Cornwall - A Monkey Puzzle Tree Spotter's Heaven

So last summer me and Nathalie decided to holiday down in the South West of England. Starting with a quick stop in Dorset to visit Monkey World (not that surprising), from where, after a night's camping at the excellent campsite Longthorns Farm next door, we headed to Cornwall for a week of camping before returning to London via a one night stopover in Devon. From my research I knew was likely to see quite a few Monkey Puzzle trees but what transpired exceeded even my greatest expectations.

Our campsite East Crinnis Holiday Park just outside the small town of Par is located close to the fabulous Crinnis beach, which had pop-up food and drink all Summer. It was at the gates of the campsite I saw my first Monkey Puzzle tree of the holiday, a rather splendid specimen graced the driveway to the site.

Campsite In Par

As we drove around the area I was convinced I could see a huge Monkey Puzzle tree on the horizon to the North of us. Nathalie wasn't convinced but my hunch proved right when checking the Monkey Map site I discovered a large number of trees were located in the grounds of Tregrehan House just to the North of where we were staying! The only problem was that according to the internet Tregrehan Gardens wasn't open whilst we were staying in Cornwall, however as we were planning a day at the Lost Gardens of Heligan the next day we decided we had nothing to lose if we stopped off at Tregrehan House to see whether we could see the trees or not. Much to my delight it was possible to drive up to the house and there in front of us was a magnificent collection of Monkey Puzzle trees.Their ages ranging from +100 years to new saplings, whether they were planted or a result of natural fertilisation is hard to tell but they were protected by wire and will ensure that there will be a healthy number of trees for future generations to admire. In total we counted 44 trees, which went down with Nat as her favourite number is 4 and any combinations of 4s. This meant my total number of tress seen had broken through the 200 barrier and now stood at 206!

Tregrehan House 1

Tregrehan House 2

Tregrehan House 3

Tregrehan House 4

Tregrehan House 5

Tregrehan House 6

Tregrehan House 7

Tregrehan House 8

Tregrehan House 9

So after such a brilliant morning we headed off to the Lost Gardens Of Heligan where we were spoilt by such a diverse and fascinating gardens. Amongst all the incredible sights, one of my favourites being the Jungle, I was able to locate and see another 9 Monkey Puzzle trees dotted around the gardens.

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 1

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 2

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 3

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 4

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 5

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 6

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 7

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 8

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 9

Lost Gardens Of Heligan 10

So our holiday in Cornwall had got off to an incredible start Monkey Puzzle Tree-wise, far better than I could have hoped. We spent the afternoon in the wonderful village of Megavissey where we went out on a boat mackerel fishing, only to be treated to a pod of dolphins swimming by the boat!

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 215

2 New Trees And A Sad Ending

Wow, it's been just over a year to the day since my last post! I can honestly say my quest for seeing as many Monkey Puzzle trees as possible really took off over last summer but I will leave that story to another post very soon.

What I first need to say is that last May was when the wonderful Monkey Map project, run by the incredible Sarah Horton, came to an end. I have to be honest and say it did not surprise me that Sarah felt her work was done. I find it hard enough keeping up this blog with just my own finds but trying to keep up to date with the hundreds of sightings sent in from all the other enthusiastic 'hunters' out there, which is what the project was getting, must have been quite something else. So I'd just like to once again say a massive thank you to Sarah for not only helping me and so many others find Monkey Puzzle trees to see but for also showing me that the fact that there are others out there like me means I may not be as crazy as I thought I was! I still use her catalogue to find trees when I visit areas and hope that her wonderful database will remain for a source of locations for years to come.

With the end of the project and its cataloguing system I have decided to take this as a chance to readjust how I log my finds, especially as this will make it easier for me to keep this blog up to date. From now I will be just counting the trees I have seen and logging their location. This means that I will still keep my Map up to date but my own catalogue will be less 'accurate' relating to the trees I've seen. In practical terms this means that if I see a group of say 78 trees like Knolls Wood I will post photographs of some if not all of the trees but I will no longer be that worried about posting a picture of every tree or whether I identify each individual tree posted/counted. I have also dropped the trees yet to see category as it really is not that important, I know there are quite a few thousand trees out there I need to see so there is really no need in highlighting this fact. I will also drop the Monkey Map label as well as the front garden etc. label as they are not that essential to my quest.

So onto new trees, first off is this large tree I came across visiting Ruislip.

