The Glass of Wine, The Campfire and The Awfully Big Adventure

[notwavingjustironing]

We've all blethered on pleasantly on Seashells' lovely previous thread and, with the school holidays approaching, lots of us are about to start our summer adventures( not all of which are in tents....!) This thread is for us all to check back in and generally keep in touch. So we've packed up our Icey-Teks and our Tarps and our Death Socks, gently doused the burning embers of our planning campfire and rinsed out the wine glasses.

We're ready for our Awfully Big Adventure.

Come and talk about yours here (even if you're staying put!)

Quenelle, thanks for the warning. Hmm, will do some more research then, but fear the weather patterns probably haven't changed that much, global warming or not!

We haven't had to pay more for roofbox on ferry or tunnel before, no.

Slubber, I love buffs too - so useful!

Sorry, had to do something halfway through that post so missed your posts ,Jetli and SeaShells.

Good luck for packing, JetLi. Ds is usually unpacking faster than I can pack, so resorted to always leaving a day late packing in the evenings.

Damn SeaShells, what a disappointment! That emperor tent does look wonderful, doesn't it?! Weirdly dh is really really keen on it, I'm surprised. We've always slightly regretted having chosen the 4m instead on 5m, and dh has said before that we could buy a bigger one if I really wanted. Don't really need it, so I haven't. But then on that other thread where there was a slightly imperfect 5m bell for £150, I got very excited, but then he kept going on about whether we shouldn't get an emperor instead (I also showed him that thread). I do worry about pitching size, but apparently not bigger than some "modern" tunnel tents etc. Am waiting after Holland though - you sometimes get cheapish De Waard tents on Dutch equivalent of Ebay, so I need to be very very very sure about what best forever tent would be. As it would be just that.

Calais was ever so common too MissSal

Calais was ever so common too MissSal

Tee hee. That was for Slubber. I'm not even on my BB

I see what you did there quenelle

Sal I know, but if the weather looks good I'm sure we will do something last minute.

It's rather a symptom of things at the moment...too busy, too little time, too little money, too little children!! We do lots of fun stuff though :) the benefit of living by the coast!

Came back to caravan to the most awful smell imaginable...vile, ugh.

Cleaned waste water and toilet, no improvement.

I moved a picnic rug from chair in awning, there staring at me all squat and brown...a frog/toad. Could this really have produced such a vile vile smell? Really, it's taken 2 hours to unwrinkle my nose!

Lost good luck on your return...hope it continues being as fab an adventure.

Slubber pleeease take pics of you in death garb!

Please send easy journey vibes...I've not been the best of passengers since ending up upsidedown on a car journey back from devon! Unbelievably crochet helps.

Toad farts are the worst [wise outdoorsy nod]

Easy journey vibes on their way scaryt.

have a good w/e Jet

That's too bad SeaShells. Sorry you have had to cancel some trips. Sometimes life it like that, just too busy to fit everything in. Maybe some trips in sept?

Sal, they are so useful aren't they, buffs that is not muffs, not to say that muffs aren't useful, nay essential for some activities just not so much on the camping front. I read that some extreme rugged folk use their buffs to strain water through.

See now I am thinking muffs.

scary, huge travelling vibes for you.
But on the photograph front. No way hosé. I might get dh to photograph me from behind. MIGHT. If I've had plenty of German beer first.

Oh and at Quenelle's double posting gag.

You trickster you.

Hahahaha Slubber. Filthy minds, the lot of you!

Yep, I've got this one photo of us in the Amazon, my hair back with buff, ds wearing his to cover neck and head (just under two at that stage), and the reaction is normally utter shock from my stylish friends (I never was or will be, buff or no buff), and tutting from anyone over 50 re ds. Hey ho, we had a ball. I used to think it's just a glorified scarf thingy, why would you want to pay so much for it, but now don't go anywhere without.

Poor scary, hope journey passes quickly.

So this toad thingy then, awful you say? I've been lucky enough to not know what you're talking about. Well, I know what a toad is, obviously, but the smell.

I went blackberry picking earlier. Didn't see the stinging nettle before pushing my arm right in. Owww. Fancy cooking jam. Have never done it though, so planning on doing some research tonight then pretending I'm superwoman to dh. He's away on business at the moment, so I'm just going to pretend it's one of these skills I've never had the need to share, but they're there. Oh yes. Am planning on memorising recipe and everything, then saying "oh this old thing..." Having known eachother for millions of years he'll never believe it, but I'm entertaining myself with the thought.

Seashells, impromptu trips are often the best. How lovely would camping be this weekend, I'm envious of some of you than can this weekend. Might pitch bell top in garden and have a fancy pancy picnic with my as yet non-existing superjam.

