Packing
On our way to Chile, South America
Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
No matter how early we pack, we never seem to be ready until the night before we are leaving on a trip. We still ended up with too much and again didn't have enough time to unpack and repack less things (usually removing one third is a good rule of thumb). We were at least ready 5 minutes before our 9.30 am taxi arrived.
Things to remember when travelling with kids:
- Holdalls not suitcases as they fit into cars better. On wheels if possible and different colours/makes so you can tell them apart
- Clothes packed by person into travel bags. A different colour per person.
 |
| Clothing bags |
- Headtorch (head flashlight) for electricity cuts and walking at night (so you are hands free)
- High power torch (flashlight) for night birding
- Laser pen – for pointing out skulky birds
- Duck tape – for fixing everything from broken tripods to holes in wellies (rubber boots)
- Frosties bars for me and healthy bars for parents (for when we haven't time to stop for food)
- A neck scarf to keep you warm, cool free of insects or dust etc
 |
| Neck scarf |
- Travel kettle, flask, tea bags and sachets of coffee/hot chocolate for emergency drinks for an early morning start
 |
| Travel kettle |
- Minstrels for me (one large packet per week) which are like large M & M’s so they don't melt
- Star Bursts – 1 packet per flight
Always keep essentials in hand luggage like chargers, essential birding clothes like boots and coats and clothes for a few days. When Mum and I travelled to Malaysia without Dad, Mum broke all those rules; both our bags went missing for a week with our laptop & phone chargers, bird book and travel plans for the whole of that section of our trip. Not good.
On our way to Chile, South America
We had 10 minutes spare for our Heathrow coach and had lots of time to have lunch before we could check-in. We were flying via Madrid and Mum managed to lose her phone in between. Luckily Dad used an app to work out it was still in our hand luggage! We had dinner here and had the best ever airport food, which a lovely surprise.
As we got on our 14 hour night flight, we all agreed that we would watch one film each but then would go to sleep. I could help myself and ended up watching 4 films before eventually crashing out. I only woke up the following morning, just we were flying over the highest part of the Andes but almost immediately started to land in Santiago.
This trip was to Chile, The Falkland Islands and Antarctica. I felt incredibly excited….
 |
| Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Heathrow Airport Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
About the Writer
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig
Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in a week (arriving on 22 December 2015), which will be her 7th continent.
Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for posting a comment. Please can you make sure that it is positive and is about me or my blog and not about promoting you or your business. Thanks. Mya-Rose Craig