When we can all travel again in the summer one of the must-do attractions in Cornwall are the Eden Project biodomes located about 3miles from St Austell. Conceived in the mid-90s and the brainchild of Tim Smit as a way to regenerate the old abandoned clay pits. The project took two and a half years to construct and finally opened to the public in early 2001. Consisting of 2 large biodomes one a dry temperate Mediterranian Zone and the other a wetter and warmer Tropical zone with extensive botanical gardens in the open air around the domes it really is a full day out to go and visit.
My first trip there was in 2002 about a year after it opened. While it was a good day out you can see from these few views that many of the plants were not well established but it was a taste of things to come and there was still some construction doing on.
Vineyard in the Temperate Zone.
The Tropical zone is still a bit brown and bare.
My last trip was still a few years ago but I was surprised at the changes the main domes are now well established and there are much better facilities around them including a couple of good open plan cafeteria-style eating areas to cater for a large number of visitors. The spinach pie I had for lunch was certainly well prepared and tasty, as I can still recall it to this day. Anyway back to the domes.
From my last visit, you can see how much more established the greenery in the biodomes now is.
this is the same vineyard in the Mediterranian zone.
The Tropical zone is now a real jungle I do hope there are no big spiders. the ones in the Philippines scare the crap out of me.
Outside the domes there the gardens are also now showing some signs of maturity but they have some way to go to match some of the National Trust gardens like Glendurgan that have been around for hundreds of years in some cases.
Mind you they do have dragons
As you would expect with a project like this there is a strong emphasis on environmental education and sustainability. The heat and electrical power is provided by a mix of geothermal energy and wind power and the only mains water for hand washing and cooking the rest is all sanitized rainwater.
The only big downside if you can call it that is the distance you have to walk from some of the carparks when the place is busy it seems like miles. If you are a bit infirm or need wheelchair access there is Disabled Parking close to the main entrance, so take your Granny in you don't like walking ;)
The Eden Project has also made it into film as the setting for the Icelandic diamond mine of the villain Tan-Sun Moon/Gustav Graves in the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day. Mind you this is not the first time the site has been used as a set in 1981 the disused clay pit was used by the BBC in the TV series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the surface of planet Magrathea which shows you how bloody bleak it was.
