By: Blonde Two

The Two Blondes have recently been doing a bit of academic pseudo-study. We have been discussing the hypothesis of Type One, Type Two and Type Three Fun. This most excellent conjecture suggests that there are three types of fun and that they can be applied in particular to the outdoors.

Type One Fun is just that… it is fun. On a typical Type One expedition, there would be sunshine, laughter and clear, fresh air. Photos would be of wide views and clear skies. Everybody would go home happy and feeling like they had had a great time. The Two Blondes have had a few such expeditions with some of our wonderful youngsters, but Type Two is more common.

Type Two Fun is the fun that isn’t funny to start with. On a Type Two expedition, there will be difficulty, there will be tricky decisions to make and there might even be tears. A Type Two expedition is likely to include rain, wind and a few bogs. Someone might get lost, someone else might struggle physically, someone will go home feeling fed-up. The thing about a Type Two expedition though is that it provides after-the-event pleasure. Eventually you will look back on the expedition and smile, it will probably even become a treasured memory. We Blondes have made many of these memories, both for ourselves, and hopefully for our youngsters.

Type Three Fun isn’t really fun at all. It is the expedition that went completely wrong, the one when you couldn’t keep up with anyone and the one where you discovered that your waterproofs weren’t after all. Type Three Fun is hard slog and discomfort, it is the one that makes you think you will never do that again, even weeks afterwards. We Blondes have discussed Type Three Fun along with the others, and we have decided that we have never had such an expedition. We ran a few through the hypothesis tester. How about the one when I broke my ankle? Nope, definitely Type Two, there was a helicopter, the lads carried my stretcher and I had a great story to tell. What about the one where we nearly had to call Dartmoor Rescue out for a lost team? Not that one either. We worked it out and found the team just before dark, lessons were learnt and again, there was a great story to tell afterwards.

If I was you, I would aim for a Type One Expedition every time, but don’t be too disappointed if you get a Type Two instead. In the end, Type Two’s are the expeditions you treasure, the ones you hold in your heart, the ones that make you think, ‘I did that!’