Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge

Friday 23 February 1996. It's the last day of our holiday and we are heading for home today.

On the way north though, we'll stop a couple of times in Somerset. Our first stop is at Wookey Hole, where there is a large cave system that you can go through and also a fine collection of old amusement penny slot machines. The guide showing us around the caves was very funny. The fairground museum had some old roundabout or carousel carved animal figures.

The carvings included this carved but unpainted horse's head.

Then it was back to childhood with a flood of nostalgic recognition as we entered a couple of rooms filled with old penny slots. We bought a handful of big old copper pennies and lost ourselves in the 1950s and 60s, playing these machines which filled every seaside arcade before electrics started to replace mechanics.

You just can't beat a good old whirring sound and then the CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK as the reels of a one-armed bandit came to a stop, one after the other. The Beromat was a German-made machine and a staple of arcades for many years. And look! I won tuppence for a cherry on the first reel!

Then there were the games where an eye for the movement of the ball, a bit of skill and co-ordination, and a grasp of the Laws of Physics helped you win... or otherwise... Allwins, Payramid (featured here) and other machines where your pennies dropped and bounced off a series of pins whilst you tried to get one into a winning cup or slot.

Our pennies ran out - when was it ever any different? So we got back in the car, resigned to the fact that our holiday had come to an end. Or had it? "Come on, we'll drive down Cheddar Gorge and head that way towards the motorway."

It was deserted. And it was once again well below freezing point. We stopped - the only car in sight - and looked briefly into the cave opening but without being in the slightest bit tempted to go in to explore it. Those caves run for miles and can flood too, if water manages to stay in liquid form...

I'm not sure about inside the cave, but outside it was far too cold even for water to run down the cliff face and be able to reach the ground!

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Atlantic Islands Cruise, 2005

A series of articles about our holiday onboard the Sun Cruises ship, Carousel, 15-22 March 2005. We are cruising the Canary Islands and will visit Tenerife, Lanzarote, Madeira, La Palma and Gran Canaria. We also stopped off for a day in Morocco but stayed on the ship all day.

Clicking or tapping the photos below will take you to the articles for each day. A link on each page will bring you back here.

Cruise Holidays Index Page

Gran Canaria

Monday 21 March 2005. We dock into Gran Canaria for our last day of cruising and take a coach excursion out for the morning.

Mogan is a gorgeous colourful village set around a harbour. Buildings are whitewashed but with touches of colour, there is lots of purple bougainvillea draped over alleyways and buildings and plenty of palm trees.

In the harbour are colourful boats and tropical fish of various colours whilst every now and then you catch sight of a razor-toothed barracuda. It was hot and the signs for fresh strawberries with cream and ice cream along with a tall glass of something cold and refreshing was just too much and we succumbed thankfully, sinking into seats at a table and letting ourselves be pampered.

The afternoon was spent lazing on the Pool Deck with waiters waiting and more temptations to tempt us. Ah, it's a hard life, but someone has to do it... Once we had had afternoon tea, more ice creams and an evening meal though, I stirred myself, shook myself, added a twist of lemon and trotted back off the ship to take a few photos after dark.

Although dark, it was still very warm and we walked all the way back to the entrance to the port and the small shopping precinct. Admittedly we weren't rushing but it took us a good five or ten minutes good hard strolling...

This would be our last night onboard the Carousel. She had been built as the Nordic Prince in 1971 for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, sold to Sun Cruises and renamed Carousel in 1995 and spent ten years with them. Although she had been sold to Louis Cruise Lines in 2004, she had been chartered back to Sun Cruises, her last cruise for them being in the May of 2005. She underwent another five name changes until, as the Pacific, she was decommissioned in 2014 and sent to India for ship breaking in 2015.

She was our introduction to cruising and this was our second trip on her. At time of writing (March 2023) we have taken 27 cruise holidays and loved every single one. With a new place to see and explore every day, it's an experience hard to beat.

The pool deck is practically deserted at night apart from the odd person walking off their meal. It's around 10:00pm.

