Swifty Scooting 231 miles of JOGLE

Sophie Rooney - Swiftly Scootering from Chepstow to St Just.

As I sat and swirled my second coffee of the morning around an almost empty cup, I chanced a look up and out of the window, hoping that the rain outside was slowing. Huge smears on the window and the occasional flash of colour as a pedestrian ran past told me that the rain was actually getting heavier, not what I wanted to see but also not a big problem for me just yet. I still had an hour of waiting to go and it couldn’t possibly keep raining like this for long.

Me running in Scotland

I returned to the tiny screen in front of me, eager to finish this Facebook post before Claire arrived. I was eight stages through a multi-discipline John O’Groats to Land’s End challenge and I was just uploading details and photos from the previous stage, running from Prestatyn to Sedbury along Offa’s Dyke National Trail. I had finished the trail the previous evening with Nikki Love (the lady who ran 63 marathons in 63 days) and had now been left alone to meet with my new travel companion. A complete stranger who had enthusiastically volunteered herself to join me for part nine of my journey – scooting from Chepstow to St Just in Cornwall on the SayYesMore pair of Swifty Scooters. 230 miles no less, across (what I was about to find out were) some seriously hilly parts of the country.

Claire and I had arranged to meet in this coffee shop and as I had no idea who she was or what she looked like, I figured it was best to sit still and drink lots of coffee whilst I waited. I may have had a humongous slice of cake too, just to be polite.

Around an hour later a smiling lady rushed into the café followed closely by her other half. Somehow, I knew this was them and they recognised me too, though after three weeks of being on the road this was probably less surprising. The smell of my kit was more than likely what gave me away. We had a brief chat (over yet another coffee) and we talked about the fact that our scooter experience was very limited and we had no idea how hard this would be, and then decided it was time to head off, despite the fact that somehow the rain was now stronger than ever. We had an aim to cover around 30 miles a day and it was already approaching lunch time. We couldn’t wait for the rain to stop – it was time to find out just what we had gotten ourselves in for.

With our waterproofs on and our kit safely inside the support car, we each grabbed a scooter and got on our way. Cruising through huge raindrops and knowing that I would be wet through within ten minutes I couldn’t help but feel elated. Here I was riding a beautifully crafted bit of kit (thanks to Swifty Scooters!), in a town I had never visited before, with a lady who had volunteered herself to join me on this unknown journey, after running 185 miles the past seven days and travelling to this point from the northern tip of Scotland, grinning from ear to ear.

Tortoise and Hare - the SayYesMore Swifty Scooters

To most people I must have seemed mad. But to me, I was enjoying that sweet taste of adventure. From this point on and for the next seven days I was to enjoy riding the Swifty on the road, on trails, down grassy footpaths, through overgrown ferns, over moors, along the coast and finally into my final handover town, St Just.

Me and Alan the Labradoodle made it to Land's End

Claire and I scooted together for three days – and I finished off the last five on my own – missing her positivity and that infectious grin. But the biggest grin of all belonged to me when I reached St Just on that final evening having scootered 210 miles over the past week – proving that even if people had told me I couldn’t, sticking to what I believed in (in this instance that scootering 30 miles a day is perfectly possible) paid off in the end.

All I had ahead of me now was a 7-mile dog walk to Land’s End.

Here are the daily distances covered on the Swifty Scooters:

• Day One – Chepstow to Bristol (20 Miles)

• Day Two – Bristol to Crickham – over the Mendip Hills (20 Miles)

• Day Three – Crickham to Thurloxton – over the Quantock Hills (25 Miles)

• Day Four – Thurloxton to West Middlewick Farm (Nr Tavistock) (38 Miles)

• Day Five – WMF to Lydford – skirting Dartmoor on a beautiful trail (30 Miles)

• Day Six – Lydford to Bodmin – with awesome support crew but into Cornwall so SUPER hilly (35 Miles)

• Day Seven – Bodmin to Truro – with interesting off-road sections (30 Miles)

• Day Eight – Truro to St Just – with RAGING headwind and a coastal soaking (33 Miles)

Keep up to date with Sophie via Facebook or Instagram. If you’ve been inspired to take on your own adventure and would like to borrow the SayYesMore Swifty Scooters or Ice Trikes then click here to find out more!

