All about that long weekend out in the cold…

Written November 15, 2005 in Personal

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Last weekend, I went on an expedition with 9 other brave souls from the IC-Fellwanderers to the New Forest Conservation District. It was a 3day 2night trip to somewhere west of London, about 3 hours drive out, where we camped out in the open for 2 nights braving the frost.

–> Photo Album available here <–

We departed from Beit Quad at about 5.30pm in the evening on Friday, and prepared our bottoms for a 3 hour drive westwards in the drizzle. I fell asleep promptly(Alvin was so amazed by my ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime) after boarding the minibus with Tom at the wheel. We stopped for a short break about 1.5hours out, and chugged on in the college’s Ford Explorer. We arrived at our campsite approximately half eight, and started building up the campsite. We were camping in a caravan park, but still, it was freezing. After setting up the campsite, we went i search of food. We should make it a point to remind ourselves that we weren’t in London anymore, and hell, it was difficult to find food after 9. We had to drive another 20minutes out to Salisbury to eat. We found this chinese takeaway and just settled for a simple meal before heading back to the campsite for the night.

We all woke up at about 8 and made breakfast (actually, cold milk + cereal + hot choc) and hustled out of the campsite for a whole day’s walk in the forest conservation area. Our path took us up and around the eastern side of the district, through ‘marshlands’, pinewoods, ’savannahs’. Why the quotations? They aren’t really that, but you had to be there to see it. Our journey was about 20km long, and we enjoyed great fantastic weather. We had people from all over the world in the hiking group: Gregor and Kruze (from Germany), Charlie (female, Scotland), Mickel (Italy), Tom and Eric (Brits), me and Alvin (Singapore), Wilfred (HongKong) and Floris (male, Netherlands). As we walked, we talked about everything under the sun. We talked about military experiences (yes, you can’t even run away from that here, cos even the guys in Netherlands and Switzerland do it), trips all over the world, our homelands, and our time in school. Charlie was telling us about how she took 4 months off from Dec04 to March05 to travel (Fiji, Japan, Soloman Islands, USA, NZ north and south isles, Aussie) and her hilarious and unusually unbelievable experiences during her trip with her friend Laura. Things like her experiences with her 100mile-minivan which she bought in Aus for the 2mths she was there, and finding her friend’s long lost relatives! I heard so much, and learn so much about Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Italy and US of A! After the hike, we took the night off and went for social in a local pub. I had 2 pints and food. Kruze brought a boardgame which we all played and laughed our asses off. This pub had a special Saturday night event where they brought in a DJ and changed into a disco for the night. Let me tell you, this DJ would probably be hung from the top of Mount Zouk if he even spun in Singapore. Imagine: Country Rock…REMIXED. GOD SAVE ME. Anyway, we got to know 2 really hot girls there, think young Heidi Klum and Kate Moss. Yes, H-O-T. (Do not get jealous.) We decided to have some fun dancing in the really bad music (with the exception of the song, YMCA) and the club really let our hair down that night with pints and dance. But alas, closing time, and we retired back to camp, in preparation for another hike the next day.

On Sunday morning, we took a 20min drive further outwards nearer the central area of the New Forest district for another walk. This walk was not as interesting as the terrain was rougher and the sights were mediocre. It was shorter this time round, about 16km, and we still enjoyed good weather, and hilarious chats, like about martial arts, Bruce Lee, dog meat eating..blah..blah..blah.. After the end, we drove back into the hustle and bustle of London. Alvin and I met up with Alwyn and they brought me to Oriental Canteen, where I had GOOD Laska. God forbid, but hell good asian food’s as rare as Francium here.

I’ll put up the photos as soon as I touch them up, watch for the edit. I pride myself to be a DIGITAL photographer, so you purists out there, scram if you wanna rant on about how I should not use Photoshop. I *WILL* use it.

Tags: Personal