Scotland

We began our trip to Scotland after two full weeks rest and a weekend spending family time in the Lakes with Aaron's Sister and Dad. We drove almost all day until we reached Loch Lomond in the Trossachs, where we finally parked up for the night.

Our first day was spent in a way I would have never imagined!!

It had been raining snowing and howling gale force winds from the moment we drove into this wondrous country… and it had not let up. 

Aaron, determined not to let the weather get the better of us, decided we would climb the highest mountain in The Trossachs. Ben Lomond. It snowed on the mountains all night and rained most of the morning while we ate our breakfast and readied ourselves. We got a break in the weather, the sky turned blue and the rain stopped, this was our break, we thought we'd start climbing now and we'd make it to the top before it started to rain again… an hour up and the rain started to drizzle again, never mind that, Aaron was not letting the weather beat us, he pushed me on and on and I sulked as my legs hurt and body ached, I've put weight on you see…you might remember me telling you in my first blogs that I needed to stop eating so much chocolate, well I didn't stop. We were climbing straight up hill and into the snow. The higher we got the more the snow. We seen some dark cloud coming through the valley and we could no longer see the top of the mountain, we clipped our grips onto our boots so we wouldn't slip on the snow and ice, Aaron took my hand and we started to hurry towards the top of the mountain, we were on a great big long wide exposed part of the mountain when a HUGE blizzard/snow storm came in. We put our heads down and walked into it, holding on tight with my eyes squinted so hard I could hardly see we pushed on, about 200m ahead was a few big rocks we could take shelter by. The snow was pelting our faces and the wind was so strong, my face was stinging and I actually felt a little bit scared, and annoyed at Aaron for thinking he was such a hero trying to beat the weather. When we finally reached the rock and we were huddled in together keeping warm and out of the wild wind and snow I remembered why I appreciate Az so much, he challenges me, and pushes me further than I would push myself, if it weren't for him I wouldn't have done half the things I have. We were so close to the top but I wasn't up for it, the storm was getting worse and I was afraid of a white out so we grabbed ourselves and almost ran down the mountain. Talk about adventure, and as for experience? That one was an experience of a lifetime!! Day one in Scotland. 

Next up was Mt Ben A'an, a smaller mountain but just as beautiful view stunning surrounding views. Only 590m we made it up in an hour and the views were like I said, just stunning! on the left of us we had massive mountains, the tops covered in snow, in front of us we had a gorgeous lake shaped like a squiggly fat line with mountains at the top of it and to the right of us more snow capped mountains, it was breath taking. The sun was out, we had our t-shirts on and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery. 

We moved on and drove to another little town where there was supposed to be a big beautiful waterfall, called The Falls of Falloch. It had started to drizzle, the sky was grey and miserable but undefeated (so far) we decided we would go out in search for this waterfall anyway, it was 10km round trip, so not too bad. Of we set. Through the paddocks and along these muddy swampy tracks that are every where in Scotland, passing the highland cattle and there cute hairy calfs (pretty scary actually those beasts are massive and i do not want to get in-between a mum and its baby!) we walked ad walked and walked, I checked my walking app on my phone and we had come up to 6km already, I was complaining that we'd walked too far and we must have passed a turn off somewhere but Aaron was determined we hadn't. Aaron was asking passing travellers who were walking the West Highland Way and they were useless saying they had passed lots of waterfalls and didn't really know, each person saying yeah 10 minutes down there, its funny how 10minutes turned into 40 minutes!! Coming through a really mucky muddy awful track with the rain starting to hit a little bit harder, Aaron was getting wet feet and was not happy about it, determined to miss the cow pats in front of us he went off track, a few dry hard steps he carried on until he hit swampy grass he leaped from it only it was getting worse, more swampy until he started to sink!!! He took one last leap for safety and jumped straight into a very deep mucky smelly awful swamp, knee deep and sinking he fell forward, slow-motion and he was stuck in the mud, he put his hands out to 'save' himself and his hands went in!! So there I am on the track laughing so hard I could have died, and there was Aaron knee and elbow deep in this swamp he had tried to saved himself from, but actually just jumped into, he stood up with a frown on his face and two giant steps out mumbling don't touch me I don't need help he made it back onto dry land. I was still laughing tears rolling down my cheeks following Aaron who was marching through the cow pats he desperately tried to dodge, covered in swampy muddy muck smelling like….swampy muddy muck! He found himself a creek and washed himself off in the freezing cold water mumbling away, and we decided to head back to the van, as it was starting to rain more heavily and Aaron was, despite his attempts at cleaning himself, still very mucky we headed to the motorway where we would attempt to hitchhike for the first time. It proved easy enough as a car had broken down and a tow man was there who happily gave us a ride into town. All that and no waterfall, still I seen something just as beautiful that day!! HAHA!!