Ruislip Monkey Puzzle Tree No. 3

The second was spotted in Northampton. The reason for the visit was to attend the funeral of my wonderful uncle Vic. He was a very special person who provided so much laughter throughout my life that the World will not be quite the same without him. He had been suffering from terminal cancer for a while when he decided that he liked the idea of holding a wake before he died, the idea being that was he would have the chance to see, share memories and say goodbye to as many people he knew as possible. The idea was genius and everyone who went felt that it is something they would do now given the chance. This tree was just opposite the pub we held his 2nd wake after his funeral.

Northampton

So that is all for now, I will be updating the blog with my summer travels very soon.

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 161

Twee Slangeden (Apenboom) In 's-Hertogenbosch

To mark the 500th year since his death, Het Noordbrabants Museum in the Netherlands has been presenting an exhibition, ‘Jheronimus Bosch - Visions of Genius’, from 13th February to 8th May this year. For one time only, the majority of his work was returned to his city, Den Bosch, which is officially known as ’s-Hertogenbosch.

As Hieronymus Bosch is Nathalie's absolute favourite artist, as an Xmas pressie, I arranged for us to go to the exhibition the weekend after Easter. We stayed at the amazing Cuba Casa B&B, which I can't recommend highly enough. The same applies to the delightful city of Den Bosch, which could not have been more welcoming. Everything about the city was delightful, from the food to the people who couldn't be more friendly if they tried, having visited Amsterdam a few times it was a real pleasure to experience another, more normal, side to the Netherlands.

The Garden Of Earthly Delights

The Trees Have Ears And
The Field Has Eyes

Visions Of The Hereafter

On the train journey from Schipol Airport to Den Bosch I noticed a fair number of conifers dotted around the flat landscape. Walking around the city and to its outskirts we also came across many fine trees, however there wasn't a Monkey Puzzle tree to be seen. I have to be honest I did start to moan, half seriously, about the Dutch's lack of Monkey Puzzles, especially as there surely is no better tree that captures Jheronimus Bosch' surrealism! So imagine my surprise, delight and shame when on our way back form our evening meal we came across this beautiful specimen in a front garden!

My First Non UK Monkey Puzzle Tree In Den Bosch 

Monkey Puzzle Tree In Den Bosch

Having achieved my first non UK Monkey Puzzle tree sighting I couldn't expect our trip could get any better. However, I was soon proved wrong the next day when we sighted Monkey Puzzle tree number 2 'hiding' behind a wall in a park funnily enough called Jeroen Bosch tuin (Jeroen was what Jheronimus' family called him and tuin means park).

My Second Non UK Monkey Puzzle Tree In Den Bosch

I Was Clearly Happy To Find Tree 2 Hiding Behind A Wall

So in the end not only did I get to see the work of one of the greatest painters to have graced the Earth I also managed to record my first 2 non UK Monkey Puzzle trees, all in all a near perfect holiday. 

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 159      Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 15

Knolls Wood - A Wonder To Behold

As I mentioned in my last post I was lucky enough to find an incredible avenue of Monkey Puzzle trees at Knolls Wood online which I went to see with Nathalie in January. To our amazement we counted 78 Monkey Puzzles, ranging from numerous giants to small saplings , even this might be an underestimation of all the trees. To this end we plan to revisit the avenue again very soon when we intend to catalogue threes more accurately, I will also post a bit more about the woods then.

Walking amongst the stands of trees it was easy to imagine we had been transported all the way to Chile, the home of the Araucaria araucana. It was a beautiful crisp winter's day and to our surprise when we looked up at the magnificent umbrella tops of the huge trees surrounding us a smiling rainbow appeared despite there being no sign of rain at all, a truly special moment in a truly special place. 

At Both Ends Of The Rainbow There Was A Monkey Puzzle Tree

Knolls Wood 1

Knolls Wood 2

Knolls Wood 3

Knolls Wood 4

Knolls Wood 5

Knolls Wood 6

Knolls Wood 7

Knolls Wood 8

Knolls Wood 9

Knolls Wood 10

Knolls Wood 11

Knolls Wood 12

Knolls Wood 13

Knolls Wood 14

Knolls Wood 15

Knolls Wood 16

Knolls Wood 17

Knolls Wood 18

Knolls Wood 19

Knolls Wood 20

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 157      Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 15

A Few Tress On The Way To And From Monkey Puzzle Nirvana

Since I began my quest I have discovered, not unsurprisingly, that many other people around the World share my love for Monkey Puzzle Trees. Thanks to the incredible work of Sarah Horton who created and manages the Monkey Map, we now have a common place where we can 'register' our finds. This catalogue gives every single Monkey Puzzle Tree a label based on the UK postcode area where it is located and means that whenever a tree is discovered it can easily be cross checked by us enthusiasts to see if it is indeed a ‘new’ tree that we've found. Recently Sarah announced a postcode challenge encouraging people to try and find at least one Monkey Puzzle Tree in any of the 19 areas that still hadn't had a single tree spotted.

