Gap Year Experiences

Travelling with Pepper

Thursday 28 August 2008

Welcome to the new and renamed Pepper Travel Blog. For those of you who are loyal blog readers you might notice slight changes in the layout of this blog. As we are steadily growing with all of your support out there, we are constantly evolving and moving towards becoming a more fully rounded travel company. Always with the style and quality that Pepper brings to all its trips and never forgetting our unofficial motto of providing unique and amazing experiences in everything we do. From this blog we hope to keep you up to date with anything interesting and inspiring in the world of travel and Pepper. We have a great following of loyal readers at the moment and we hope that lots more of you stumble upon his blog, gain something from it and keep coming back!

There are so many places out there to see, thinking about them all makes me want to get up and go immediately! Just today, I have heard from various friends around the world. One studying in China, a few others surfing the magical waves of the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia, someone about to leave to work on the pure white beaches of the Caribbean and even one who is busy preparing for a 5 day run across the Sahara dessert. It gives me very itchy feet! There is too much out there not to use every single moment available to us taking advantage of it. I hope that we can share as much of this beautiful world as possible with as many of you out there as we can. And that you will love it as much as we do. The travel bug is a hard thing to get rid of once you've caught it, the good news is who wants to? There is nothing more invigorating or amazing than waking up in a completely foreign place with the knowledge that amazing experiences are just around the corner. On that note, I came across this great quote from D.H. Lawrence recently, its a little deep but I really liked it so here it is:
“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.”

Not only do we love to travel, but we love to talk about it and hear about it as much and as often as possible! So please keep in touch with your thoughts and comments. If there's anything you want to discuss please drop us an email at info@experiencepepper.com. The Pepper office loves nothing more than an interesting email on a Monday morning so please keep them coming thick and fast. To end off, an open road in the middle of the beautiful South African wine-lands (a long way from a desk in London) for anyone out there in need of a little bit of inspiration.Cheers for now,

Vince

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Long may you run

Wednesday 27 August 2008

The Pepper office is in full swing this Wednesday morning. Johnny is pulling his hair out because he is having issues with our newly arrived lazer printer and he has a pile of brochure requests steadily piling up. A bit of Neill Young playing in the background (the inspiration for my blog title this morning) and the scene is set for a good day here at Pepper.

The response to our newly launched 2 Month Adventurer in South Africa has been incredible and enquiries and bookings are coming in thick and fast. For those of you who haven't seen it on the website yet, its a 2 Month trip travelling through South Africa and is designed to be incredibly flexible for your budget as well as with the options available to you along the way. It kicks off in April next year and is ideal for those of you who have travel plans at the beginning of the year already, especially anyone doing a ski season. The combination of skiing for the first few months of the year and then hitting the sun and beaches of South Africa has proved to be a winner for a lot of you out there and we have had a lot of calls from guys n girls who are skiing in January and wanting to hit South Africa afterwards. If its sounds good to you make sure you call us sooner rather than later!

Here at Pepper we love any sort of new inspiration and the latest one to arrive on our doorstep is a travel book about the 500 best natural wonders in the world. If this book doesn't make you want to get up and jump onto the next plane immediately then nothing will. It has been a dangerous distraction from the work but has given us some a lot of great ideas for future Pepper expansion.

But for now, its back to work.

Cheers

Vince

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The Isle of Wight and A Level Results

Tuesday 19 August 2008

I cannot believe it is now coming towards the end of August!! For all of you that have just received your A Level results - I hope that you all got what you needed. We were at the Clapham Grand on Thursday night for what was an incredible party!

After a couple of busy weeks in the Pepper office it was seriously good to unwind in an unbelievable UK retreat, the Isle of Wight, where I spent last weekend. I got there on the final Friday of Cowes Week just in time for the fireworks! I was staying in a very chilled spot, Sea View, with a quaint little pub on the rocks but even there the atmosphere was buzzing. I was then invited to the Bainbridge Ball on the Saturday night by a family friend that has been going there for years - it was ridiculously smart and over the top with some very bizare characters milling around but it was seriously amusing!

I came back on the hover craft to Portsmouth early on the Monday morning and I was astonished to meet a number of people that were commuting from the Isle of Wight to London every morning. Now that is a pretty relaxed way of life!!

For those of you that are gonna be in London next week you should definitely come along to the Jetset end of Summer Beach Party at Infernos on Wednesday 27th August which we're seriously looking forward to.

Cheers

Johnny

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The great British summers evening!

Monday 11 August 2008

Johnnys last post mentioned my smugness about the state of Englands cricket team. Yes, we are better at cricket and rugby and most sports for that matter but one thing South Africans lack that is definitely in abundance in England is the tolerance of bad weather.

I spent saturday night at a picnic concert at Kenwood House in Hampstead. Anyone who has been there will agree with me when I say that it is a spectacular venue with an amazing view back towards London. On any decent summers evening, I couldn't imagine a better venue for an outdoor picnic concert, however Saturday was marginally different in that it rained the entire day. Maybe I was just being a pessimist but I was fairly sure that after a day of hard rain and an evening sky filled with dark grey clouds, there was a fair chance of rain in the evening. A view that not many people shared apparently because the concert was full. And just as expected we had just sat down in our red and white striped deck chairs on the grass than the heavens opened up.

And did one person get up and leave? No..not one..they just put on their coats and popped up their umbrellas. Picnics were pulled out and wine was opened and everyone looked like they were enjoying a pleasant day on the beach, instead of a tropical thunderstorm. They had bought their tickets and come to see the concert and nothing was going to stop them having a good time! As it turned once you got over the fact that you were wet and were going to stay that way, it was an awesome evening! I wouldn't have swapped the rain for anything, it just wouldn't have been the same without it. It was the definitely the most truly British experience I've ever had and it was great! Maybe I'll be sitting on a pebble beach with a grey sky above me staring out a flat ocean soon, persuading myself that the sea-side is great, but I'm taking it one step at a time for now.

Cheers

Vince

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Pepper's Summer in the UK

Monday 4 August 2008

Well it has been another frustrating weekend of sport with South Africa closing the doors on English hopes of recovering some dignity in this test cricket series - you can imagine how smug Vince has been in the office this morning!

Anyway it is now just over a week before A Level results so good luck to all of you that are waiting for these. If any of you are around in London you should definitely pop into the Clapham Grand next Thursday night (14th August) where we will be joining the party. We were there last year and all had an incredible night. Pepper is also going to be at Jetset's End of Summer Beach Party on Wednesday 27th August at Infornos in Clapham for what promises to be an awesome night!

We're also making our annual trip down to Polzeath in Cornwall later in the summer which we are already getting really excited about. For those of you that haven't been down there, it is a ridiculously chilled spot with a great atmosphere, some cool pubs, a beautiful coast and some really good surf when it decides to work! We're going to be meeting up with a lot of the group that were with us out in South Africa on our 3 Month Experience in January for some big parties.

Looking ahead into 2009 there is a lot to look forward to.....we have a great group lined up for our flagship 3 Month Experience in January. There are still a couple of spaces left so if you are interested then get in touch asap. Our main 2 week trip around the British Lions rugby tour of South Africa next June is now fully booked with an awesome group heading out for what promises to be an unforgettable sporting occassion. If you are interested in tailor-making any other itineraries then get in touch asap on 0800 030 4207.

Anyway I hope you are all having an incredible summer and good luck with your future travel plans.

Johnny