Welcome to North Wales in July...
Even the locals were bemused by the sideways rain and strong winds.
This was in snowdonia, a place where the names of towns have several vowels missing from them. " where have you just come from?" someone would ask. " no idea...it had two LL's at the beginning and an H at the end."
Now before anyone starts jumping up and down about my lack of ability to master a language I will never need, I want to make it clear that a love the idea of people living on a small island such as ours sticking to the welsh language as it feels like they are saying " we have our own identity...get used to it!!"
As you may have guessed we have gone for the idea of keeping a record of our thoughts and experiences. A blog App will be sorted in the future, but we quite like the community feel on here and have read some great stuff on the Hubb.
So, back to Wales. Heike, my wife, had never been there and after the first three days never wanted to go ever again. The sight of the third tent making a break for freedom and attempting to get the record for the fastest time up the mountain next to the campsite put a bit of a damper on things. Nevertheless, we pulled into the carpark at the foot of Mount Snowdon to have a look.... Hmmm covered in cloud. Let's go up, was the snap decision. On went the hiking boots and off we trotted. Then we walked. Then we sat down. Years of smoking, drinking, eating what I want and generally having a good time doing all the fun things I was told not to had kicked in. I had done this climb twice before, so what's the problem.... Ahhh twenty years passing since then maybe the reason.
We pushed on and the old joints and muscles started to remember what they were supposed to do again...there I was thinking 53 was a good age for a RTW trip...maybe I should have made it 43. Still, walk up and get the train down...easy. Errr NO, after high winds which tried to push us off the mountain, admittedly the quickest way down, the train was stopped. Guess that's more walking then! Three days later I am happy to report that our legs were still made of a cross between jelly and shaving foam with the pain only kicking in if we tried to stand up.
Driving south down the coast the weather changed.. Sun, sun and sun. By now our
hunt was in full swing and we were enjoying the very different welsh
. We met great people and sampled many different campsites ranging from the tiny one in St David's called Whitesands right on the beach which we would highly recommend if you like hanging out with surf dudes, getting drunk, dancing and watching the sun go down...we liked it so much we stayed four days..
then there was the largest campsite in Europe.. Shell island, with great views across the beach and bay to snowdonia.
By now you maybe wondering why no pretty photos??..well our old iPad Mk1 can just cope with logging onto the Hubb, but can't upload pics. So if your bored reading, just skip to the next post where I will use my phone for pics. It looks like we may splash out on a latest iPad or even a apple laptop as I may end up eating the iPad in frustration.
Pembrokeshire was stunning...if you haven't been...go there. This whole " lets see stuff in the uk" was working out well as we headed into Cornwall via London. Those of you used to a map would think we have the road sense of a hedgehog, but Heike needed her last course of jabs at the doctors. Yeah, great organisational skills I know.
Cornwall we have been to many times...me since I was a kid, but it's our favourite place in the uk and we can't get enough of the place. Then the real reason why we were hanging around the uk kicked in with a phone call at 4.30am... Daughter in hospital... Baby on the way...so we're we and that day headed for London.
That's where we find ourselves now. Sitting in our daughters house ( which is very odd, proper bed and four walls with a talking box in the corner of the room) where we will stay for awhile to help out due to complications during the birth. Mum and baby are ok, but it was seriously touch and go.
The question is where next?? With a fantastic summer we are having it is obvious it won't last for long. We love cold wet climates as much as we love a dose of dysentery. Wanting to see eastern Europe next summer before Russia has other ideas, we have to stay quite local. The idea maybe to hang out in Crete or morrocco. We could even fly to Thailand and backpack around Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Crete seems favourite at the moment...then again maybe... Insert ideas here...
Thoughts on things so far is we don't think it has quite sunk in yet that we are on our travels.. Could it be..
1) only been away one month.
2) not left the uk.
3) old age so nothing sinks in.
Campsites....
With the couples we meet the male is usually mad keen to do an extended trip into the unknown. Where as the female usually drags him away as he pops the question " what do you think darling??...we could do this!" followed by a refusal to speak to us the next day for putting stupid ideas in his head.
Whistling in toilet/shower blocks...
The rear of these structures should be used to tie the culprits up and make them stand on plastic
crates barefoot. Why do these guys feel the need to do this?? I have a couple of theory's....
1) not allowed to do this at home.
2) to mask the fact that they make a noise while sitting on the toilet.
3) so they don't have to say " hello" to others.
4) think it acually sounds good.
5) so that no one pushes the toilet door while they are in there.
Whatever the reason this has to stop...I am told by my wife that this is a male only habit which means if you bump into me exiting a ladies toilet in the future you will understand why.
Types of campsite.....
Not sure where we are at with this one. The cleanliness and regimented rules of the camping and caravan club... Hmmm not sure. The remoteness of a site with no facilities.... Hmmm not sure. The party anything goes site.... Hmmm not sure. The holiday resort, pub and amusements on site... Hmmm not sure.
One thing that has become a pain is explaining that our tent is on the roof... We don't bother anymore as the first few places said they didn't have that type of description on their computer.. Errr it's a car and a tent you numb nuts. We don't know what to charge you... IT'S A CAR AND A TENT!! The fact is we take up less space because the tent is on the roof... So it's a motorhome??.......
. We don't bother now.
The truck has been behaving well despite the very hot weather and the reputation for 3ltr surfs to overheat. No doubt we will shed a few kilos along the way ( the truck..not me) when we sort out stuff we really don't need. Strange how you find yourself looking at six tshirts and thinking that's four too many.
I will post up more details about the truck at a later date, as I really enjoy reading about others trucks for ideas etc.
That's it for now.... Pics to follow...
Cheers all... Kevin and Heike.
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I guess we will add lots of other standard stuff about us..the truck and when we have an idea of what we are doing, routes etc.
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