Monkeys on the roof and a bed made of conkers...
CONTINUING our series featuring the holiday memories of famous people, this week TV presenter PENNY SMITH, 59, recalls her life of adventures…
First holiday memories: Getting on a little yellow plane at Southampton airport for our annual trip to Alderney was always such a joy for me. We’d then rush to our rented house, gobble a sandwich and race to the sea for a swim. It was heaven on Earth. We would play-fight in the derelict bunkers, skip down perilous steps to Telegraph Bay and commune with Guernsey cows. And it was always sunny.
First trip abroad: We went to France in a caravanette – six of us in a glorified icecream van. There were arguments over who sat where and who made the worst smells, but we also sang, giggled and made friends with random local children on our way to the South of France. But just when we thought all our dreams had come true – blue skies, turquoise sea, good food – Dad declared it was ‘too bloody expensive’, so off we went back to Britain.
First school trip: We went to Ironbridge to look at the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. It was only surpassed by the trip to Teesside during my economics A-level to witness economies of scale at first hand. We never went on school trips abroad – ‘too bloody expensive’.
My best holiday: One of the most extraordinary was to Uganda where I went trekking with gorillas and chimpanzees and stayed near a volcano crater as monkeys thundered over the thatched roof.
And worst: I went with a friend to Morocco. We were miserable because we’d become single and our beds were made out of conkers.
The holiday I’ve always wanted to take: I’d love to go to Antarctica. Penguins. That’s it. My favourite place: Barbados, because I can stay with some of my best friends who make me laugh and who don’t care that from sundown I am encased in voluminous cloth to try to beat the mosquitoes.
My perfect holiday companion: Someone who isn’t picky about food and fancies a walk.
The first thing I pack: My bag of tricks with everything from a safety pin to a plastic hat.