On Friday the 27th of September we left Cogenhoe coach station at 8 o’clock and headed down to Cornwall, stopping at Garden world & Jamaica Inn, arriving at the Tremont Hotel at 5 o’clock which give enough time for a dip in the pool & then get ready for dinner. The hotel was every thing you expect from British hotels, everything claimed in the brochure was there, the food was good but the rooms were basic and the main dinning area could of done with a lick of paint, I won’t mention the disco!

Saturday morning saw us leaving for Trebah Gardens, The sun was shining and we where greeted on our arrival by our tour guide, she informed us that the Major was waiting down by the Koi pond, apparently he used to own the house and gardens until 1990 when he donated Trebah to the RHS. He still lives in the house and was responsible for the design & stocking of the Koi pond.

The pond itself looks natural with a large waterfall at the top of the pond and surrounded by tree ferns & banana trees, however the pond is constructed from concrete & has a filter system with the pond water being pumped up the waterfall. Originally a spring was used to feed the pond but when the local farmers put lime on their fields the resulting swings in pH caused to many problems. The spring water is now channelled under the pond to feed the stream that leads to the main pond at the bottom of the garden.

The Koi in the pond were of average quality. One black koi showing signs of damage, this was caused by the bronze heron that sits half way up the waterfall!, apparently it was knocked into the pond and speared the unfortunate koi, which apart from a few missing scales seems to have made a complete recovery. The rest of the gardens were great, steeped in history from the 1840s to the Second World War, exotic plants abound and with a new visitors centre and plants sales area (good quality & good value) it was well worth the visit.

In the afternoon we headed down the Falmouth where we boarded a boat for a trip up the river to Turo. The river Fal is a deep-water estuary and is used to lay up ships, some of them were quite large and looked out of place standing in the middle of a river. The scenery was good and there was plenty of yachts out enjoying the great weather.

Sunday was the visit to Eden, we headed of down the back roads to avoid the traffic. On arrival we found the car park empty and saw none of the large crowds, which the other groups in the hotel had experienced on the Saturday.

The Eden project is impressive with its two large biome domes housing tropical plants & plants from south Africa & California + 30 acres of outdoor plants. The tropics Biome certainly wins the prize for best water feature with its rainforest waterfall. The temperature at the bottom of the topic Biome was 25C by the time you get to the top it was a hell of a lot hotter but it was worth the climb to see the waterfall cascading down in to the biome, I would have liked to have seen the pumps, but I’m just glad I don’t have to pay the electric bill! 

After seeing the topical biome the warm temperate biome was less impressive, in the topical biome it’s a sea of green, were as the temperate dome the plants are slower growing a there seemed plenty of room for more, that said it was nice to get any from the heat of the topical biome. It was interesting to see that although it was the end of September all the vents in the temperate biome were open which goes to show how hot it was outside.

In the grounds of Eden there’s another 30 acres of plants, which give you an idea of the sort of plants that will survive in this country. Eden has as you would expect lots of restaurants & shops and as you would expect they know how to charge, however I didn’t think the outdoor plant sales area was to bad and on the way back to Northampton the back of the coach looked like a mini rain forest.