Hello & I'm visiting the UK from the US....

[dunc]

Never been on an expedition but quite a few are in the summer holidays (the overly long holidays given to schools and universities) which start in July and plod through all of August to early September. Of course anyone with kids may well go on a family holiday during this time too.

Not everyone disappears though.

 

[Amy]

I got the impression that sometimes basically whole clubs disappear on expeditions together...so I definetly want to avoid such times. Perhaps I got the wrong impression though. The other thing is, if tag friends can come along, they'll be back in school in Sept so doing something over summer holiday is easier that way too if there is any chance of them coming

 

[Hughie]

A good portion of one club might all go away together, but most of us are still here most of the time.

 

[footleg]

You could always come over for an expedition! The Matienzo expeditions to Northern Spain are always welcoming to new faces. Camping behind the bar. Short walks to road side entrances and several miles of new passages found most expeditions. Great company, a huge variety of caving and low food and beer prices make for a winning combination. A large number of British cavers from many clubs meet up over the last week of July through the first couple of weeks of August. Flights to Santander get you within 30 minutes of the expedition area so someone could pick up up from the airport.

 

[Amy]

hmm i've never been to Spain....I do speak a little bit of spanish but it's probably more mexican spanish than spain spanish.

Downside being flights to there are WAY more $$ than to Heathrow so prolly not in the budget.

 

[ian mckenzie]

hmm i've never been to Spain....

...but I kinda like the music...

 

[barrabus]

 

[Elaine]

You could always come over for an expedition! The Matienzo expeditions to Northern Spain are always welcoming to new faces. Camping behind the bar. Short walks to road side entrances and several miles of new passages found most expeditions. Great company, a huge variety of caving and low food and beer prices make for a winning combination. A large number of British cavers from many clubs meet up over the last week of July through the first couple of weeks of August. Flights to Santander get you within 30 minutes of the expedition area so someone could pick up up from the airport.

Anyone want to buy some cows?

 

[footleg]

Anyone want to buy some cows?

Couldn't you just hire them out to a family as a 'real farm holiday' and skip off for a couple of weeks?

 

[Amy]

Anyone want to buy some cows?

Couldn't you just hire them out to a family as a 'real farm holiday' and skip off for a couple of weeks?

I thought the only point of having kids was to make them work...of course this idea fails if you don't have kids. I know I don't plan on having kids. I also know the only reason I don't want a farm is because I want to travel! ha.

 

[robjones]

In the good old days (1970s), a neighbour would happily milk them for the milk cheque. Times have changed, I suppose with rapacious suppermarkets depressing farmers' prices...

 

[Amy]

Hey so how crazy would it be if I found a good deal from Detroit to Dublin??? Is it really easy to get to S Wales (hidden earth is there, yes?) from Dublin?

 

[graham]

Hey so how crazy would it be if I found a good deal from Detroit to Dublin??? Is it really easy to get to S Wales (hidden earth is there, yes?) from Dublin?

There's this slight problem called the Irish Sea.

Of course you could always go to the Irish conference SUICRO instead of HE. there's always a contingent from Mendip there as well.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Hey so how crazy would it be if I found a good deal from Detroit to Dublin??? Is it really easy to get to S Wales (hidden earth is there, yes?) from Dublin?

There's this slight problem called the Irish Sea.

Indeed, Graham. Do you think Amy is a good swimmer?

 

[graham]

Hey so how crazy would it be if I found a good deal from Detroit to Dublin??? Is it really easy to get to S Wales (hidden earth is there, yes?) from Dublin?

There's this slight problem called the Irish Sea.

Indeed, Graham. Do you think Amy is a good swimmer?

Am I meant to make the obvious joke about flotation aids here, Peter?  :-\

 

[Amy]

Hey so how crazy would it be if I found a good deal from Detroit to Dublin??? Is it really easy to get to S Wales (hidden earth is there, yes?) from Dublin?

There's this slight problem called the Irish Sea.

Indeed, Graham. Do you think Amy is a good swimmer?

  :tease: I know it's not connected but didn't know if it was easy/cheap to get over to wales from there anyway. I'm not that dumb of an American, despite what the stereotypes of us may say. I am smrt! 

Anyway, I'm still working hard on getting over there. I do have the $150 from the calendars set aside separate for it, trying to sell my laptop and ipod (I somehow ended up with two of each) made the jewelry (which I'm still trying to sell on Esty...sunguramy designs...) I sold some at SERA Cave Carnival here since I vended, but didn't make more than it cost me to attend SERA so that didn't totally work haha. I have been told I should make the cave girl drawings into tshirts, so I'll restart up my Zazzle account for doing that...And additionally, I'm working on getting some independent graphic design jobs for extra funds as well. I'm doing all I can....Just seems like random things keep eating through what I get saved (doctor bills, optometrist bill, car repairs...that stuff that you don't expect that you're happy you had money in saving, but sad to see that saved money go to things you didn't want it to go for!)

 

[Peter Burgess]

Amy - check out the budget airlines from Dublin. You might strike lucky. Off the top of my head, RyanAir, EasyJet and FlyBe? I'm not sure how close you can get to Monmouth, but Bristol is quite a busy Budget Airline airport and there will be a few cavers going to Hidden Earth from that general area.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Yes, it looks like RyanAir to Bristol might be a way to do it, but book early and beware all the extra charges and limits that the "nice people at RyanAir" love to add to the ticket price! Onward journey to Monmouth? - where there's a will there's a way....

 

[Amy]

Ah thank you! I'm not anti-hoping-airlines to find uber cheap deals haha.

I wonder if there are any international budget airlines...huh *goes off to check* if you know of any ideas, feel free to post them! I am still checking STA because last semester I was a full time student and my status on the certs here in the states won't change until fall, so I should be able to get student fares still even (which...is how I stayed so cheap before).

Ninja edit: Oh yeah and this girl got will! So there had better be a way!!

 

[Les W]

Try flights to Shannon and on to Bristol as well. Shannon is Irelands "Hub" so there may be more flights/options