The Last Post connection is ironic as this will be my last post (abroad at least) on this blog as tomorrow morning we shall be boarding the ferry for home.
Teams Nightmare and Trauma packed up and headed for the ferry bright and early this morning. With work on Monday for several, a day at home with loved ones and washing machine beckoned. Nightmare left us a parting gift of Cat. She is a temporary Team Milly member for the last 2 days as she tries to squeeze the last few ounces of holiday out of the trip. She'll be dumped out at her friend Angie's house in Weymouth for a bath as they pass through.
Someone decorated Amba last night. No idea who. I was fast asleep when it was done. Honest. ;-) 
I was asked by a journalist to pick out my highlight of the trip and send him a few of the best photos. To tell the truth, I can't. I have so many great memories from so many great places. All so different too. I have a fair number of great photos too, as have many others on the trip.
When we were in Venice I asked 3 others for their highlight of the trip. I got 7 answers. I asked one other and got another 2 answers. People came on the trip not knowing what to expect but in just about every case have been surprised by what they have found. Attitudes have been changed. We had someone who had never camped before who listed wild camping on the top of a mountain in a thunderstorm as one of her highlights. Another team who were dubious about entering the Wild West Country of Albania who were bowled over by the friendliness of the locals.
From my own point of view, I was asked a few years ago how much I hoped to raise for charity. I plucked a wildly optimistic figure of £10,000 out of the air. By the time everything is totted up when we get back we should have raised in excess of £17,000. I am obviously delighted with that.
Again from a personal point of view, I've travelled and seen some fantastic places. Some I had seen before, many I had never seen, some I really want to return to sometime. It's been a taster session of Europe. As promised, we had variety. City's, rural locations, mountains and beaches.
Lastly, from a personal angle, I've made some great friends. Some real characters who I would be delighted to go on holiday with again. I don't think there was a single person on the trip who I wouldn't be happy to travel with again. It's really what makes a trip, the people you go with, and on that score I was very fortunate on this one. Everyone has gelled and socialised with each other. A great bunch. Thank you one and all for putting your trust in me. I hope I delivered.
And so, what next ? Where do we go in the future ? Well, I can tell you the rough date will be June 2015 and the fact it will be about 15 days long, but in true Windy style, there's no way I'm telling you where. That would spoil the surprise.
So, have I inspired you ? Have you followed this blog wondering if you had it in you to do something like this ? Life is too short. You have 2 years to plan it. Take that step in to the unknown.
This time we had participants ranging in age from 5 to 70+. We had campers and we had teams who stayed in hotels all the way. We had teams from Devon, Dorset, Oxfordshire and even Sweden.
If you are interested, drop me a line. spooky388@hotmail.com. Just to let me know that you may be interested and I'll keep you in the loop for the next one. Now this next one is going to be awesome......
Signing off from the continent.
Spooky
No comments:
Post a Comment