Few days on and the sun was starting to come out to play! Time for another mountain. Beinn Resipole. I want to be sick at the thought of this mountain. 

We pulled up at a stunning little lake, no town, no signal, just a small Camp site, a lake and mountains. We pulled up just down from the camper van site on the side of the road and slept for the night. In the morning we woke up to the most beautiful sky and the lake was flat, glassy, like a mirror, we had our breakfast, enjoyed the view and decided to get started on this mountain. Let me just say we have climbed at LEAST 10 mountains in the last month. So off we set, behind the campsite the track started, easy to start a slight slope through the farm lands and up towards the mountain, we were quite high and we stopped and I said to Aaron after about and hour of walking, "I reckon we must be about half way now" smiling, naive as to what was to come, I felt pretty good and positive about this mountain. 

4 hours after tramping through swampy wet mossy grass mixed with intense rocky slopes, soaking wet with sweat, not smiling or happy i only just managed to DRAG myself up this beastly mountain. I sat down on the summit, no I don't want a photo, I tried to breath for half an hour before I could even think about making a decent down that thing!! 7 long sweaty awful hours and 17km later we grabbed a well deserved shower at the campsite and cooked our dinner. At only 950m high we did not think that mountain would be hard at all, but it was, and is the worst, and hardest mountain we have climbed to date. 

Not even wanting to think about climbing another mountain we headed to the coast for a beach day. The sun was shinning and our rough guide told us that Sanna Bay was a teal treasure so we decided to check it out. Not wrong that rough guide. It never is!! Basking sharks can be spotted at this bay, unfortunately for us its not the season they are around but the bay was beautiful, white white sand, and tropical coloured waters we were speechless. I though this kind of water and sand was only found at places like Asia, Bali, Aussie but no!! Scotland has more to offer than most people realise! What a treat! 

Time for some history, we headed to Castle Tioram. Its a ruined castle that sits on an island that is serrated from the mainland at high tide. It belonged to a Clan called 'Clan MacDonald of Clan Ranald' it was seized by the government in 1715 and torched after the chief of the Clan joined the 'Jacobite Court' in France after swearing allegiance to the British Crown. The castle has been unoccupied since!! A nice spot for some tea and a walk before we picked up a hitchhiker and dropped him off to his car. 

We decided to head off the mainland and onto the Isle of Skye. 

The Isle of Skye is such an amazing island filled with real pretty spots!! The second day here we climbed another mountain. It was really hard and seemed to go on and on for agrees! but so worth it at the top with stunning 360 views of the Black Cullin mountain range and the Red Cullin mountain range. We followed this venture down to Sparr Cave. Down some beautiful cliffs to the ocean, this cave is only reachable when the tide is low. So we made our way down and tried to find the cave. Aaron's directions said we needed to go around the cliff edge and it would be difficult to walk, and if we fell, we would fall into the ocean, so we seen our next challenge. It was beyond me how we were even supposed to get around this thing, it was almost vertical and yes there was a lot of water below me, but if the cave was on the other side, we were going around. So with a hard beating heart and shaking hands and feet we made our way around the cliff holding onto only tiny pieces of rock sticking out. We made it! ahhhh and there were the caves! Two of them even. The directions said the one on the left was the right one, so we went in, only to find it was merely 4m deep, so out we went again and looked at the cave on the right. It was very tall and skinny and there was a hella lot of bird poo in the entrance, so much I was afraid of slipping on it. We were discussing that it look untouched and were unsure we were at the right place but decided to push on ahead anyway, half way into this strange cave we stepped over a pigeons nest, on the ground was three pretty little eggs, when BAM this pigeon comes from no where! Its a good few metres in front of us and above us, but is in such a massive panic its hitting the walls as it tries to fly out and away from us, there is feathers everywhere and that bird is getting awfully low, we ducked down, and it just missed us as it got out of the cave. Aaron, terrified of birds anyway, turned and ran, we boosted it out of this creepy little cave and back to face the dangerous cliffs again. We went back the way we came, along the cliff and sure enough there was Sparr Cave, we had walked straight past it and a couple of guys asked us why we went around the corner….because we like adventure? So, we found the cave, it was so big and beautiful and dramatic on the inside. It looked very similar to the lime stone caves we get in NZ but instead of being slippery, and made from limestone, its made from Sparr, and while it looks like you'd fall over if you walked on it, it was quite the opposite, it was grippy, like sand paper. We walked straight uphill which was a weird feeling because I kept thinking I was going to fall and on the other side was a great big lagoon. Crystal clear water, only the sound of dripping water, in pitch black darkness, with just a small head torch, the feels were amazing. I got goosebumps. I love mother nature :) 

