Sunday 6th August
8 teens. 5 nationalities. 1 Dream Team.
What a day it’s been uniting all of our travellers in London! From dashing between tubes in London to long haul flights from all over the world it’s safe to say our team have had a big day! Sam and Cam welcomed all the children to their new mission for the next two weeks: exploring as much of the UK as possible.
The group started off with a rendezvous at King’s Cross’s iconic ‘Platform 9 3/4’ and were soon chatting like they were old friends catching up after a few years. After an adventure on the underground and a quick Power Nap for some we all ended up at our luxurious hostel in Camden. With the team finally complete we headed off to see the sights of Chinatown and find somewhere we could have a well deserved feast – we definitely weren’t disappointed! With full belly’s and plenty of leftovers our travellers headed back for a much needed rest and recharge ready for the adventures that awaited them next…
Monday 7th August
Wonders of Windermere.
A fun-filled morning in London, we were filled with a full breakfast consisting of continental to an English feast.
Lucky we did as we started our adventure on some of the greatest sights of London! We headed over to a few shops for some essentials and then to Buckingham palace! We were thrilled that there was even a Royal Escort when we got there! So all of the horses and guards paraded back into the palace. We then moved over to Big Ben, watched the clock strike and walked on.
We headed back over to Euston for some lunch from many delicious places, but not before collecting some essentials for our days forward.
We were then on our way to get our train! Chop choo, all aboard the train to Windermere!
When we arrived we had some decadent kebabs all round, yum yum.
We took a scenic taxi journey to get to our destination, through all the country rodes, up and down hills; to finally reach our wonderful yurts! We couldn’t believe the beautiful scenery behind us.
In the evening we all made fires to keep us warm and headed to bed. Ready for the next morning.
Over and out.
Ps the grasshopper is called Jim, he is a friend.
The yurts are a dream that satisfies a part of me I never knew I needed.
Max 2023
Tuesday 8th August
Day Trip to Edinburgh
After a refreshing sleep in our new home at the yurts, intrepid explorers woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed. To start off the day we filled our boots with a delightful continental breakfast picked out by the campers consisting of everything from cornflakes through to chocolatines. After filling their boots with food and a refreshing shower our travellers felt ready to take on the day! Todays mission: A day trip to Edinburgh.
We packed our bags and got ready for the train journey up north to good old Scotland to see the sights. Before we even arrived at any attractions the team saw a truly Scottish site – a group of men in kilts. Upon our arrival at Waverley station we set out on our first priority: finding some good lunch! After we all refuelled after the journey we split into two groups. One group would take on the hike up to the worlds famous Arthur’s seat while the other group went to explore the beautiful Holyrood palace!
Our team of adventures were lucky enough to have the Sun on our side which made the hike up to Arthur’s seat very pleasant, if it wasn’t for the wind the weather would’ve been almost too perfect! With breathtakingly scenic views to be seen at the top we felt that our mission had been very successful and headed back to meet with the rest of our friends who had an incredible time in the palace, exploring the pristine palace gardens as well as Mary Queen of Scots chamber where many of our teens claim they saw the original blood stains of David Rizzio that are still left on the floor of her supper room from all the way back in 1566.
After a long and busy day we all headed back on the train to treat ourselves to one of the teams favourites – a Chinese takeaway! Laughs were shared and stories were told until our bellies were full and we were all ready to collapse into bed and rest up ready for what tomorrow would bring us…
Over and out!
Wednesday 9th & Thursday 10th August
Summer scrambles and kick back and relax
Morning morning from the Lake District.
We started our epic mornings in the best kinda way with a slap up breakfast, consisting of sausages, bacon and for some black pudding and a look into the beautiful countryside among us.
After this we set our sights ahead on a super scrambling session!! We hopped in our taxis, admired the scenery along the way until being led to the most magnificent ghyll and met our instructor for the mission ahead. We headed down into the river and were climbing across the great boulders, up the giant waterfalls and swimming in all the pools! We had an amazing afternoon and this made us incredibly tired, so we ended our day on an early dinner in the local pub! We had fish and chips galore, pies, pastas! You name it, we had it! We then headed back to out glorious yurts for an early night, ready for the next day.
We woke up the next morning to enjoy a very relaxing day, enjoying each others company, playing some games and having our last day in the yurts before moving on.