Founder's Blog: Creative Review

SayYesMore 2.0

These past few weeks we’ve been working to redesign the way the SayYesMore team works into the new year.

Our aims are to simplify the way different members of the team communicate, to bring more people into our volunteer team to ensure that roles are shared, and to focus on smaller, free gatherings rather than bigger events and campaigns.

More news on our new and improved plan soon, but for now, if you’re interested in getting involved here are a list of roles we’re recruiting for.

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Partnerships: Creative Review

In the Spring a member of Facebook’s marketing department got in touch and asked if we’d like to work with a creative agency to develop content to grow the YesTribe.

Of course, I said yes. Job changes at Facebook ultimately meant that we’ll have to wait until 2020 to put this campaign into action, but the agency, Creative Review, put together this blog sharing how we went about the process of producing some new YesTribe-shaped content.

Suffice it to say, I’m looking forward to this hitting the social platforms next year.

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I’m always keen to hear from anyone involved in the YesTribe about new ideas, feedback and partnership ideas. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Thanks as always,

Dave

Caving: The time we almost regretted saying yes!

Trying new things can be daunting. There’s that little part of you that always says, ‘what if this happens?’ or ‘what if that happens?’. I’m sure everybody has it and at some point it will have stopped every one of us from doing something we probably should have done. Be bold and brave. Give it a go! Be prepared, but do that thing you’ve always wanted to do and you might just discover, like us, that most of the worries we have are nothing like the reality (for the better!).

It was during a trip to Wales that we visited the National Showcaves centre. We had talked about caving, but neither of us really imagined that we’d be crawling around in tunnels that were dark, wet and only just wider than our shoulders anytime soon.

“Would you ever try caving properly? I wonder how you’d get into something like that”

“Perhaps you’d have to join a club? I’m not sure if they’d be very VI (visually impaired) friendly and it’s probably dark and cold’’

A few weeks later, we met Fraser, an outdoor instructor who seems to love being wet, cold and jumping off things into pools of water. We also found out that he’s a keen caver, working towards one of his qualifications, and he invited us to go caving with him ‘some time’. We all know that when somebody says ‘some time’ it usually never materialises, but not so with Fraser. A few weeks later we met him in the Inglesport Café (a place where cavers seem to hang out) in North Yorkshire. We sat down with a cup of tea, looked over a map and discussed plans. He seemed to have considered the fact that John can’t see, so we confidently left the café to collect our equipment.

We drove to the cave, got kitted up and felt super toasty in our bright red suits (a feeling that was to be short lived!) We reached the cave entrance; a fast flowing stream that disappeared into darkness. We put our head torches on, scrambled around holding on to the sides while we waded through the stream. We laid on a flat rock and entered a small tunnel. Lauren went first, John was in the middle and Fraser was at the back.

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The route into the cave was tricky. Lauren guided John over steep sections where he sometimes used his hands too to feel the steps and rocks he had to negotiate.

The tunnel wasn’t much wider than our shoulders and moving was a struggle. We’d gone perhaps ten metres down the tunnel and John said “I’m not sure I can do this. I think I may be slightly claustrophobic.” The tunnel seemed to widen, so we continued a little further, which is when Fraser realised that we’d taken a wrong turn. We went back through the twisty tunnel, back through the puddles and just 20mins into our caving career, we were wet, cold, had wellies full of water and were unsure as to whether or not we should call it a day.

We didn’t. John decided that as long as we didn’t have to ‘belly crawl’ too much, he could give it another try. Fortunately, things were much better down the right path and we were almost enjoying ourselves. It was a challenge for us. There were deep pools in places, key hand holds and lots to hit your head on, all of which John had a hard time seeing (his 3% vision becomes zero in the dark). Considering John was the first blind person Fraser had taken caving, he did a superb job of guiding.

We reached a place known as ‘Dolly tubs’ (a series of deep pools of water with just a small ledge of rock between) which needed crossing before reaching the abseil point. Fraser worked some magic with the ropes and told us what to do. The descent was pretty interesting. It was incredibly wet for starters! John had to take out his hearing aids but luckily, he still seemed to be able to hear thanks to the cave acoustics. It was a bit daunting dangling on a rope between walls of rock and a waterfall, but we made it down to ‘Allum Pot’ which was an opening in the cave. It was a great view, and one that we’d worked hard for, but getting there had taken a while and it was all too soon time to turn back.