Out we went and as we neared the water a pod of dolphins swam past. I tell yah, that did it for me. I needed to sit down on the rock and just enjoy what I was feeling. Surrounded by massive cliffs towering heights above us, the ocean crashing gently on the rocks I was lying on, with a deep cave into darkness with only small sounds of dripping water and the life of small bugs we probably don't know exist, while dolphins roams the ocean, free! What great feeling.  

The next day took us up to The Old Man of Storr. The Old Man of Storr is out of this world beautiful. It is a series of rocks, the remnants of ancient landslips. In fact most of the hills and weirdly shaped rocks here are the remnants of accent landslips, I thought that was pretty cool. We spent a few good hours in the van in the morning playing cards waiting for the bad weather to pass over, as soon as we got a break we boosted it up the track and seen it all for ourselves. The only bad thing about The Old Man of Storr is the lack of signs letting people know that there are better routes and tracks so you can see the rocks from different points of views. We found a great website that gives out step for step instructions for invisible paths so you can see these stunning places from all angles possible. We walked up to the rocks, then up the mountain behind it and seen it from view points, the view of the rocks with the beach behind it was just amazing! We carried on to the top of the mountain and j ust as we were nearing the peak of Mt Storr a massive dark cloud came blowing in, Aaron was about 20m in front of me and he completely disappeared, the wind was immense, it was so cold, i was a bit worried about being blown off the edge, I crouched down and after a few minutes it blew over and Aaron was back in sight. We ran for the very peak took a photograph and sprinted down the other side, it was so steep and once I was running there was no stopping, I thought a few times in between thrill screams and trying to breath that if I don't slow down I might just fall! I kept running, I nearly changed my name to Forest but the hill came to an end and a surreal view came into point. After some admiration we finally made our decent down the rest of the mountain and back to the van.

The Isle of Skye was proving to be very nice indeed and we had quite a few things left to do before we left, so straight in the van and off to Kilt Rock, a big beautiful waterfall flowing off the cliff and crashing into the ocean. Its a sight for sore eyes and I would recommend visiting it for sure!! 

After the waterfall had filled our every desire, we bombed off to see the dinosaur footprints at Staffin Beach. We could see the area they were supposed to be in but after a long disappointing look, we left the ancient roaming footprints behind and carried on to find a nice spot to sleep.

The following few days we explored Faerie Glen which is a series of little hills caused by small land slips through out the years, we spent an afternoon spotting and playing with seals at coral beach and we even went hunting for the golden eagle in the eerie parts of the Isle of Skye. Neist Point was beyond words, gorgeous!! It was reallllly windy and it was cold but we sat on the cliff edge and watched the birds swooping over the ocean, keeping an eye out for the secretive golden eagle. The sun went down, the waves smashed the bottom of the cliff, it was really nice. We need moments like these in our lives, where we can just really appreciate nature at its best, its good for the soul, calming and realxing. No Golden Eagle but feeling good spirited we headed up to the van for bed.

  Faerie Glen

Neist Point

Sunset at Neist Point

Time to leave the Isle of Skye.

Scotland is massive, and there is so much to do. We drove up the highlands we stopped and walked tracks, we climbed mountains and we experienced a whole new level of mother nature. We drove to East Scotland, made our way down and back to Fort William where we climbed Ben Nevis.