Today it was pancake day on teen travel! We had stacks upon stacks, filled with honey and chocolate spread for breakfast. We then sat around together and enjoyed some card games! Tensions were high when it came to kemps, but the teams kept it together and gave signals so their member knew when to shout KEMPS! After the morning, we enjoyed some grilled cheese sandwiches all round! Cooked by the very own chef Cam, we devoured about 15 of them as a group, which filled us for an active afternoon. We got the football out and enjoyed some games of penalty shootout, whoop whoop! Followed by several more card games. By the time it was evening we set up our fabulous BBQ station, we had chef Sam on the steaks and chef Cam on the pasta section. We all chipped in to create some delicious food, which we all enjoyed together under the sun.
After we had cleared away we finished up with toasting some marshmallows around the fire and telling stories. BUT the evening was not over; on our yurt sight we had wonderful-wood fired hot tubs which we lit up and enjoyed under the stars, to end our spectacular time in our yurts.
We now move onto our next stop Manchester!
Over and out.
Friday 11th August
Journey to Manchester!
Getting up early can always be difficult, but knowing that we were awaking to clean and leave the yurts it was particularly hard. With heavy hearts we emptied out the ash from our fires and BBQs and by 10am we were on the road again back to Windermere train station for the last time. When we arrived we bought some hot lunch from the local shop to fill us up ready for the journey ahead. After a few bumps in the road with delayed trains and one of our connections being cancelled our travellers improvised, adapted and overcame to finally arrive at our next destination – Salford (Manchester)!
After a quick walk to our Air BnB, we all got settled in to our home for the next couple of days and then headed out to explore! A trip to Salford shopping centre saw many different shops that are only found in the UK. Once our travellers had finished exploring and buying souvenirs we headed over to the local supermarket to buy ingredients for our decadent dinner of steak and chicken stir fry! We all ate until we were ready to pop and surprisingly enough we managed to finish both massive bowls cooked by our master chefs Cam and Sam.
After we’d had time to recover from our food comas we ended the day with a brilliant game of sardines that seemed to get harder and harder each round with our teens finding more and more creative ways to hide themselves. With so much happening in one day it’s safe to say we were all ready for bed. I’m sure everyone can agree that after 3 wonderful days in our Yurts, staying in our new house will feel like sleeping in a palace!
Over and out!
Saturday 12th August
Salford lads & Peak District
Well, well, well… the success of Salford was unbelievable. We conquered many missions, visited as much as possible and had the best time.
We started our full day in Manchester with a wonderful breakfast, some hot bacon and eggs, also many bagels and cereal…the best! This energy was much needed as we travelled far and wide to find, the one, the only Salford Lads Club!!!! Home to The History of Manchester and Salford, facts about how people from the 1900s lived and worked and of course the music room with so much information about Morrissey and The Smiths, which our group loved. (one of Golden Tickets!) We learnt so much new information from our amazing tour guide Leslie, so thank you for showing us around this amazing place.
We then ventured to Manchester Piccadilly, for some much needed lunch. We were met with various cuisines and most settled on the iconic Burger King!
After this we hopped on a train to Edale (in the Peak District National Park) for some much needed outdoor time. We collected a map from the visitors centre and we were off! We searched long and far for our green hiking path. Luckily our Teens were there as they managed to find it for us! We hiked over bridges, through fields, through farms and many pathways.
When we returned to Salford, Cam and Sam were treated by the Teens to a homemade carbonara and garlic bread and it was delicious! We were amazed how well they cooked everything.
We ended our evening with full bellies and a movie. Next stop Cardiff.
Over and out.
Sunday 14th & Monday 15th August
Cardiff & Brighton (Written by Max)
As we awoke in our massive Airbnb to the smell of pancakes Max’s sleep schedule failed to account for, we sprinted out of the house to catch our train! Arriving at the train station with minimal massive catastrophes on the way, we boarded a train to Brighton and half of us promptly fell right back into unconsciousness.
At the behest of certain members of the group, our glorious leaders ordered an Uber to take us to our new accommodations, failing to find it along the way several times, until we eventually found it sitting above a pub.
