The Lost Gardens of Heligan
[The Great Escape, day two: written 12th August, 2005]
There’s something romantic about the ‘Lost’ part isn’t there? Even though The Lost Gardens of Heligan have the usual complement of car parks, gift shops and tea rooms, it still has the air of somewhere that might require a machete and a pith helmet to get into.
Heligan covers an enormous area (about 200 hectares in total), and there’s a surprise around every corner. The Jungle and Lost Valley are a delight, with palms, bananas and giant gunnera crowding the jungle part of the valley, which has a sub-tropical micro-climate. It’s warm, green and humid, and if it weren’t for the hordes of other visitors and the carefully maintained boardwalks, you might believe yourself to be somewhere much more exotic than Cornwall.