The information lady told us we would need at least 7 hours to get up and down again, 4 up 3 down. The night before we were set to climb the biggest mountain in the british isles, I was pooing myself. Honestly I was so worried, I can climb mountains, I'm good at it sometimes, but I'm not that fit, my legs kill me so I was worried about holding Aaron up and taking more like 9 hours! I spent a large part of the night convincing myself would be fine, I prepared myself mentally for the next day and fell into a deep slumber. We woke up at 7am feeling fresh, without an alarm too so thats always a bonus! The sun was out, it was a little bit nippy but not too cold, we got up and got ready in record breaking time, ate our food, packed our lunches put on our shoes, and just across the road was Ben Nevis. Waiting for me. I took almost all of my clothes off in the first 5 minutes. It was hot. Our first hour of the hike was straight up the mountain, it was hard going, a few times I said to Aaron in short breaths that I wanted to stop, every time he came back with this "Don't think about your breathing, just look where your putting your foot, don't worry about rushing either, slow and steady wins the race" so I repeated this in my head, and all of a sudden climbing this beast got easier. We were overtaking people and i was realising it, I was just concentrating on where my feet were going, we were chatting away and Aaron pointed out the half way mark, just up the path from us!! Half way already! and I hadn't even stopped for a break, all of a sudden I had this energy run straight though me, I looked behind me and vowed I wouldn't let anyone pass me and I would only stop once and that would be for lunch. We reached the half way mark sat down and gave ourselves 10minutes for lunch. The next half of the mountain went really quickly, it wasn't long before we reached the snow, and when we did the track disappeared, we joined a couple from Cornwell, England. They had a smart compass thing that told them where the track was so we knew where to walk without falling down some hidden crevasse, we followed them to the top and when we seen the peak we left them behind to the there photos and chat. Once we made the top we sat up there for nearly and hour and chilled out, it wasn't too cold, the sun was out and the vibes Iwas feeling were too amazing to pass up. I wanted to just live up there, I can't even describe the views we had of the surrounding mountains and lakes. Just too good. All together including our lunch break it took us 2 and a half hours. and it took us 2 to get back down. What an absolutely amazing day! I would do it again, over and over. 

The rest of our time in Scotland was sent driving around and seeing the last little pieces we hadn't seen, we spent a week in Edinburgh enjoying the old town more than the new.

And then that was it.

A few weeks in England to sell our van and spend time with Aarons Family before departing for Europe on our tour with topdeck.

Travelling the UK has been so much more than I ever expected it to be, and I definitely think all British travellers should do what we did. It'll open up your eyes to how beautiful your country actually is. 

North Wales

YAY

The weather decided to half play ball, while it was still drizzling on and off at least it wasn't raining hard and we could get out and do things again! Starting in Ganllwyd with a beautiful waterfall walk, through thick green grassy farm land with old bridges and ruins from old farm houses, mossy and damp woods and around a gorgeous lake. Waterfalls covered this place, every crack or down hill slant there was a waterfall, and because of all the rain of recent, they were gushing!! What a beautiful place! After our walk and a cup of tea we went to Coed-y-Brenin into a forest/park with great biking and walking tracks all over. We opted for a small walk along the river before stumbling across a shower block. We were stoked about that, only a pound for 3 mins, and thats all we needed so we grabbed our stuff and off we went, 3 blissful minutes in a hot shower!!

Next up on our list was the Harlech Castle, we went and seen it and decided against sneaking in or paying, while it was a nice castle I couldn't be bothered to climb these walls, they were too big and people were everywhere. Off we went to Betwsy-y-Coed a place we fell in love with. To get here we drove through amazing beautiful mountains, which we were surrounded by, we passed plenty of waterfalls and beautiful rivers, snow capped most of the mountains and there was no one about. A small town population of maybe 1000 people, one main street with two small dairies and about 6 hiking and camping shops, the rest of the buildings where all BnB's and hotels. This little town is almost dead in the winter but in the summer months it all gets a bit crazy, like Queenstown. There was free parking everywhere and we had lakes and waterfalls and mountains all around us to be walked. A great spot to stay for a few days while we explore. Our first day we braved the rain and headed out on a hard going 2 hours walk around a lake before making tea and hitting the sack.

Aaron's dad Andrew came out to see us the next day for a 'small walk around the lakes' and then relax in the pub. We had other ideas, we decided to pick the biggest, best, most scenic walk for Andrew seeing as he'd driven all the way from Leek to see us. So off we went on our little adventure, up and down the hills, through the woods and around the lakes. What a beautiful place!! Really amazing. By the time we were finished our legs were hurting and we were feeling very tired. We walked 9.1 miles!! Thats 14.55km!! Talk about exercise!! Feeling good we headed back to Andy's BnB showered and went out for dinner. What a nice day it had been! The next morning Andy left for home and we walked to Conwy falls, it had poured down rain the night before and the waterfall was overflowing!! It was massive, the roar it made was impressive, I could hardly talk over the noise, we walked 2 miles back to the town got in the car and decided we would drive to a small town near us to walk around another supposedly stunning lake. When we arrived at the lake I was disappointed with the lake and wasn't up for it at all, we drove around passed lots of mountains when Aaron suddenly pulled over and said, lets climb this mountain!! Tryfan. 