AMAZON!!!!

You went to the Amazon with ds?

WOW.

Tell us more.

Oh and blackberry jam sounds fabulous. I am told jam making is a doodle but have never moved beyond chutney myself.

Yep, it was amazing. It's the trips to Pizza Express that I find stressful, mountains, rivers and potential malaria infected areas are a doddle. Just joking about malaria, I'm careful about that. Have a super duper magical water purification bottle that we carry around too. Drank river water through it and we were fine. So either world's most amazing immunity or it is indeed magic. That and your death outfit and you could rule the world.

We used to do adventure-y kind of travel quite a bit before we had ds, and Peru was one of the places we really wanted to go to, but then work got a bit manic and we couldn't get 3 weeks off at once. By the time we could eventually, I was pregnant, so didn't want to risk it. Thought that's it for the next 10 years or so, but ds was fine, he loved it and Peruvian people so child friendly it was wonderful. In restaurants the staff would play with him so much (despite our initial 5 minutes' protestation of not wanting to inconvenience them) that we'd actually be able to have dinner. Oh yes, indeed, dinner. Ah, could live there really. Went to Machu Picchu for about a week, another week around Sacred Valley, and then a week in the jungle.

Hoping to go to Thailand (well, Laos specifically, but will start in Thailand) over Christmas if dh can get more than 1 week at a time off. Have done Cambodia and Vietnam, but travel in Laos was a bit restricted at the time.

We always do it independently though, so don't inconvenience others on a group. Actually, I'd HATE a group anyway, but I think it would be a bit unfair on others taking a small child anyway, as we stop whenever he wants to and just go with the flow.

Of course none of the above would have worked if ds wasn't in essence a monkey. He'd happily live off bananas and oranges for however long we'd let him.

Hmm, sorry about that, I got a bit carried away. I just love travel, will take a year off if I win tonight's Euromillions.

I'm very impressed Sal! Where did you go, what did you do? We trekked in the annapurnas (Nepal) and there was a German family with a 18mth old. this was pre dc and we thought they were mad, of course post dc it now seems the less stressful trip (most stressful currently being cafes or restaurants-no hope!)

I went blackberrying in the garden today too-there are some benefits of the communal areas to our flats being scrub!!

I had no idea toads stink

Ooh, Nepal, would love to go!

Peru we flew London-Lima-Cusco and then taxi to Ollantaytambo, where we stayed in a guesthouse for just over a week. Cheated and went up Machu Picchu by train though and just climbed over everything there for the day - didn't want to do trail with toddler. Day trips to various places in Sacred Valley from there - so amazing. Two days in Cusco, then flew to Puerto Maldonado and from there river boat / ferry thing to cross and then 4x4 to lodge. Hikes and river trips from there. Fab. World's most annoying website ever, but actually great irl. Highly recommended if any of you fancy, I can bore you to death with itineraries - dont' just ask.

Have done quite a lot pre-ds actually, but only really Peru and India after if you exclude city breaks. Well, and South Africa, but doesn't count as it's family there.

Camping is my new adventure travel / get away from it all thing. I love it, and really had no idea before.

PS: With you on cafes and restaurants being stress-central!

Dh's flight delayed, ds asleep and I can only eat so much crisps. Talk to me. Nonono, I don't care if you've actually got a life.

Nepal was amazing-we went for 3 weeks and trekked for 15 days. Stunning, a,amazing people, architecture incredible. Would love to see the Himalayas in all seasons (we went end of monsoon so walked in alpine flower meadows at 4400m rather than snow fields :) ) both my sis and my mum have been to Peru and loved it. I want to go to Chile-there is some amazing scenery there!

Costa rica is also on my list....actually most of the world is, there are so many incredible places to go to!

That sounds just amazing! Oh wow, just wow.

Hmm, Costa Rica, you say? Off to google in a minute.

Dh really wants to go to Cuba, which we might do if we can't get enough leave. We'd both hate a resort (well, him more than me, actually, but I suspect I might get bored), so a week should be enough. More always better etc etc, but leave is what it is.

That's the thing with the world - it's just SO amazing. The more you experience, the more you want to. We've got this big book, uhm, can't remember, will have a look, but it's got all these photos of all over the world. Man, I'd love to see at least some of them before all the chocolates I eat kill me off.

Ah, it's The Travel Book (LP). Beautiful, droolsome photos.

Dh has spent the evening smoking out manky amphibian smell with the cobb! My brand new chair smells worse than a sewer.

Sal, your amazon adventures sound amazin together with the magic purifying bottle.

Are you on a iPad or iPhone? Check out fotopedia for inspiration! Stunning pictures :)

My sil was in Cuba for 6mths and loved it, though I think it's changing as it opens up.