Our transcendent tutors escorted us to the pier, specifically the “Brighton Palace Pier” where we indulged in glorious amounts of sugar in the form of churros and crepes, before heading into the Fairground… well our enlightened adults did something, probably!
Riding on the one scary ride which some found scary, some found humorous, and some stood outside holding bags, and nearly all of us revelling in the delights of bumper cars (or “Dogems” as the British seem to call them).
Meeting back up with our magnificent masters, we treated ourselves to incredible fish and chips, before, full of food and incredibly exhausted, we trudged back to our accommodations. Everyone was way too tired to heed Max’s advice to play poker with the chips provided by the room.
Over and out.
Tuesday 15th August
Old Sarum (Written by Pietro)
Happy Ferragosto to everybody!
At first the group woke up to a revitalizing british sea air in sunny old Brighton. While having breakfast they fiddled with the poker chips and ate some tasty english cereals.
After getting ready they briskly headed to the Brighton station . On the way they could admire the beauty of the stunning coastline that this land presents. It was so captivating that everybody decided to spend half an hour on the beach and some travellers also had the guts to proceed into the cold british waters.
Then we all got the train and after a few hours we found ourselves in Salisbury, a very cosy town with a majestic gothic cathedral which dominated the land.
After advancing between the narrow english roads we found shelter in a cosy hostel in the countryside near Stonehenge.
We got into one of the many rooms and had a very fun evening singing songs and playing stunning games.
Cam presented a top notch performance of “I will survive” and Pietro rapped Zingarello by Ghali. After that we were able to convince Yogev to sing the Israeli national anthem. When it started to get late we listened to the interesting story telling confered by Max. Then all the travellers fell asleep and some people say that I snored very loudly but I don’t want to believe them.
Over and out.
Wednesday 16th & Thursday 17th August
Stonehenge & Educating Oxford!
We woke up in the Stonehenge hostel and had a delicious breakfast on the floor. We then waited for a taxi to go to Stonehenge. We walked through the museum and took the bus that brought to one of the seven wonders of the world. We were able to enjoy our time thanks to the great weather and we spent much time touching the ground feeling the stonehenge energy. After a quick trip to the gift shop and ice cream for some, we headed back to the hostel to check out and waited for yet another taxi. We went to the train station vibing to Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift, got lunch for the road and hopped in our train to Oxford !!!!! Travellers killed time with some intense chess games and intense naps. Arrived in Oxford, we were absolutely stunned by our mind-boggling house. Cam and Sam went to the shops to buy stuff for our world food night !!!!!Wooooo!! Every traveller made a traditional meal from their country. The italians fed us some delicious mini pizzas, James made the infamous american Burger, Sam and Cam made some great toad in the hole with gravy, Roan baked a fabulous egg tart and everyone was impressed with Yogev’s cooking skills: he made chicken shawarma with only one hand!!! But the best dish by far was Lily’s exquisite crepes that were unfortunately massacred by James who dipped them in gravy. After this legendary meal, we decided to watch a not so legendary movie but it was still fun. After this long eventful day the travellers were absolutely knackered and went sleep. The End.
PS: Cam is a Master chef we love and worship her and everything she cooks.
Friday 18th August
London & Churchill
Our day started with a delicious breakfast of everything we had including all the cereal one could need, loaded scrambled eggs with ham and cheese; a delicious way to start the day! We got our stuff together and headed to London, for our final last day as a whole group.
We made it to the train where we had many fun chats and lots of naps! When we got to London we quickly took a bus and checked in to our hotel rooms! After this we sped over to the Churchill War Rooms as a final stop before home time.
We saw lots of interesting things and learnt loads of new facts about the places where Churchill was based during the war. He had many of his own security living in his base, cooks and cleaners and he also loved his bath as a very specific 94F!
The group really enjoyed this final venture, as one.
After our lovely afternoon we headed back to our hotel, where Cam and Sam ordered us all a lovely curry which we all enjoyed together, before heading to bed for some much-needed sleep for the busy airport day ahead!
On a final note, Cam and Sam would like everyone, especially the group to know how much we appreciated them. They have been amazing throughout these 2 weeks, with the travel itself, the laughs and friendships that were made. These are things that make our trips authentic and the best they can be. We just want you to know we are happy to have met each and every one of you and maybe see you again some time.
For a final time.
Over and out.