No. Immediately the answer was no, I didn't want to. This mountains nickname is 'the dinosaurs back'. Its hands and knees climbing and very scary. Andrew had done it a few years back and was telling us just how scary and intense and UNSAFE it was to climb. So my mind was made up. I wasn't climbing it, no way. Too bad Aaron said, he was going to do it with or without me and that meant me waiting in the van for a good few hours. I kept telling him I wasn't doing it, as I put on my boots. Im not going I said as I grabbed my jacket and scarf, your stupid and your gonna hurt yourself I was saying as I dragged myself out of the van. How was it that I was walking up to this beast?? Aaron was smiling and I was dreading this. WHY AM I DOING THIS I thought. I have no goal I told Aaron, I'm going to climb and when my feet stop I'm stopping, nothing further. Aaron agreed and slowly we made our way up the start of the mountain. It wasn't long before we were grabbing onto rocks about us jamming our feet into small gaps and pulling our selves up the mountain bit by bit. 

A few times my brain told me to stop, we were way to high now and this was getting dangerous, but my feet were trying to be all mighty and show off and they just kept going, I had no goal, I was just gonna keep going, it started to get really exciting and I could feel the adrenaline rush!! I sat down for a moment to breath, I was on the 'path' and sat down on a rock and looked out at the view then I looked down. WOW. Thats a very long way down and thats just right there by my feet, I took a quick snap and kept moving, my heart was pumping from the realisation of how close we were to the edge, we were literally scrambling along the rocks from one to the other on the very edge of a crazy mountain named Tryfan. 

We had just climbed over a very scary rock that we had to cling to if we didn't want to fall and die when two huge army jet planes screamed through the mountains!! What a noise! And what a feeling, they were BELOW us! We were so high up this mountain when these jets just blasted through below us, I couldn't believe that had just happened and we had gotten such a big fright! Thank goodness we weren't still climbing that rock or we might have let go!! Our hearts were pounding heard and we were smiling like idoits at what we had just experienced! Sooo cool! Another hour of climbing and we reached our limit, my arms and legs were sore and my feet finally said no more, we were only half and hour from the top but it was starting to get quite late and the sun would be going down soon, our aim was to go until we couldn't go anymore, and the next day we were climbing Snowdon, so we were happy with where we got to and started our decent back down the mountain, which by the way, is just as hard as going up, its very steep and intense. We reached the bottom, high fived and ate food. 

The next day was Snowdon, the third highest mountain in Great Britain. The views were spectacular. Snowdon is in the national park, snowdonia. Well known for the mountain ranges all through out the national park. We started our 6 hour hike, there are 6 different tracks up snowdon and we picked the miners track to climb up and the Pyg track to come down on. The miners track started off easy, mostly a flat walk around mountains, and beside two big lakes and then all of a sudden the track went up… up, up, up!! 

Snowdon Mountain is the peak of three mountains joint together so we were surrounded by beautiful nature, snow covered the tops of the mountains and we couldn't even see the peak of Snowdon as there was cloud covering it. We walked and walked until we hit the snow and ice. A few people were already walking down the mountain, some stopped to tell us we simply wouldn't make the top as it was too icey. A little bit annoyed and feeling gutted we pushed on determined to get as far as we possibly could, aiming for the top. The path had disappeared under the snowy ice and were we braving our way, putting our feet where we had seen others put theres, never walking on ice that hadn't been walked on already, there were a few points where i stopped and looked down and thought 'if I slip on this ice now, I'll die.' It was fun and we were enjoying the walk. We stopped for lunch right up the very top, we were 15minutes from the peak and we needed a rest, plus it was beginning to get too icey and we needed to stop and think about how/if we could tackle the last leg. It was windy and just above us was the cloud sitting on the peak. A few people came down and reported to us that nearing the top was a gap only a foot wide covered in thick ice, they were saying it we would only be able to make it if we had ice picks and crampons like everyone else did… after some thinking and ummm-ing and ahhhh-ing we decided we would leave it. It was too big of a risk had we slipped. We were 15minutes from the top and we got the best views we possibly could, so satisfied we'd made it as far as we did we headed back down the mountain. What a beautiful day.