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Lauren ready to abseil down the waterfall of doom (not it's actual name!)

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Allum pot. We made it to an opening in the cave where you could see a waterfall dropping from a stream above ground.

‘Back’ involved ascending up the rope we’d previously abseiled on. It was tough and the water flowing on to our heads felt icy cold. The extra weight of the water in our wellies wasn’t at all welcome while we were trying to haul ourselves back up the rope with our climbing kit. We did it, but our hands were numb, we were soaked through to our undies and we were freezing cold. We upped the pace to warm back up and retraced our steps towards the cave exit. Daylight! Feeling the warmth of the outside air was incredibly welcome.  

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Lauren guiding John out of the rocky cave entrance

“How was that?” asked Fraser

“HORRIBLE!”

 It was almost everything we were worried about. But would we do it again?

Most probably*

 *in a drier and slightly less squeezy cave

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The route in was muddy. Lauren and John both wearing red caving suits, wellies and helmets.

While caving for us fell firmly in the ‘Type 2 fun’ category, it was a great experience all the same and we look back on it surprisingly fondly. We had worries and doubts before giving it a go but what was true for this little adventure and as it is with nearly all others: the stuff we were worrying about beforehand wasn’t at all the stuff that gave us problems! We didn’t get trapped underground and have to cut off one of our limbs, but we never expected that John would be claustrophobic!

The lesson in all of this – don’t worry too much and definitely don’t let those worries stop you from stepping out of your comfort zone or saying yes. Things won’t always go to plan, but it’s part of the adventure and often the bit we talk (or laugh) about and remember the most. Problems will occur, but they are rarely insurmountable. We deal with problems all of the time and there’s some great comfort to be had in being able to think ‘I know problems are going to happen, I don’t yet quite know what they are but I’m prepared and I will probably be able to handle them’.

Check out the T-Shirt Twins’ video for more details on their caving adventure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKDDrjgTrso

Saying yes to backpacking with kids

Travelling with kids is arguably a little harder than the freedom many of us are used to as young adults, but Jen Williams decided not to let her two young’uns become a barrier, and packed their bags to go chase a far off dream.

Back in our twenties, we both (separately) did the whole backpacking thing  - no ties, no planning ahead, beers at breakfast time, tiny rucksacks, partying until the sun came up – and we had a brilliant time! Since then, we’ve lived overseas and travelled a decent amount for work but I’ve always kind of dreamt of packing it all in and going backpacking again for a while. However, living just outside London in full on suburbia and having a three year old made that seem a bit of a distant possibility!

And then I got pregnant again and maternity leave loomed in the future – a time which I did enjoy the first time but also perhaps found a tiny weeny bit mind numbingly boring. Babies really don’t do very much and, whilst they’re very cute, days can definitely drag in the feed, wind, sleep, play routine (I’m not even sure if that’s the order it’s meant to be to be honest, something like that!)  That’s when an idea started to hatch – Sam, our then two year old, was not yet in school and babies are pretty mobile – could we perhaps pack all of their stuff into a backpack and disappear across the world on an adventure? How would we afford it? Would we cope? Would the kids cope? Was it safe? Were we mad?

Well, here we are! I’m writing this from Hoi An in Vietnam with our three year old and seven month old - half way through our trip and our third country to date. We arrived in Hoi An from Mui Ne on the night train yesterday and have spent the day dodging motorbikes as we explored the old town before heading to a traditional puppet show which both kids were enthralled by. Next country will probably be Indonesia or possibly Myanmar – we aren’t planning ahead very far.

So, how have we made this happen and what tips do we have for any other parents wanting to go off on an adventure with their babies/kids? I’ve tried to think about some of the key questions that we had before setting off and that we now have some vague answers to!

