Early on Friday morning Kyle arrived at my house and we drove round to his, so that he could grab his stuff for the day ahead, expecting him to not be ready as I was, I was rather envious to discover he had everything in his new hiking bike. We purchased it the day before from Sports Direct after having discovered how much cheaper it was than in Cotswold. The price seemed to show as after zipping it up, one of the zips broke - I guess you really do get what you pay for.
Leaving Kyle's house we travelled back to mine, where Kyle discovered tha
t I had absolutely nothing ready, 2 hours later we were on the road again - but not for long. I had left my wallet on the roof of the car and we had to go back to retrieve it, luckily it was still on the ground. In a stroke of good fortune though, in the process of looking for it, I found 20 pounds in the back seat of Kyle's car, and a Mc'Donalds voucher - nice one. So we headed to Mccy D's and got ourselves 3 burgers, rather than the two we asked for, asking for one for free with the voucher was lost in translation.
I realized when I was packing that I hadn't got a head torch, with my one from africa disappearing, knowing how important these things were whilst camping, we managed to get one out of argos for a good price.
After all this we drove to Mikes, my sense of direction let me down however and it took us ages to find his house. When we got their we were greeted by his house cat, and we went upstairs to discover him sitting playing resident evil, but with both bags fully packed and ready - buggers. We then proceeded to pick up Zan from tech, with my dodgey techno beats playing full blast the whole way there. After an attempt to pick up my phone from the phone clinic we were on our way to Newcastle.
On the way we listened to more songs, and my poor taste in music quickly became apparent. Zan however appreciated the "Lonely Island" songs, with highlights including "Jizz in my pants" and "Dick in a box".
Nearing the Butterfly farm, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to visit it again, and so we went in through the open front gates and ended up in a deserted car park. We chanced our arm a bit and went through, no one was about - apart from a flock of peacocks (or maybe gaggle would be more appropriate - I don't know). The butterfly farm itself was shut, so we went and done the Maze, with Mike finishing it first. On the way out we got chased by dogs, and me and Mike decided to make a run for it, as we neared the entrance an old woman stepped out and starting letting off smoke in her polite english manner. Kyle and Zan showed up moments later and she seemed to cool off, telling us about how her husband had collected rare plants for the garden, and how it had been recently done up - 40 years ago. We apologized profusely and she let us go. We had a bit of a lucky break.
Arriving in Newcastle we grabbed the essentials for a night in the mournes - Coke and chocolate. We then headed to the hallowed "bloody bridge" that Mike had went on about so much on the last trip to Newcastle, you would have thought it was a golden bridge over a chocolate river. We separated once we arrived, me and Kyle headed for the gentler route, whilst Zan and Mike went up via the river. Getting fairly close to the Donard we decided to call it a day, Kyle had had enough and wanted to turn back. Of course unlike the time when I had had enough the group decided not to go on and go back
down the mountain. Some slightly dodgey river crossing and barbed wire fences later, we were back at the car.
Having done a couple of practice camps in the Mournes with World Challenge, I knew of a good place near the YMCA and beside a BB hall. It took some convincing to get the guys to go there however, they wanted to go back to the area we went the first time we travelled to Newcastle. Having bought a tent bag the day before, and knowing how heavy it was, I thought it would be insane to drag it up a mountain and to try and find a space in the forest for our mammoth tent with no guarentee of being able to do so. A few reassurances and promises later, we were heading towards the spot I had picked.
It was a long hard slog getting the tent up to where it was however, and it probably would have been impossible to go back to the forest. The tent was very heavy and the tent bag dug into your hands so much we took it turn about. The terrain was easy and we followed a dirt track round the BB house. Loggers it seemed had cut down all the surrounding trees, and it was no where near as scenic as it once was. I had quickly found a spot, but this proved not to be suitable in the eyes of Zan and Kyle who decided to head off into dense forest to tree and find a space large enough for monstrously heavy and large tent. Back at where we were Mike and I decided to start pitching, the ground was slightly rocky but it would have to do. Half an hour later Zan and Kyle were back, having found a spot that was too far away for it to be practical. Me and Mike finished putting up the tent, as Kyle and Zan starting with a fire. Fire making was relatively simple and I explained how you use small twigs etc to start it, and get progressively larger branches as it grows.
We had bought a portable barbeque, and Mike turned out to be quite the chef, forming a makeshift skewer from a twig he expertly cooked the sausages and bacon we had bought, until they were well done and thoroughly cooked.
Somewhere during the night, after a crowd of loggers had left from the nearby road, Mike and Zan decided to place a deo can on the fire. Not instantly realising the gravity of this, I stayed near the fire, then ran - very quickly - away. A few moments later there was an enormous explosion and the flame shot up. Minutes later people in cars had arrived. I decided we should put the fire out and hide in the tent, so I sat very still and feigned sleep. Presuming the others
had done the same, it was only till later on that I realised t
hey had scarpered into the woods. We need not have worried, as the BB people were quite happy to let us camp - well maybe not happy - but they let us stay anyway. We turned in for an early night and tried to get some much needed sleep.
Waking up the morning me and Kyle were rather close to the roof of the tent, Mike and Zan had collapsed it in. Those little blighters! Not wanting to out stay our welco
me, we left abruptly, Kyle and Mike had managed to bring the car up the dirt track, me and Mike road on the runner board the whole way back to Newcastle. We all got some grub in a cafe, and explored Newcastle a bit. I went down to the sea, Mike and Zan stayed near the town to wait for Kyle to get back, who was moving the car to avoid getting a ticket. Making my way back I was greeted, with some rocks being thrown at me, none were close enough to hit me (or so I thought) and Mike with Kyle were having some target practice to let off steam. By fluke, one connected with my head, and I instantly hit the deck. Checking for blood, I found none, I had another lucky break - it could have done a lot more damage. This fairly dropped our enthusiasm, and headed back to the car. Zan kept spirits up with a few of his songs on the way back, and I managed to have a snooze. After checking myself out with a secondary survey, I determined I would be okay, and would live to fight another day.
In all, I took the weekend as an insight into how we would get on as a team during the trip. It seemed in the most part, things worked out, and we all got along really well. Being more experienced in some areas of the weekend, I was a bit disappointed that my words of advice fell on deaf ears most times - although this certainly adds to the fun factor, it could also have potentially disastrous results - if we had of went up the other route, we would probably still be looking for a place to pitch for the night! Overall, although there were a few headaches along the way, it worked well for an almost unplanned weekend, and hopefully with a well planned trip + some more experience, Europe will be easy.