Next up Aarons sister Beth and her husband Rich came out to see us, we spent the day walking on the beach and enjoyed a meal in a nice pub, its always good to see people you know when your on the road, its a good change from only having each other! 

Penrhyn Castle was the next biggie on our journey. It is the only castle we wanted to pay for as it was still fully furnished with the same decor and furnishings as they had when Lady and Lord Penrhyn lived there. We walked through the gardens, through the kitchens and store rooms, the dinning rooms and living rooms, the bedrooms and kids play rooms, the library, billiard room and the study it was all amazing, and i was fascinated with how they lived, all so very posh and old, very very cool! 

The next two days we decided to climb another two mountains a bit smaller than Snowdon but much harder!! Moel Hebog and Moel Siabod. Straight up steep banks, both were covered in snow at the top, but no ice so it wasn't as dangerous to make the peak. We made a small snowman and enjoyed the last few days in Snowdonia.

Wales was good to us, we enjoyed the change from being on the coast all the time in England to being inland and enjoying mountains and waterfalls and forests in Wales.

Time to get back to England now, we have friends and family to visit and we need to get our vaccinations finished for Asia and Aaron's residency for NZ sorted. We will resume our travels in two weeks time when we will be heading up to Scotland. 

Thanks Wales. 

You were amazing!! 

N.B. Due to unforeseen circumstances we will no longer be travelling Ireland. 

South and Mid Wales

We started our trip in wales full steam!! Driving in from Bristol, we headed straight to Blaenavon to check out the Big Pit coal mine. We found this little gem in our rough guide to the UK, and what a little gem it was!! It was a real decent underground guided tour, 90m deep into the mine, guided by the old miners themselves. Our guide (I can't remember his name) was a real old little miner man, with a thick Welsh accent. he was very protective about the mine and even got up in one ladies face because he didn't like the way she was looking at the walls, haha it was a laugh. They gave us our helmets, head torches and little belt packs with our safety equipment on and put us into a rather large 'shaft' that took us down into the mine. 50 minutes of exploring learning and whole blackness left us amazed and a little bit sad learning about the miners and the lives they had. What great start to Wales, and it was FREE! 

Off we went to Crickhowell where we decided we would climb table mountain. It was only 3miles, but it was straight uphill, none of this zig zagging stuff it was straight up, and my legs and sometimes lungs would not obey. It nearly killed me, I'm not as fit as some might think, but I made it to the top!! The views were spectacular. Hills surrounded us, green green grass and sheep, the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds and I was eating chocolate biscuits. (I needed my energy back!!) The walk back down the mountain wasn't as easy as I had hoped, my legs were shaking trying to stop my body from falling down as we were almost vertical for the top part! Never mind, we made it down and I was feeling hopeful that I might be able to climb bigger mountains yet!! Our first day in Wales and it wasn't over yet, blissful!

Off we went to another little town where we would spend the night relaxing ready for our next day. 

River Usk. We parked up in a beautiful park, daffodils lining the road and an absolutely gorgeous river right in front of us. An info sign told us that salmon, crayfish and otters lived in this river. Otters!! Awesome!! It was 5pm so we sat in our van and watched the river, I said to Aaron, if there were otters about they would come out between 5 and 6pm to feed… BAM 5.30pm and a cheeky little otter came out to feed! I couldn't believe it, I was so excited, otters are one of my favourite animals, we jumped out of the van and watched him dive down and come back up with little fish and chomp them down we watched him for about 15minutes until he finally was out of sight down the other side of the river. A lady asked us what we were looking at, and I told her about the otter, she was so annoyed, she said she had been walking the river for an hour trying to spot one and she missed out! We are so blessed!! 

Our first day was over and our first night was about to begin. And what a night it would be. 

