Typically Tropical

Replete with Cornish Pasty, we ventured into the Tropical domes at the Eden Project, trying to distance ourselves from the unruly groups of children who were not being supervised by their teachers.

Things were much more lush in these warmer domes.

Of course, a 'selfie' was necessary...!

As you would expect in a rainforest environment, water was the main theme, with streams running through the plants and many waterfalls, which gave a nice background sound.

Here, as in the temperate zone, flowers were a little scarce, but what few there were, made a brave show.

More rushing water, this time from a much larger waterfall.

The humid conditions allowed for some wonderful epiphytic 'Spanish Moss' Tillandsia, to grow from the branches of overhanging trees.

The Pineapples were not quite ready for picking, or we might have been tempted to help ourselves!

One of the highlights of these tropical domes, were the Roul-roul, or Crested Partridges which ran around our feet. Malcolm took these pictures, firstly of the female bird...

and the male.

Their constant twittering, little calls were as delightful as the birds themselves as they worked hard keeping down the population of bugs which might be detrimental to the health of the plants.
Leaving the domes behind, we visited the art installation called 'Infinity Blue'. This is a huge sculpture 8.5 metres tall, representing a tiny cyanobacteria which appears to 'breathe' a scented vapour which it puffs out periodically, in smoke rings. A strange concept, but weirdly mesmerising!

Time to leave and head out via the vastly over-priced gift shop. Needless to say, we didn't purchase anything from there, but the prices certainly gave us a laugh on the way out!