Hever Castle

Day trips are fun. There's just something about loading up cars with people and food and heading off after breakfast that sets up the day to provide a magical time. Even the little things like parking together and buying group tickets adds to an occasion where even the threat of bad weather doesn't spoil things. In my earliest memories these group trips were largely made up of family - cousins and aunts and uncles. Now it seems that it's all friends. Not bad, but different.

Today we checked out Haver Castle in Kent. If you haven't heard of it, don't worry; most of us hadn't either. It just happened to be close and cheap enough to draw a large enough crowd (thirteen of us) to make it work. We were there in 45 minutes and it cost us 7 quid to get in.

The day was spent dossing, boating, eating, dossing and dossing. The boating was a massive laugh actually with none of us having anything even resembling sea legs. After a while things fell into place and we ended up playing a game of tag with the two boats we had under our command. I may be biased but I reckon our larger boat (of 8 people) totally out-rowed the other for most of the hour.

We also checked out the gardens and maze; a typically boys vs girls affair with a dare for the losing team. As the majority of the group went off to play rounders (or some other activity requiring an excess of energy) the remainder of us just sat and chilled, imagining that the sun was shining behind the overcast clouds. Still, at least it didn't rain for the whole day.

We got chucked out at 6, us being the only ones still bringing in food from the cars towards closing time. We had already made the most of the day, but we unwinded at the home of one of the group; the perfect end to such a chilled out, fun and easy day.