Jen holds her baby next to the sea

1.     How are we affording it all?

We were lucky in that we both managed to get some  (at least partially) paid parental leave that we could take at the same time. We also managed to rent out our house for 5 months through Facebook to a local family who needed some short term accommodation – this was key to making the trip happen as monthly mortgage payments would have made it impossible. Renting out the house was actually super easy – we left it furnished, we found a draft contract online, we told our mortgage provider, redirected our post and that was pretty much it! Flight cost wise, we managed to get super cheap flights in the January sales to Australia via Singapore – with the stop over in Singapore being 6 weeks long! From there, short haul flights to the rest of South East Asia are super cheap (Ryanair esque) making the travel side of things much more affordable than originally envisaged. We knew Australia would be the expensive part but we’re extremely lucky to have friends and family there who could help us out and put us up, and we lived on a diet of picnics and cans of beer from the local bottle shop! As I’m still largely breastfeeding, the baby side of things didn’t cost too much either. We are excited as we move into South East Asia to realise that we can find accommodation for £20 per night and noodles from street vendors for a couple of pounds. We’ve managed to convince the three year old to like fried rice so he’s being fed if not in the healthiest of ways! We’ve also cracked the travel side of things by taking super cheap night trains up the country which also mean we save on a night of accommodation each time.

Travelling with kid involves some packing, and then carrying when the little feet get tired

2.     How do you pack enough for two adults and two children in 3 backpacks?!

Well, it’s super hard! Our bags are literally bursting at the seams and trying to get everything in before a flight/train/boat feels completely impossible – especially as we acquire random toys and buckets and spades along the way! But we’re somehow doing it. We have a blow up mattress for our toddler and a LittleLife tent contraption for the baby (which has been amazing) – and they both actually sleep in them so that’s been a huge relief! We have one car seat and one travel vest, one play mat/tent thing, a portable high chair and one tiny bag of the most precious toys that couldn’t possibly be left behind. We still struggle to be very mobile though to be honest – 3 big bags, a car seat, a baby change bag , a travel cot tent and two little rucksacks don’t exactly mean we’re travelling light. BUT we can, between us, carry it all and move down the road as a unit between train stations, looking for hotels/Airbnbs etc if we absolutely have to. The biggest challenge has been getting us and all of our bags on and off the Vietnamese trains when they stop for a brief time at the station – lifting the kids up the steep steps, throwing the bags on after them and then manoeuvring down narrow train corridors whilst the train lurches from side to side!

3-year old Sam walks along a narrow path with mountains in the distance

3.     How is travelling with kids different to backpacking on your own?

 This one is kind of obvious! All the stuff is the main one – I do miss having just one small backpack and perhaps a tent flung over my shoulder, rather than resembling a packhorse as we move from place to place. We have had taxis refuse to take us because of the amount of stuff until we’ve stubbornly insisted and squeezed the car to the rafters with determination. The other key difference is you just can’t go with the flow. You can’t just eat when you stumble across somewhere; you can’t spontaneously decide to sit at a beach bar for a few beers; you can’t rock up in a new town and just wander around looking for a hostel bed. You have to PLAN. And it seems every evening, once the kids are in bed (we can’t stay out drinking as we did back in the day!), we sit in whatever room we’re in with a tiny torch so as not to wake them up, and google about train times, accommodation options, shops etc. We can’t take buses/coaches on long journeys due to safety with car seats etc so we’re booking trains ahead of time; we need to make packed lunches before we set off each day in case we can’t find any shops or cafes; we miss out places without electricity because we want to be able to sterilise dummies/bottles and plug in our baby monitor; we always know the sunset time so we don’t get stranded in the dark during a rainforest walk, halfway up a hill or in a dodgy part of town; and we pack at least three changes of clothes every time we leave the house in case of toilet accidents, vomiting, rain, food spillages etc etc!. There’s a lot of admin involved in travelling with kids! Also, crossing roads and dealing with taxis with kids is definitely more anxiety inducing – we’re having to get out of taxis without seatbelts because we can’t strap our baby car seat in and some of the driving we’ve experienced means we feel this is pretty much essential. Finally, from a health side of things, we’re being super careful about antiseptic handwash, sterilising of spoons and bottles, and insect repellent as dengue fever is big in Vietnam and is something that makes me pretty anxious.

Young Sam enjoys the raised verandah in front of shipping container accommodation.

