StartupBackpacker

It was my first time away from home. My first holiday further than Europe and my first night on a laundry room floor to escape the evil - yes evil! - mosquitos of a Louisiana swamp.

It was the summer of '69...sorry, 2011...and I was experiencing my first ever independent trip away from home on a road trip through the Southern States of the USA and I was loving it! There was only one problem though...for those who don't know or can't remember, 2011 was the year that North America's summer temperatures were reaching record breaking levels and boy, were we feeling it. Cold water became a luxury, aircon - or AC - was like a gift from God, and the bugs, oh my the bugs, were ravenous and agitated.

As part of my tour group's itinerary we were scheduled to have a nights stop over in Louisiana. But we couldn't feel that true Louisiana experience without a night at a swamp, now could we? Which, after dark, turned into something out of Stephen King novel. There were frogs hoping around in the shower cubicle, we had to stop washing up because too many mosquitos were flying in to our lamps and in to the pans, and if you left your tent unzipped for more than 10 seconds you were doomed.

It was with this frustration that a friend on the tour had a brilliant idea. After unlocking the window of the laundry room before it was padlocked by the camping ground owners, he managed to clamber through the small space and let us all in for a restful nights sleep surrounded by four, thick walls.

We settled into our sleeping bags on the concrete floor, laughed about our lucky escape from the swarm and just as we were closing our eyes....the biggest bug you've ever seen crawled past our heads.

Not all travel memories are glamorous, but they do make the best stories!