As the title says, I have recently been given a couple of days off scuba diving and as Jess was off climbing I thought I would join her! We headed to Hvar on the ferry, I managed to sleep throughout the whole journey, and on arrival we managed to find Olivia, who Jess had met... Continue Reading →
As the title suggests, I've just started working as a dive guide and so far it's been pretty full on! On day one I completed three dives, the first of which I led, a thirty metre wall, with an anchor at the base! We traversed this seeing, spinney lobster, confirm eels, a couple of small... Continue Reading →
The day after our ski touring adventure in Chamonix, we set off in the direction of home, and decided that we would pop into the Bourgogne region, as there was a bit of climbing there that we could get done before dropping Colin off at Paris Airport. We pulled into Saffres that has a basic... Continue Reading →
For the first time on this trip we have a visitor!out friend Colin flew over and met us in Cham, we put him up in the five star spare room in the van, also known as the front seats, and decided on a few places to visit. We first took a trip to Les Gaillands,... Continue Reading →
For years I have come to Chamonix in the summer for rock climbing and mountaineering adventures. I’ve always looked up at these beautiful mountains and wondered what they would look like with their winter coat on and now I have had the chance! We arrived in Chamonix at the start of the month after three... Continue Reading →
In my last post I described our trip to Montserrat, where we walked and climbed in the mountains above the Monastery. The views in this place were out of this world, towers of rock stood atop of a huge mound, and from a distance it looks like a hedgehog. We enjoyed our time there, although... Continue Reading →
This is the most common question we have been asked when we meet friends, each time it is asked, we mumble for a while between ourselves as we try to break down ten months of continuous travel, adventure and van life. It’s too difficult to pick one experience that has outdone the others, as... Continue Reading →
When we left Costa Blanca at the end of January, it was after a months solid climbing. We had climbed so much that I even got to the point that I'd had enough of climbing and needed some time off. The casualty of this was a route called El Dorado, one of the top fifty... Continue Reading →
Let's start with a little moan, the bloody weather! I mean what the hell? I'm in Spain, and it's starting to feel like I'm still in England! Anyway moan over! We left Portugal in horrendous rain, and in two days we made it to a small town just on the outskirts of Madrid, called El... Continue Reading →
When we arrived in Portugal, we had plans to spend a couple of weeks there following the coast up to Lisbon, climbing as we went. As things turned out we only managed a couple of days on rock and for the rest, rain stopped play. We had a long drive from a service stop just... Continue Reading →
I have often sat at home watching other people's travels through social media, often with a huge fear of missing out on all the great adventures that are going on around me! Often it's work or other commitments holding me back, however I'm now happy to say I have been living a great adventure on... Continue Reading →
After spending a couple of days parked up on the beach at Bolonia, I decided that I was rested enough to have another days climbing… this later proved to be wrong! We got up earlier than usual, as we knew we wanted to make the most of the day ahead. Luckily we had managed to... Continue Reading →
This area first arrived on my radar when looking for sports climbing in the area. One of the online forums mentioned this El Helechal and it's great bouldering potential. All I could find in the form of topo’s was higher graded routes, most of which were out of my grades, however I still thought a... Continue Reading →
My previous post covers our first dive, and this was my second. I say my, as jess decided after the faff of the first to skip this dive, unfortunately for her this was a much better dive, with way more to see. We descended a fixed line and soon the obvious protrusions of a wreck... Continue Reading →
It has been a while since I last took a trip below the sea, and from a friends recommendation we decided that a trip to Tarifa was needed and whilst there we would get some diving in! As soon as we arrived in the area I liked it, and that says a lot, as although... Continue Reading →
This is a tiny post more for information rather than telling a story of what I have done, although I'm sure there will be a little in there! We parked at the Aire that is located at the top of the town (36.445959, -5.278203), where we camped, it is quite comfortable and has water, waste and... Continue Reading →
We have had another week or so of play in El Chorro, and to be honest it's a week more than we expected when we first arrived. On our first week we only managed to climb a few single pitch routes due to a lack of a guidebook, and most of these were in poor... Continue Reading →
