to a gorge-ous place - Cheddar!

I do love cheese and I do love scenic places, so Cheddar seemed the ideal location for the letter C in my South West Alphabet Driving Tour!
The weather was bright and sunny and perfect for a drive across Somerset to Cheddar, just 45 minutes from my home town.
I parked at the bottom of the gorge, in the first Lakeside car park, free to visitors of the gorge. From there I took a short walk up the road to purchase my passport ticket at Gough's cave as that was the first place I planned to visit.

I was greeted by a very friendly ticket seller who explained clearly all about the attractions and told me that any unused parts of the ticket would be valid for 10 years! Good thing too as there are more things to do there, than can be done in a day!
I was given an audio tour handset, so I could do the tour at my own pace.  There were several language choices and also a kids tour, which I dipped in and out of. Both the adult tour and the kids tour were entertaining and informative.  The cave was stunning. Stalactites, stalagmites, skeletons, bats and more were to be seen.  I did not take any pictures inside the cave, but you can see pictures here.  There is also loads more info about the caves and gorge on that website.

The tour took me an hour or so and I then took a wander along the road through the gorge. It sounds a bit 'cheesey', but it was gorge-ous!

Here are a few photos from that walk which I took before lunch (scroll through them to come to the next lot of writing and more photos of my day!):

 All of today's photos are again taken on my mobile phone, but I am really happy with the quality of them. They show a true reflection of how beautiful it was there.

After a walk through the cave and gorge and back to the village I was very hungry.  It was a while before I ate though as I was spoiled for choice as to where to eat. There were so many places to choose from.
I knew I wanted cheese!  I could not go to Cheddar and not eat cheese for lunch!
There were places to cater for all budgets and tastes, from tea rooms to chippies and as well as several pubs and both Indian and Chinese takeaways.

Eventually I decided upon eating in a tea room in the main street.
Here is a photo of that tea room.
It was a friendly place with a typical cafe menu. Lots of choice for families particularly. Omelettes, jacket potatoes, beans on toast, basic, but comforting fayre, along with home made cakes and some good coffee!

As I said before, I just had to have some cheese in Cheddar, so I ordered a Cheddar cheese ploughman's lunch.
Thankfully, as I said before I was very hungry because this ploughman's was HUGE! That plate you see in the photo was very large and it was piled high and wide with food!  The piece of cheese is the size of a piece I would buy myself to last a week or two at home!  
I was so hungry I probably could have eaten all of the cheese, but I decided to take some home as a souvenir of Cheddar to eat over the coming week!  I left satisfied and refuelled, ready for the walk ahead of me, which began with climbing 274 steps - Jacob's Ladder.  It was almost as steep as as last week's steps in Beer, but not quite!
After a breathtaking climb up Jacobs ladder I reached the top! Then, there were more steps, those of the lookout point. I climbed them and was rewarded with fabulous views across the West Country, in all directions.
I descended the lookout tower and decided to follow a footpath along the top of the gorge, which promised fantastic views and I was not disappointed.


Here are a few photos from that walk:

Time to don the walking shoes again! Here begins another Sunday afternoon ramble into some idyllic countryside!

The first of many stunning views!

Here I am 'on top of the world!'  It doesn't look very high up, but it was VERY high up!

Here is a view down from that spot where I was standing!

Looking over Cheddar to Cheddar reservoir and beyond that to Exmoor

 Me, looking a bit long in the face (and body!)

I love this one!

Looking across to Glastonbury Tor, far in the distance














Before I go, I just want to share a few more photos with you.  I took so many photos today!

The walk started up high and those photos you have already seen above.  It then followed the road back through the gorge to the village.

Here are a few photos from that part of the walk:

Stunning! I think you will agree!

Finally a few other photos I took:

It was great to see the wild goats grazing in the gorge.

Wild goats were my neighbours during my fabulous 6 years living in the Valley of Rocks in Lynton and I enjoyed seeing them daily, so it was lovely to see these today.  Good memories!

A couple more photos and we have reached the end of today's journey!

This waterfall makes for a lovely photo with the gorge in the background.

I spotted these icicles as I walked along the road through the gorge!







 I will definitely return again to Cheddar, not only to use up the many unused parts of my ticket, within the next 10 years, but to do this walk again. 
See you next time from somewhere beginning with D!