I wake up, the sun is shining, and its time to go out, in search of adventure (oh, and I’ve only got a fiver).
Whats this ?. That Laura Croft of the English upper classes, Amelia Webb, is already up and about, and touring the Grosvenor Park.
We arrange to meet by the River, at the Blue Moon cafe, to plan our adventures.
It should be mentioned at this point, that Amelia is an old friend, who has recently arrived in town. For those of you who are thinking there’s someone new on the scene, its worth mentioning, that we really are JUST friends.
Anyway, back to the adventures. Ive never been in the Blue Moon cafe. Whenever I pass it, I always think of my friend Frank, and my Brother David, who are both keen Manchester City fans.
Inside its 60’s themed and really rather quaint. No need to worry about that, I’m meeting a woman for coffee, which therefore means Ill be forced to sit outside, with none of the ambiance, the smell of diesel, and assorted malcontents walking past.
From this point on, the word adventure, should be substituted with the word misadventure, as we are hit with a number of setbacks.
We decide we will both return home, sort out some chores, do some admin and then meet up at 2pm, to do the Chester Rows tour . We arrive 3 minutes too late, and the tour has gone without us. Bugger !.
No matter, we decide to wander over and see the famous Castle.
Despite living in Chester for 8 years, Chester Castle, is something Ive never gotten around to visiting. Its a lovely day, so we walk over to see it.
But whats this, the Castle is closed due to Elf N Safety regulations. I cant help thinking, that its a good job H&S weren’t around when the Castle was in use. Otherwise, the City would have been plundered !.
With nothing much else to do, we end up visiting the Little Roodee car park cafe. Although the coffee was nice (and cheap) sitting and looking at cars and coaches, isn’t exactly marching across the Great Wall of China, if you know what I mean.
Well, there’s a nice park nearby, so we decide to head for there and explore. It starts to rain !. Is anything going to go right today ?
Finally we head for the ruin at St John’s church.
If you’ve read this website before, you know I love exploring lost cities and stuff like that. In its own way, this Church, is much the same as the City of Petra, Machu Picchu or the Angkor Watt (although its a lot smaller).
It had some gardens around it, which were fenced off separately from the nearby Park. Because of this, there was no “through” traffic, and the park was very quiet and relaxing. Sun shining, birds singing and exploring an ancient ruin. Bliss.
To summarise, what near-to-home budget adventure travel lessons can we learn.
1. If you really want to do a tour, buy the tickets in advance, and be at the tourist information 15 minutes before the tour begins.
2. Before heading of to see something, ask at or telephone the tourist information and confirm its actually open, times/days its open, and how much if anything it costs.
3. Never forget, the rule of Sunter – always wear old trainers and have waterproof/warm clothing to hand (we could have gone to the park, if we’d had these).
4. Take a flask and save a sodding fortune on coffee !. Take some sweets, for when things get dull.
5. If your taking a companion, take someone like Amelia, who doesn’t blame you and give you loads of sh*t when things don’t go to plan 🙂
Happy adventuring.