Another day, another adventure! This time we had to open up our storage box in the van to find our via Ferrata slings as they had been out of use since we left the alps. We were going to climb the local via Ferrata route in el chorro, that we had found information about online.... Continue Reading →
A while back a friend of mine tagged me in a post about this walk, and at the time we though it was not for us and maybe a little tame. However we decided it would be a good option when the weather was not so good. We tried to do the walk a couple... Continue Reading →
So it's the end of our first week in El Chorro, and the heavens have opened, leaving me with some time to write up a blog post of what we have been up to so far. In all honesty this first week has been a little up and down. First of all we drove close... Continue Reading →
Whilst we were travelling towards El Chorro, I placed a thread on the UKC forum asking wether there was any descent places to go walking or scrambling near El Chorro, as I fancied the option if there was a chance between climbs. As luck would have it I chose an Aire in a town called... Continue Reading →
We picked Ricote as a camping spot in our usual way, what's near us? What looks nice? As it turns out Ricote fitted the bill just nicely, although it was a little out of the way. That said it was worth an extra twenty minutes behind the wheel. The actual camper stop/wire is located in... Continue Reading →
We have continued our climbing tour through Costa Blanca, with a trip to a crag called Sax, again we were chasing top fifty and three stared routes from the Rockfax book. Sax had a lot of good routes, and looked like a great place to climb although the guidebook did say that the venue was... Continue Reading →
After what was a great day out on Toix the day before, we were to have a trying day on Mascarat. We woke up to an overcast day, and decided that a trip into Calpe for some supplies would give us time to gauge what the weather was doing. After this little jaunt the weather... Continue Reading →
The adventures in Costa Blanca just continue to come. Following on from our success on Parle, a sea cliff/cave climb, that tested our ability to the max, we thought we’d head north and take on another time and again recommended climb, Sonjannika at Morro Falgui. I initially found out about this route when searching for... Continue Reading →
We have been in Costa Blanca for the better part of two weeks and have so far had an absolute blast! My previous two posts have already highlighted some of the fantastic adventures that we have experienced here, such as the Bernia ridge, various quality single pitch crags, climbing on Toix on Christmas Day and... Continue Reading →
There have been some highlights on this trip for me and this day is another to go on that list. I'm not sure why, but this ridge has been on my wantlist for a while, I can't even remember where I first read about it, although at some point it crossed my path and ever... Continue Reading →
For near seven months we have been able to live in our van rent free, we have wild camped for this entire time! However we felt like we would treat ourselves to some normality over the Christmas period, and booked two nights at the orange house. We drove for just short of seven hours from... Continue Reading →
After leaving Croatia due to cold weather, we thought we would entertain even colder climates in Slovenia, and see how both the van and us would fair. On crossing the border we headed straight for Bled, and stopped at a service station for the night. In Croatia we had already given into the cold at... Continue Reading →
It feels like half the time, which can only be a good thing! When we set out we planned on a years trip and so far it is all going to plan. Of course there have been a few problems on the way ( no one mention getting stuck and wedging the van under a... Continue Reading →
So the last week or so has been both good and bad, mostly in terms of the weather. As an outdoor trip, we are constantly relying on the weather to show its hand and then we can get on with things or just chill out for the day. As it turns out, since we went... Continue Reading →
This was the second dive of the day, and I've only done a separate post due to the amount of photos in the previous post, and also to set the dives apart. On this dive we descended onto a rockery with small reefs and then made our way to the wall. We followed this, slowly... Continue Reading →
We have been in Croatia for a few weeks now, and throughout this time we have longed to go Scuba diving at some point, however we have struggled to find the right time, centre and weather to get a dive in. It does not help that we are massively out of diving season and the... Continue Reading →
Another fine day, another fine climb, and another horrid descent. This is a simple way to sum up our second multipitch route in Croatia. We started later than planned, although we were pretty sure we could get up and down in the time left. This route was called Stargate and was further along the face... Continue Reading →