4.     Finally, how are the kids coping?

Well, it seems backpacking with a baby is actually pretty easy! Our baby is delighted to be in his carrier on my front looking at the world around him. He loves all of the  many, many random people that come up to admire him  and take photos, smiling away with no fear whatsoever – he seems to be something of a celebrity in Vietnam! He loves the beach and the sea and, amazingly, seems to sleep MUCH better without a routine and even on a night train (we use a blow up airbed wedged next to the bed to make a sort of cot contraption and then I sit up all night to check he’s ok and not rolling off!).  In the UK,  I spent the first few months after he was born with severe post-natal anxiety and I was destroying myself trying to get nap times and feed times exactly right and using ‘controlled crying’ techniques etc – but, since we’ve been away, he’s almost entirely stopped napping because he’s so excited during the day and then seems to crash out brilliantly at night (I don’t want to speak too soon about this!).  I do think he might end up developing slightly more slowly because he doesn’t have as much time on a play mat and in a jumperoo etc to practise crawling and standing, but I figure that the sensory overload of the trip will be helping him to develop in other ways so I’m not too worried.

Sam, our three year old, was the one I was worried about. He has a lovely group of little friends at home, both in nursery and through baby classes, and he’s pretty attached to them. He’s also completely in love with our dog, his grandparents and our little house. We did a lot of work to prepare for the trip. We watched films and TV shows about travelling (GoJetters, Thomas the Tank Engine Big World Big Adventures etc) and showed him the places we were going on maps and on YouTube. We told him that people were coming to look after our house and our dog was going on an exciting holiday to my parents’ house – and we made sure we emphasised that we would definitely be coming home again.

I was still a bit worried though about the break in routine and the instability he might feel moving from place to place every couple of days. But he has coped marvellously. I mean, he clearly hugely misses his friends and basically chases random kids around playgrounds to try to chat and play with them – which is generally cute but a little bit heartbreaking if he gets ignored – and, every now and again, he  has a little moan and says ‘I just really want to stroke Boda’. But, other than that, he really has loved almost every second. He’s coped incredibly well with only about 5 toys because he’s out every day exploring, studying maps, climbing up to look out points, spotting wildlife, riding on long boats, exploring crazy motorbike filled streets, taking night trains, eating ice cream, watching sunsets and going to bed far later than he really should be. He is wonder at the world around him every single day. He has hugely enriched the experience for us by noticing things that we would simply overlook – birds singing, tiny flowers along our paths, funny shaped clouds in the sky, footprints on the sand. Seeing these amazing countries through a toddler’s eyes just makes it all the more magical and this quality time spent with him is something I’m so grateful to have and will treasure forever.

So, if you are lucky to have the opportunity to go off backpacking with your kids, for one week or a few months,  we very much recommend saying yes! It has  been such an enriching experience both for our children and us and has given a very different, yet welcome, perspective of the incredible planet we get to call home.

Founder's Blog: #bethebird

A seagull sits atop a sign, a sign showing a red line through a silhouette of a seagull, which happens to be facing exactly the same way as the real-life bird sitting on it.

If there's a photo that sums up the idea behind the YesTribe it's this!

Originally it was shared by Avani, one of the team at Facebook looking after this year's Community Leadership Fellows. She said,

"This bird is really inspiring me today. I've been reflecting a lot on the journey with you all - watching you lead, deal with the craziness of the world, your communities and sometimes your lives.

Then I watched a talk by Seth Godin about building tribes and I realized a large part of your work is sitting like this bird, pretty much openly flouting some "rules" made by some authority - to not do exactly what you are doing to make the world better by connecting people.

I won't be over philosophical here. I love you all for being this bird. This bird is cool."

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For me, SayYesMore has always been an idea that helps me ignore the self-set or ingrained rules in my head, a reminder that it's ok to do something that other people might think is wrong, it's ok not to look for guidance and safety before we land, it's thoroughly encouraged to ignore (or even poo on) the silly, restrictive rules that are there for the plonkerish of reasons (ie. I can put a sign there, so I will).

I'd like to think you're all here because you recognise that life isn't transactional and that every single day you bosh down some barrier that someone else thoughtlessly put in your way, led by a sense that the other side has a lesson, or a new friend, or maybe just a cool place to camp for the night.

It's mental health week this week, but let's keep up the conversation all the time. Remember that if your mind can be the bird that doesn't care and the bird that isn't influenced by rules or thrown stones or even the sharp edge of the surface it happens to arrive at, then your mental health will be in a pretty good place.

You're awesome, regardless of what they say and even what you think sometimes. You're the cool bird living life your way.

#bethebird