Hi folks
We have just got back form an amazing Managers outing. We stayed at the one of the most luxurious hotels known to man. Erm……before you start visualizing grandiose palace style accommodations with butlers on hand etc. I have to stop you right there! We spent the night CAMPING!!!
Ryszard had travelled the length and breadth of our beautiful island, his mission was to find a suitable campsite to cater for South Africans, British, South Americans, Canarian and Spanish Managers all expecting a bit of the Gold Crown luxury. Well all I can say is he did a top job! He found a site with no electricity, no hot water, and no phone signal, at least it had toilet facilities and somewhere to put your rubbish! When we finally arrived at the site it was so beautiful, slap bang in the middle of a pine forest close to the Orotava Valley in the north west of the island.
The magnificent Mount Teide was looking as majestic as ever as the sun slowly began to set. One problem though! A setting sun, no electricity and we had not yet set up camp. I don’t know about you, but erecting a tent should be a simple process, right? WRONG!! Think again, set the scene, the Girls were all collecting wood for the BBQ, planned for later in the evening. So it was left to us Men to erect the tents! Again all I can say is imagine when you have purchased a piece of furniture from IKEA, with it comes the little instruction sheet, the pieces never ever seem to make any sense! Well it is exactly the same with tents! We eventually got them to stand after a lot of head scratching, and a few grunts and groans!
After the krypton factor like task, we headed off to the BBQ area, where the girls had done a fantastic job of getting the fire going and food on the go! Ryszard had arranged all the food and beverages, also Darryl our head chef was on hand to help the girls. We ate, we drank, we laughed and we shivered. Above all we enjoyed getting to know one another more as a bunch of friends, as opposed to a bunch of managers scurrying around PG. We all had funny stories to tell, especially how we ended up working at our gorgeous resort in the Canary Islands. So after the fifth? Bottle of wine we headed off to our make shift accommodation by torch light. The boys thought it would be good idea to jump out from behind the trees and give the girls a fright as it was so dark. We eventually settled down in our tents, I had to share with Ryszard in a two man tent. James, Adrian, Serge and Darryl had a four man tent. Mariana, Nati, Lilly & Ana all shared, leaving Gemma and Justine to share the two berth tent.

The next morning Darryl and I were the first to rise (6.15am!!). We set about lighting the fire to start breakfast by phone light as we could not figure out how to get the gas one up and running. Slowly but surely the guys joined us for a bit of welcome breakfast. We would have been having a bit of steak but it had gone missing during the night! This was probably down to wild dogs that roam the forests.
After our fill, James presented his vision regarding PG for 2010. Most of us have had a challenging year and I am sure next year we will also go through some challenges. But we all believe it will be a better year all round, we all appreciate how much support our owners have given us over the last twenty two years.
With owners like you we have every chance of standing tall. Thank you guys!

So thirteen inspired human beings headed off back to Callao Salvaje. I was driving a small car down from the forest. There was no road to the camp as it had already been washed away, how I navigated that small car down a ravine I will never know!

So folks, that’s it for now.
I am leaving Tenerife on the 5th of December to walk Kilimanjaro! Thank you to all who have donated to the INGAME YAMI project already, for those of you who haven’t yet donated there is still time, a pound will be good enough, so please donate and become part of something very special!

Talk soon my friends
Dougie