We were due for a stomp. We’d heard that Sandwood Bay has the most gorgeous beach, which is a big claim in Northern Scotland, and that you can only reach it on foot, so it was an obvious choice for a leg stretch. We’d glanced over the reference in Lonely Planet, registered something about 4km … Continue reading Wrapping up the NC500
Camping
Setting off on the NC500
After a far more successful collapse of camp we set off on our first day on the North Coast 500 route. According to the blogosphere, this hasn’t yet become massively popular, but we encountered a fairly hefty number of campervans on our way around so if you haven’t been before, go now. We did the … Continue reading Setting off on the NC500
Caro’s first ever trip to Scotland
We’d bought the books and skimmed the blogs but, true to form, we’d done very little research on Scotland before we set off from Suffolk for what was likely to be one of the last times. We had no idea what we were doing, to the extent that both of us were under the impression … Continue reading Caro’s first ever trip to Scotland
Oh look some more hills, we must climb them! – Parque Pumalín & Futaleufú
We’d used up our time allocated to Parque Pumalín hiding from the rain, so we didn’t really feel like we had been able to get as much out of it as we would have liked but there's nothing that you can do about the weather. We picked up food for lunch in Chaitén and then … Continue reading Oh look some more hills, we must climb them! – Parque Pumalín & Futaleufú
Puerto Montt and the start of the Carretera Austral
The bus journey to Chile went incredibly smoothly, once through the Argentine border we drove through 40km of cloud to get us to the Chilean border where we disembarked with all of our belongings and stood in a line watching the absolutely gorgeous sniffer dog wag his way around our bags. Three hours later we … Continue reading Puerto Montt and the start of the Carretera Austral
Lacing up our boots again in El Chaltén
The 3-hour bus trip from El Calafate to El Chaltén is absolutely stunning with endless stretches of scrub land, lakes, mountains and the occasional animal; we saw a rhea and some llamas, there was much excited pointing at these. The final section of the journey is particularly spectacular as the road makes a beeline for … Continue reading Lacing up our boots again in El Chaltén
3 days rafting on the Kaligandaki
We gave ourselves two nights in Pokhara to recover after our trek before heading out on another adventure; a 3-day rafting and camping trip on the Kali Gandaki with Paddle Nepal. At 7.30am we pitched up at the meet point and climbed aboard a ropey looking bus for a 3-hour bus journey to the start … Continue reading 3 days rafting on the Kaligandaki
Visiting New Zealand: Some hints, tips and general observations
We spent 7 weeks in New Zealand and spent a large proportion of that time living in a tent, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. We spent a good chunk of time in each of the North and South Islands and loved both. It was a brilliant trip with the usual ups and … Continue reading Visiting New Zealand: Some hints, tips and general observations
Rafting, Warren the seagull and bidding farewell to New Zealand – Geraldine, Peel Forest, Rangitata River and north to Christchurch.
After a late night chatting with other guests we had a fairly slow exit from Fairlie and were probably not on top form, as we drove 10km in the wrong direction before realising and turning back. We were headed to the town of Geraldine, where Caro was unreasonably excited about the dual attractions of a … Continue reading Rafting, Warren the seagull and bidding farewell to New Zealand – Geraldine, Peel Forest, Rangitata River and north to Christchurch.
Mount Cook National Park
The drive up to Mount Cook / Aoraki National Park is stunning. The road winds along the edge of the incredibly blue Lake Pukaki backed by mountains, it is breath taking. On our approach it looked as though the mountains had been superimposed on to the scenery it was so clear.The village of Aoraki is … Continue reading Mount Cook National Park
The Rolling Stones 