I Just Want To Change The World. Is That Too Much To Ask?
Hi, Hola and Welcome to my new blog.
It’s about time I got this started, so here we go. The Outdoors, and Family Camping in particular are my passion, and they have been since I was a kid. My Dad worked long, hard hours when I was young to ensure Mam, my older brother, younger sister and me had a good and stable lifestyle. The one thing I remember most is that we were always doing something outdoors, usually Family Camping Trips. The Joys of Family Camping are what bonded us together so closely.
Here’s a great pic’ that I still love looking at of Dad, Me (left) and my big brother Ian on one of our numerous Family Camping holidays when we were kids.
My Father has long since passed away, but his legacy of a lust for adventure lives on in all of us, and we have passed that on to our daughter, hopefully she will pass it on too when we are gone.
I am blessed to have had such a great and adventurous childhood, and strangely I thought that was the norm for everyone, until I started to venture further afield when I was a teenager.
What did we learn while Family Camping?
I was surprised to find that other young men I met once I left my family bubble and began to venture out into the wider world couldn’t Kayak, Hike, Navigate, Orienteer, Camp, Fish, Rock-climb and do the numerous other things that the kids in my family could. It wasn’t until this time that I realised that I had been given a special kind of childhood. Our Adventurous Family Camping trips had paid off.
I can still feel the freedom of swimming in lakes and running through meadows if I shut my eyes, but most of all I yearn for the feeling of success and accomplishment we used to get when we’d finish one of our challenges, such as scaling a large peak, or catching fish to eat from a small stream.
I ended up having an extremely adventurous life, serving 22 years in the Royal Marines, taking part in many Adventurous Training Expeditions, Physical Training on a daily basis, as well as doing the extremely important and interesting stuff all Marines do.
Now that I’m retired, I have trained to be a Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) Assessor and Supervisor, and spend some of my time volunteering, showing young people how to get the best out of their time and the Outdoors. The rest of my time I spend Hiking, Walking and Trail Running with my wife in the hills around Murcia in Spain where I now live now.
We also get out on family camping trips, weekends away in out Camper Van (RV) or doing Road Bike and Mountain Bike challenges or generally just staying fit. It’s a tough like, I know, but believe me, somebody’s got to do it. so it might as well be us.
I have decided to start this blog/website or whatever else you care to call it, to try to help others enjoy the Outdoor Lifestyle that I cherish so much, by passing on my knowledge, experience and even sometimes advice. Sometimes the posts will be thoroughly researched and informative, other times they will be the ramblings and musings of my weather beaten old mind. Hopefully they will bring you nearer to having the kind of life we enjoy.
“The Good Old Days aren’t even here yet” as I often like to say.
Watch this space for helpful, useful and just plain interesting stuff. Hopefully our new journey begins here.
Regards
Brian
Here’s a Pinterest friendly image……So you can Pin it to your Outdoors Board!!!!
