Last weekend Joe and I took a weekend trip to Wales. We left Friday night from Cambridge and stayed overnight on Lakenheath Royal Air Force Base because that is where the van was leaving from in the morning at 4:30 AM - that's right 4:30 AM!!! That's what I get for taking a vacation with military folks.
I got to Cambridge a bit late that evening too because I was coming straight from an all day work meeting that I had organized at the Dorchester Hotel - one of the poshest hotels in London. Really cool :) We'd booked one of their penthouse suites for lunch and it a huge patio complete with waterfall over looking the city for us to sit out on.Anyway, back to RAF Lakenheath. Joe and I arrived there around 10 or so and it really is like being back in the US, except people drive on the left. Everyone that we encountered was American, driving American cars, all the stores/gas stations sold US brands and everything was priced in dollars. Really odd and yet nice if you're missing home.
We got to the van the next morning right around 4:30 and got ready to leave. The lady that organized the trip does this as her full time role - cool job right? Only problem was that she was a bit too enthusiastic for 4:30 in the morning. Joe and I pretty much just put our earplugs and eyeshades (we've been preping for weeks sleeping like this!) and went to sleep. 5 or so hours later and a few wrong turns, we arrived at the Grange Trekking Center. It was down a sleepy road in the very green hills of Wales (near Abergavenny, for those of you familiar with the geography).
We ate lunch and immediately thereafter headed out to the stables to meet our horses. I got assigned to Develin (that's right folks, after the Devil). Joe got assigned to the tamer Indiana. After brushing and tacking up, we headed out on the trail for a 4.5 hour ride, complete with waterfalls, open range trotting and cantering, muddy hills and all. I even fell off my horse at one point in slow motion as the saddle slid around to the side of the horse with me on it just as he was really starting to run.
The scenery for the whole ride was amazing. We saw wild horses, sheep, tons of different trees (which our horses always tried to eat) and flowers. It was a beautiful night.The less fun part was stepping in all of the horse dung.
That night, we stayed in tents provided by the base. They were really nice and new and we all slept great. In the morning, we headed out for another shorter ride. I think we all were a bit sore from the day before, but it was nice to see our horses again and I felt so much more relaxed around them. I even got the hang of trotting much better that day, so my but hurt less :)
It was a cool weekend and so nice not to have to drive home - the eager lady (who was pretty much singing) did it all.
