Ah, Wales. What’s not to love? (well, apart from the Barry Island Pleasure Park, which is the Welsh equivalent of hell on earth). The friendly people; the quiet roads; the picturesque camping grounds; the gentle, lilting accent; the jumble of consonants that pass for words; the scenery which feels like a mix of Britain and NZ, proving both novel and comfortingly familiar at the same time. Wales is quite probably my favourite part of the trip so far.
And on the days when the sun is shining, we haven’t taken our third wrong exit off a roundabout, and our camping ground set up — bikes off, van levelled, pop-top up, awning out, dinner cooking — is like a well-oiled machine, we feel like we’ve got this.
But we all know the structure of my posts by now — and by “all”, I may have only one reader left at this point (hi Mum 👋) — a one-two punch of positivity followed by details of the darker moments. This time it wasn’t the the stresses of travelling that got us down, but the terribly sad news that our cat Max had become unwell and needed to be put down, which led to some very tearful goodbyes over video call to NZ.
As we say goodbye to Wales, we also farewell our good friends and summer camping buddies, the Chamberlain family. Throughout the ups and downs, we have simply loved having them by our sides, and have hugely appreciated their organisation and planning, the laughs and banter, and their constant support through the harder moments.
Another readers here😜👆. Amazing photos😍😍. You seem to have a really good time, enjoy!!! Macbay miss you. Cheers😘
You’ve got an avid reader in me. Love these updates. You’ve got quite the talent for writing. Ms Eames woulda loved that back in the day. Not bad photography talent either.