We arrived in Amsterdam and managed to get a spot at the Vliegenbos caravan park, our first official night on a campsite in over 11 months on the road, not bad! We were keen to take advantage of the facilities, however we were keener still to get out into Amsterdam and tick off a few... Continue Reading →
After finishing with our climbing in Fontainebleau we headed north to Belgium where we were to meet with a couple of friends met many years ago, and have ever since planned time and again to meet up, however this has never happened. We arrived in Aalst after a looong drive, and had a few drinks... 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 →
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 →
Many years ago, I looked into flights to Valencia with a plan to visit during the Las Fallas festival weekend, as it turned out my ideals were scuppered by super high prices of flights and accommodation. At the time I was travelling a fair bit in between work and this was right up my street,... Continue Reading →
We finished our time in El Escorial, just on the outskirts of Madrid in a hail of rain. The day before we had managed to squeeze in one last boulder session at La Silla De Felipe II, in between rain showers. We climbed for a maximum of an hour before rain stopped play and we... 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 →
The afternoon after we had been bouldering, we had a lovely lunch overlooking the bay. We then drove down to Bolonia and had a walk down the beach, we had the whole beach to ourselves, apart from a few cows! We collected some shells and even returned a beached jellyfish to the sea, I'm not... 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 →
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 →
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 →
I am a little behind on posts, not that I have lost my enthusiasm for writing them, it's just that I have not been up to much, and therefore do not have much to write about. As with the previous post, all is not well in the van. I'm not going to dwell on it... Continue Reading →
So far this trip has been amazing, time and again I have experienced and written in this blog just how good of a time I am having. However just recently the trip has took a dip in form. Nothing major has happened, and that's part of the problem… we have had a couple of weeks... 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 →
Just as we passed the halfway point of the trip, I had a thought about these van life reality posts and how I may not have much to say from here on in, as it all becomes the same old problems, just in a different light. However that evening was the night of the creep... 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 →
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 →
We drove into Croatia at night after a long day of freeloading wifi and power at the Bled tourist office, as jess has work, its only fair to say how good the office is and the information we received from the staff was above and beyond all other tourism offices we have use on this... 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 →
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 →
We left Pompeii unceremoniously after the hassle from police for being in our van. We had planned to spend more time there, however this just put us off and we hotfooted it to Rome, where we found a couple of dedicated motorhome parking and service spots in Castel Gandolfo which were free! Oh why does... Continue Reading →
For our final foray in tourism, for the time being, we have visited Florence. Not somewhere I have ever thought of visiting, however Jess wanted to visit as she had heard from friends that it was a beautiful place to visit. I have to admit it was a very picturesque place, even with the crowds... Continue Reading →
The plan for a day trip to mount visuvius was simple, wake up in the morning, follow signs to the car park and then walk to the top, simple! The night before, jess had been doing some work so we needed a McDonald's to use the wifi, by the time this was done it was... Continue Reading →
Our adventures in Sardinia ended with a relaxing day on the beach followed a by the most efficient and relatively comfortable ferry journey to Naples, by relatively comfortable, I mean that me and jess shared a sofa in a corridor for the night, as we saved money by not booking a cabin! We made our... 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 →
betathief.wordpress.com 