kestrel

It’s a lot further to Team Waste Summer Camp now than it used to be (it’s held up a hill, outside Carmarthen in West Wales), so we set off at 9.15 on Thursday morning, and arrived at about 5 p.m, having stopped for lunch near Llangollen, and for fuel and a chocolate frenzy at Newtown. Oh, and sweeteners, 270 odd of the 300 of which Geoff kindly hurled across the kitchen floor on Thursday night :)

It was, as always, a supremely enjoyable few days, but … odd, somehow. No Rick’n'Jacqi, no Rox’n'Dave, no Benjamins, no Sleeps. And it felt as though we were all getting old, which we are, of course.  I didn’t even do much cooking – just a big chorizo and chickpea collation for Saturday lunch. We brought home a bottle and a half of the two bottles of whisk(e)y we took, whereas normally we’d be out for emergency supplies of Bushmills on Saturday morning, and also the litre of dark rum – no Dark and Stormies this year, for some reason.

It was also bloody cold at night – my sleeping bag has been judged and found wanting, and I shall be donating it to some unfortunate charity and buying a new one before we go camping again!

After promising ourselves we would do it for the past thirteen years, we actually went out and about a bit – on Saturday morning we took ourselves down to Llansteffan, hiked up and around the castle, then a couple of miles along the very gloopy beach, encountering a second hand book sale (oops) en route, and on Sunday we took a good hike along Pendine Sands, which is just gorgeous. The latter was prompted by a rip in the outer skin of the tent, and thus an emergency run to a tenting shop for repairer stuff.

We managed to get away about 9.30 on Monday morning – much earlier than I’d have liked , time wise, as loads of people hadn’t surfaced to be said goodbye to, but … We planned to stop again at Llangollen and look at the aquaduct (what did the Romans, etc), but so were seemingly hundreds of other people, so we’ve promised ourselves an overnighter there later in the year – it looks a charming place. Got home just after five, to find that Samantha and John had accustomed the Tribe to a style which they are going to want sustained – seriously, guys, a HUGE THANK YOU, for cat sitting above and beyond any feasible expectation.

Today we’re spodding – photos on Flickr, a trip to Sainsburys as we had run out of everything, much laundering, cat fussing, etc.

And of course, massive thanks to Caere Campbell for yet another cracking party – should we do it again, do you think? :)