Hola, It was an admittedly grey thursday evening when I arrived at Alex's house the site for our field test of the 2.8 Kilos which are to offer us shelter from the elements for many of the nights of our three and half months travelling the Andes. Quickly we decided on an appropriate location for the tent in the marshy hinterland of the Thorverton Brook and in the fading light we pitched up, followed by a hasty withdrawl into the warmth of Alex's kitchen to meet Max and eat the South American delicacy of Pizza for which we thank Karen. We toasted to our trip, and embarked into the darkness for a hot chocolate and a cup of tea on our expedition stove. Once inside the two man tent whic which I had decided was secretly a three man tent (and indeed it is) greeted Alex's Dad, on his evening walk, and slept throughout the night, only being woken to hear of Max's dream of shark attack.
The Friday brought sunny and gusty weather, and we quickly made the most of it. Early on we set out for Alex's fabled "slanty tree" crossing several fields we encountered many funky looking sheep both living and... not. We wandered for several hours eventually reaching the small nothingness of Cadbury stopping only briefly with the assumption that there must be something better than the reindeer farm. Once back at Alex's house we stayed only briefly before embarking for a hearty meal at the Thorverton Arms, over which we discussed the value of the max's car - with max protesting at my low estimates. It was on the journey back that my point was proved, with some sort of mechanical failure occurring making the car undrivable. A short while later he left with his car on the back of a tow truck. This concludes our extensive field test, in which we can see that our equipment is more than prepared for the -8°C temperatures of the Bolivian Altiplano. Next stop Ecuador.
