If you’ve been following us on Instagram you’ll notice our feed is a little more outdoorsy than usual this week. We loaded up the car with 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 suitcases, 5 sleeping bags, a bag of food and a couple of bottles of wine, and headed to the stunning Brecon Beacons national park in Wales for 4 days of well-deserved family time.
Leaving it til the last minute during the school holidays is never a good move, but I somehow managed to bag a brand new Wigwam complete with its own wood fired hot tub 10.30pm the night before we were due to head off. With most of our friends boarding planes to Europe for some guaranteed sunshine, we packed the wellies and the flip flops just to be sure, but as it turns out we needn’t have worried, the weather was absolutely scorching for the whole duration of our trip and time outdoors together was absolutely what we all needed.
The girls and I went out for a 1 hour hack on the most bomb proof ponies I’ve ever met, along with our chatty lead rider Charlotte we took in the stunning views of Pen y Fan, and enjoyed wandering up through the meadows on our wonderful ponies, such a treat.
Just 15 minutes from our pitch up was Llangorse Lake so we got a good session of SUP (stand up paddle boarding) in one sunny morning and none of us fell in despite the head wind, which we were all pretty pleased about because I think the sailors out there would have had a few giggles at our expense had we toppled in..
We also enjoyed a wonderful half day kayak down the river Wye, and stopped off a couple of times for a wild swim. We were lucking that the river level was quite low so the current was manageable for the children and the weirs (little rapids) we had to contend with weren’t a concern. The girls are pretty handy with a paddle now but as a parent you always have that little knot of apprehension when letting them do something potentially dangerous.
Our evenings were spent under the stars in our wood fired hot tub with a chilled glass of wine, toasting s’mores over the fire pit and enjoying the odd game of swing ball or a competitive card game or two. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
On the Saturday I headed out with two of my girls to a James Bay concert, which was phenomenal, and the best part of taking small ones to a gig? We were front row at the barrier, with no one pushing us and our own crowd safety guy keeping us topped up with water and ear plugs. Mr Bay and his support act Lily Moore were totally amazing and we had the best time.
Heading home from Brecon our phones started to ping with unread messages and the email counter was steadily rising, but we managed to hang on until we arrived home that evening to really drag out what remained of our time off. We’ll definitely be back again Brecon! Thank you for the wonderful memories.
Jenny Quinlan
Director & Head of Design
Studio JQ Ltd
@thestudiojq