With this is in mind I spent a rather productive afternoon trawling the internet looking for possible trees in the Uxbridge post code (UB) area as it is reasonably close to where I live. I managed to locate 2 trees but also stumbled across one in the Luton (LU) area which also needed a tree. As that weekend promised glorious winter sun me & Nathalie decided to spend a day in the country near Dunstable looking for the LU tree (a country pub lunch being the final convincer) with the plan being to spot the 2 UB trees on the way home. As we were heading out to Dunstable I thought it might be worth seeing if I could find any other trees in the area and to my surprise I came across a place just outside Leighton Buzzard called Knolls Wood, which promised an avenue of Monkey Puzzle Trees, something I have never had the pleasure of seeing for real!

Saturday was indeed a beautiful day and we were soon turning off the M1 and heading into the LU postcode hunting ground. Before we even reached any of the tress we were heading for we manage to spot 2 trees in West Dunstable.

West Dunstable (LU3)

West Dunstable (LU4)

I am still in awe at what we saw at Knolls Wood. First we were greeted by a housing estate built amongst huge Redwoods that had been planted at the same time as the Monkey Puzzle avenue. The avenue itself exceeded all my expectations and I will be posting my account with pictures in my next post very soon. All I will say for now is that we counted 78 trees from huge 100+ year old specimens to tiny new trees that looked liked they had grown from the larger trees seeds. Unfortunately for the Monkey Map we were not really properly equipped to catalogue the trees accurately so we plan to return when the days are longer to record all the trees there properly! This link shows a small part of the the avenue in 3D - 3D Photo From Knolls Wood.

On the way to finding the other tree in Eggington we knew about we managed to spot another one on the other side of the village. Then to my surprise the huge tree we knew about turned out to have a smaller sibling growing in its shadow. Finally LU gave us one more tree as we headed off to find a pub for dinner! Since the trip I have read that Luton Hoo hotel apparently has a Monkey Puzzle Tree avenue as well so it would seem LU is in fact a very good postcode for a monkey Puzzle Tree hunter!

Eggington 1 (LU5)

Eggington 2 (LU1)

Eggington 3 (LU2)

Stanbridge (LU6)

A quick search on Google came up with a promising pub in Sarratt called The Cricketters that I had vague recollections of as I grew up not that far way, so we headed off for a  well deserved dinner. Unbelievably before we even reached the pub we spotted another huge tree.

Sarratt (WD11)

Having had a As the sun was beginning to set we finally arrived in Uxbridge & Greenford where we managed to find the two trees in the UB postcode we had hoped to see. Both quite impressive trees with the Uxbridge one having a lovely position at the front between two houses, where hopefully it will never be an issue regarding blocking off light, something I am beginning to realise is the cause of many Monkey Puzzle Trees's demise.

Greenford (UB1)

Uxbridge (UB2)

So all in all it was an incredible day of Monkey Puzzle Tree spotting thanks to out trusty van Geoff and Nathalie's shared enthusiasm for spotting Monkey Puzzle Trees (& a day out in the country with a pub lunch thrown in).

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 79      Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 15

BDO Darts Final Gives Me Not 180 But Number 70

On the way to the BDO darts with Nathalie and 4 mates we were discussing my quest to see Monkey Puzzle trees. I was explaining about the Monkey Map that is logging all the trees in the world, when overhearing our conversation the lovely taxi driver informed us that there was a pub in Farnborough called the Monkey Puzzle which did have a Monkey Puzzle tree! Unfortunately we didn't have time to divert to it but decided if the darts finished really earlier we'd check it out.

Fortunately for me a few minutes later we spotted a tree in Mytchett, Surrey, however I didn't get a chance to take a photo but have managed to grab this image from Google Street View. It would have been nice if it had been my 180th tree but it did take my tally to 70.

Street View Picture Of Mytchett Monkey Puzzle Tree (GU8)

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 70      Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 15