Day 10. Camelford to Trethurgy

Day 10. Camelford to Trethurgy. 56 km.

Dave, our Airbnb, host waved us farewell as we set off on a beautiful day. We managed to find Route 3 quite easily which kept us on the B 3366 for a short distance before we turned off onto a smaller country road on route 3 in the direction of Bodmin. We joined the Camel trail, which is a disused railway track along the Camel River, south of St Breward. The Camel Trail streches from Padstow on the Camel estuary to Bodmin and is a very popular cycling route.This was a high traffic zone, with lots of people out on their bikes. The surface was good and very flat cycling.

We had to stop off at Camel Valley wines just outside Bodmin to taste what the Brits rate as their best winery. Camel Valley has been around for 30 yrs and they specialize in bubbly. We tasted their Brut and Pinot Noir Rose Sparkling which has won the best Rose bubbly in the world, three times in a row, as well as their Bacchus Camel Valley Dry and their Camel Valley Atlantic Dry, a blend of Chardonnay and Bacchus. 

At Bodmin we left the Camel Trail and picked up some supper at Tesco. The rest of the route took us through small country lanes and dedicated cycle tracks through the beautiful Cornish countryside to our accommodation for the night at Knightor Winery. We had the whole Manor house to ourselves which was amazing. 

As the wine tasting was still open,David gave us a most interesting tasting of the wines available. We tasted the Carpe Diem White which is a blend of Huxelrebe, Bacchus, Reichensteiner and Chardonnay a beautiful fresh wine with apple and citrus flavours on the palate. Madeline Angevine a fresh light wine with good acidity; we had not tasted the French varietal Angevine before. The Chardonnay was fresh and light with very little evidence of wood as the barrels used were all third fill. The Carp Diem Rose a blend of Schonberger, Siegerebe and Pinot Noir was delicate and fruity with aromas of rose petal and raspberry. The Carpe Diem Red is a blend of Pinot Noir, Regent and Rondo beautiful aromas of red berries and vanilla with a hint of pepper. 

The sparkling wines we felt had more gravitas than the Camel Valley Sparkling wines; the Blanc de Blancs and the Brut Classic Cuvée were delicious. It was interesting to hear that their Pinot Noir grapes rarely ripen and turn black, they were looking forward to seeing some colour in them this year with the heat that they were experiencing.

The Eden Project was just down the road and fortunately only closes at 20:00 in summer. We jumped on our bikes and spent a most informative few hours marveling at what has been achieved there. There payoff line says it all: Transformation: it's in our nature.

It was built on a reclaimed china clay quarry which is now dominated by two huge adjoining domes made from inflated plastic hexagons. The domes house thousands of plant species from around the world but what was fascinating is that each dome emulates a natural biome, one simulates a rainforest and the smaller one a Mediterranean environment. It also has an outside botanical garden which is home to many plants and wildlife that is endemic to Cornwall and the U.K. in general.

After climbing out of the quarry up the hill we realized how big and deep it is, we made our way back to Knightor Manor for a delicious picnic supper and a good bottle of wine, the Knightr Carpe Diem White.