Base Camp and Beyond

I can’t believe it’s been 5 months since I last updated the blog! It’s been an absolute whirlwind- 9 more volunteer projects completed, 3 more countries, countless experiences and so many new friends.

We are currently based at our 17th project in Evora, Portugal where we have been tasked with looking after a farm, a dog and four, feisty horses. We have left our caravan with our friends Kat and Henry in France. So, for the first time in more than two and a half years we have our own rooms, a washing machine, a flushing loo, water on tap and more space than we know what to do with!

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So what’s next for Our Travelling Family?

Those of you who follow our social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) will know that although our year on the road was due to end in April, after a family discussion in December, there was a unanimous decision to give our ‘gap year’ an extension and I am very pleased to announce that we are fully booked with Workaway projects until February 2021.
To start with we will be spending the next 5 months in Portugal looking after the aforementioned farm. Aiden and Ella will be focusing on their Wolsey Hall year 8 and 10 courses and Sebastian will be preparing to write his IGCSE’s in Aljezur in May. Warren will be giving our YouTube channel a complete overhaul and slowly but surely we’ll be sharing footage of our year on the road. As for me, I will continue with my freelance writing -look out for us in the May edition of Conde Nast (out early April). I will also be using the blog to share details of how we planned this trip, things to consider if you are travelling with kids (in particular teens), why we chose to travel with a caravan, homeschooling, how we managed to do all we did on just £250 p/m and much, much more. So if you have something in particular you would like me to cover leave a comment below.
June-August will be spent in our caravan at Camping St.Hilaire, France. We had such a fantastic time last summer we simply could not pass on the opportunity to go back and if you haven’t yet booked your summer vacation yet be sure to check these guys out.
After that we have a month free (as if we need a break!) before undertaking, possibly, our toughest project to date. We will be trekking to Base Camp of Everest in an attempt to raise £1000000 for charity. This will be a round trip of 230km over 15 days, reaching altitudes in excess of 5400m and will include a flight on a really tiny plane from Lukla to Kathmandu (not for the faint hearted -check it out on YouTube).
We are asking anyone who would like to support us to share our fundraising page and donate just £1 (or the equivalent in your currency). We’d like to show that with enough support a small donation can make a HUGE difference. The charities we will be supporting are The Rainbow Trust, The Himalayan Trust, The Matt Palmer Trust and The World Land Trust.

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That’s it for today but I promise a follow up blog post tomorrow all about our new role as Workaway ambassadors. There will also be an opportunity for you to win a year’s membership to get you started on your very own volunteering adventure.

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