Finally the weather seems to be improving for a time and we are trying to make the most if it. The first afternoon of good ish weather we headed up to the crag near Split as we were parked in town. It's weird that for days all I have wanted to do is climb and... Continue Reading →
I have already reviewed my first week in Croatia, and although it has not gone to plan as far as the climbing/weather is concerned, we have still made the best of the time we have had here. The same has to be said of our second week we have been hampered by bad weather and... Continue Reading →
How did I end up here? A series of decisions and processes have ended up with me living in a van, travelling, climbing and having the best time of my life, for the most part. Outside of the most part is covered in these ‘reality posts’, however I wrote that these would cover the good,... Continue Reading →
As my journey through living full time in a van continues, I thought I would continue to shed light on the lesser advertised realities of my #vanlife experiences. This post just runs through the latest things that have gone wrong and anything that opposes the general perfect Instagram vision of living in a van. Rude... Continue Reading →
I held off from adding this to the last post, in the hope that we would be able to have another day of adventure in the mountains, unfortunately the weather has had the last word and high winds have meant we will instead drive to Croatia this afternoon. I know it's a hard life! In... Continue Reading →
So far Slovenia has been a beautiful place, we have only a few places on which to base this opinion, but so far we have had a blast. The classic sights of Bled coupled with some Gorge and waterfall walks have been fantastic, however we still feel the need to itch the climbing addicts within... Continue Reading →
We left the Dolomites after a bit of bad weather and a sprinkle of snow had coated all the mountains, whilst taking away a few more degrees in the process. This was enough to force us to leave as it was pretty cold already. We had an amazing second trip to the Dolomites managing to... Continue Reading →
In all honesty this second outing to the Dolomites has been one long hard week of fun! In eight days we have had seven of them out in the mountains, with one off in the middle, my body is feeling sore, but it has been worth it. Last time I left the area feeling disappointed... Continue Reading →
This is one of the classic Via Ferrata in the Dolomites, add to this fact that there is a bridge, we just had to have a go! Sometimes classic means ruined by the passage and polish of many climbers and although it did have lots of polish the route, it was still a really good... Continue Reading →
Or so my guidebook says, Magnifici Quattro (The magnificent Four) is a grade grade 6BVF, and is named in honour of four members of mountain rescue who tragically died whilst on a rescue mission. Jess and me both felt as though we had the ability to climb this route and so set our alarms early... Continue Reading →
This climb was our fourth day on the bounce and it's fair to say I am feeling a little bit fragile after it all, it's time for a day off, however before that I will write a short piece on this climb. It's fair to say that the great weather we are having is the... Continue Reading →
After a couple of tough days on the Col dei Bos, we decided that we would continue with a third day, this time on the Via Ferrata Michielli Strobel on Punta Fiames. This is close to where we have parked and seems to have a smaller approach time, as Jess does not like long approach... Continue Reading →
Finally we have made it back to the mountains, oh how much I have missed being here! It sounds weird to have been travelling, climbing and diving across Italy and Sardinia, and the whole time I felt like there was something missing, and I've not realised it was this, hills, mountains, towering rock faces, amazing... Continue Reading →
Overall we spent just short of three weeks travelling around Sardinia, initially our plan was to climb as much as possible, however we soon came to discover the amazing coastline and underwater world that surrounds Sardinia, and it is fair to say we diverted our attention to this more than the climbing. We snorkelled in... Continue Reading →
So far this trip we have climbed, a lot, however our stint up the west coast of Sardinia resulted in more sunbathing than climbing. In all honesty the most climbing that we did was at Masua, and that was three single pitches, so not exactly pushing ourselves… that said, this part of the trip has... Continue Reading →
So far the west coast of Sardinia has been as picturesque as everywhere else, we have slept with sea views nearly every night, and have not been bothered by anyone. The beaches that we have visited have been just as nice as everywhere else on the island, I feel we have found some true gems... Continue Reading →
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