Miss Franny wants a final go on the slot machines in the casino. I buy a fiver's worth of tokens and mainly watch as she gets through them. She gives me a handful and I wait for a machine to become empty and almost immediately win 70 pounds causing the woman who had just vacated it to stare venomously at me as tokens tinkle down into the tray. I cash them in smartish...

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Up and Down in Madeira

Saturday 19 March 2005. Another day, another place. We are up in time to see as we sail into Funchal Harbour on Madeira.

When we were here a year ago it was a very foggy day, caused by sand and dust blown from the Sahara Desert. Today looks like being a bit better weather.

We have booked a morning's excursion and are taken high up into the island's mountains. This is Curral das Freiras - the Nun's Refuge, named after the nuns of the capital Funchal's Santa Clara convent, who fled here during a pirate attack in 1566. The view from above is stunning. Madeira had been attacked by pirates several times. No wonder the nuns wanted to make it as hard as possible for pirates to reach them.

We arrive at a village called Monte. We have come for a toboggan ride down the mountain back towards Funchal. Toboggan? But where's the snow...?

There is no need for snow. The toboggans are made of wickerwork and are pulled, pushed and/or scooted by two gondoliers down the [GULP] public roads of the locality, dodging cars, shoppers and sleeping dogs as they go. The more religious are praying at the roadside shrine and lighting candles to appeal for a safe descent...

"Should we buy some tea towels as a souvenir?" wonders Miss Franny. But there's no point - let's get the toboggan down and if we survive then we can think about souvenirs!

We got near the front of the queue and watched as our fellow passengers eagerly or otherwise disappear down the steep road and around a corner. Despite keeping our ears open we don't hear any car horns blaring or squeals of brakes. So far, so good!

OMG as we zoom down the hill at one point a road crosses our path and the road we are careering down levels off with time for just a swift glance (pick your side, there isn't time to look both ways and certainly no time to stop should anything be coming...) At one point a chap came out of a shop doorway and took our photo. I played up to the occasion and hear the photographer say "Doh..." in Portuguese. Then we got to the bottom some time later to find the guides from all the excursion coaches killing themselves laughing at this - the photographer had been an official souvenir photographer! "I've never seen a photo so funny!" says our coach's courier.

Before we set off down into Funchal, there's time for a photo stop at this viewpoint. Our ship, Sun Cruises, Carousel is the middle of the three cruise ships. The plants in the foreground are banana trees. They grow a smaller strain of banana on Madeira and locally there is much consternation at a rumoured European ruling that bananas are going to be banned under a certain size. The sort of idiotic and baseless decision that ignorant morons in power make at every level of government.

We get down to Funchal and decide not to go straight back to the ship. Having been onboard for two days - a day at sea and then in Morocco - we are wanting to stretch our legs a bit. Typically it starts to rain just as we get off the coach...

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Joining the Sun Cruises Carousel

Tuesday 15 March 2005. We fly from Manchester to Santa Cruz, on Tenerife to join the cruise ship MS Carousel for a week on their tour: Atlantic Islands Cruise.

If this sounds slightly familiar, we did the same cruise on the same ship in 2004 and I have already blogged about that. However this is a different time if not a different place and who knows... we may do different things!

For starters, the weather is a whole lot nicer than it was when we arrived a year ago, when we were celebrating my 50th birthday. This year it will be Miss Franny who hits a milestone but it will be me that has a birthday actually onboard. We'll see what that leads to a few articles hence...

Meanwhile we can relax as lorries bearing luggage, hopefully including ours, arrive at the ship for delivery to our cabin.

Should we take a stroll along the quayside? No, it's almost time for lunch, or afternoon tea... or a snack...

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Atlantic Islands Cruise 2004

A series of articles about our first ever cruise, Atlantic Islands onboard MV Carousel, 2-9 March 2004. Our itinerary is Tenerife > Lanzarote > Morocco > Day at Sea > Madeira > La Palma > Gran Canaria > Tenerife.

Clicking or tapping the photos below will take you to the articles for each day. A link on each page will bring you back here.

Cruise Holidays Index Page