Feliz cumpleaños Ash!

To celebrate his 33rd birthday, rather than sipping champers and spinning around the dance floor like an electric whisk, our dedicated driver Ashley spent today tootling around Costa Rica in his indestructible Landrover. Fondly known as team Bravo One, Ash and photographer Ollie were out doing a reccee on the Corcovado Trek, a 19-day monster that delves into Costa Rica's most enchanting rainforest. In fact, the Corcovado national park comprises eight distinct habitats ranging from mangrove swamp to primary rainforest to low altitude cloud forest, and is widely recognised as the most biologically diverse spot on the whole of planet earth.

Now, it's not all work, work, work for Ash. After a day spotting scarlet macaw, giant anteaters, harpy eagles and maybe even the odd Central American jaguar in this bastion of biodiversity, he got to check out a rather nice aqua caliente (hot spring) and we treated him to a fine supper of tinned pork and beans before a romantic night under canvas. And we even sent him a homemade card from all his Raleigh chums back at Fieldbase. That's feliz cumpleaños, Raleigh Costa Rica-style!

Back at Fieldbase, we tucked into a banoffee pie birthday cake in his honour.