It all started when we were cooking our pasta and tuna which was to be our dinner, when a nice (but was he too nice?) Scottish man came over to ask us if we had everything we needed as he was in the camper van just down from us, we said we were in need of some water and kindly (too kindly?) filled our container up for us. We were so thankful, and he stayed and chatted to us as we cooked our food, after a while he began to pop his head in our van, looking around, observing and when our food was ready he wouldn't leave. It was quite an awkward situation, such a nice guy helped us out but now we needed to eat our food, how do we tell him to leave? Finally after quite a long awkward silence and a prompt from me he left and we sat down to eat our food. While we were washing up our dishes a man in a station wagon pulled up next to us with his two daughters, small girls, must have only been maybe 6 and 8 years of age and they ate there fish and chips, lovely I thought, come to the river to eat your dinner, why wouldn't you? After washing up we got into the van and had a cuppa tea and chilled out enjoying the view when we noticed a little girl walk past our van by herself with a torch light, she looked young maybe 10, it was dark so it was hard to tell, but she should't have been walking alone along a river leading into a park. I though it was weird and was thinking about it when Aaron noticed the Dad next to us turn his light off in the car, 'what is he doing?!!' Aaron was all confused and a little weirded out while I was thinking that little girl shouldn't be alone. I couldn't handle it a minute longer, I told Aaron I needed to find that girl and do something, I was worried about her so I jumped out of the van and started down the river the way she was heading I walked around the park looking for a little girl, while feeling a little bit scared myself! After walking around for a bit I seen a figure walking around so I walked up to it, AH HUH the little girl I found her!! I asked her if she was ok and what she was doing and she informed me she was trying to find her friend who went missing 20 minutes ago, gutted, she was looking for the girl I was looking for. I felt a little bit panicked, took her cell number assured her I wasn't a creep and told her I would call her if I found the little girl. I went back to the van and told Aaron the news and asked him if he would help me look, I felt a little bit responsible as I just watched her walk past my van and left it too late, all of a sudden there was a guy running around screaming the girls name and a little group of people were on the search…Aaron was telling me the Dad in the car next to us was still in there, they had been in there for at least half an hour by now and due to what was going on around us we started thinking the worst…. pedo, AHHH what do you even do in that situation? 

A: Knock on the door and demand to know whats going on, obviously implying he is being rude with the little girls and possibly be wrong and get beaten up for saying such a thing 

B: Knock on the door and demand to know whats going on, obviously implying he is being rude with the little girls and possibly be right and get beaten up for catching him 

C: leave it and never know, possibly leaving the girls in danger

We couldn't decided what to do so I turned on my torch light and tried to look inside without getting too close to the car and being obvious but had no luck, I couldn't see anything. 5 minutes later he turned on the lights and allllll the windows were fogged right up, the girl in the passenger seat rubbed her hand on the window and looked out before the Dad started the car and drove away, whatever happened that was weird! 

I got into the van and we sat in silence for a bit. The search party was still searching and Aaron was telling me how he was 'sure the Scottish guy was just a nice person, but you never know right? you always seen to know your killers' and that was that. We left. My mind was a mess and I felt really bad so we drove away to a nice little street and slept the night away.

One day and one night down. Wales, you are a strange but beautiful place.

The next day we drove to Ystradfeltte - waterfall country!! Driving along the road I felt as if I was almost back in NZ, Otago, the grass was brown, the road windy and there was a beautiful river right beside the road for most of the way, it was hilly and there were waterfalls by the road, very beautiful! 

We are in the Brecon Beacons national park and ready for a 4 hour hike around a waterfall circuit. It was raining softly on and off and the information lady had warned us not to go… we don't have time for the weather to stop us though, we must get going, plus the rain would just had to the beautiful waterfalls. We arrived and got walking, it was hard walking up and down all these hills, down to the waterfall and then all the way back up again, getting hot and then getting cold, raining and then not raining, level 5 walking track they said, but it was well worth it, the waterfalls were magnificent! And all this walking is good for me, we have Snowdon and Ben Nevis mountains to climb yet! 

At the end of the day, tired, we made some food and drove to Mumbles to watch the sunset and sleep.

Rhossili Bay. 

We came to Rhossili Bay on a mission! Low tide was at 11:05am and we had until 1:30pm until we had to be back on the main land. Why? Allow me to tell you my friend, here at this beautiful coastal area, is two islands that are separated from the main land at high tide and joint at low tide, due to strong currents its very dangerous to attempt to cross at any other time. So we had a time limit and a lot to see! The views from all places were absolutely stunning, I cannot describe the scenery here so heres a photo for you.

It was an amazing. the views were spectacular and all the land you can see in the pictures above, we walked it all. 14.74km we walked up and down the hills across the beach, we played on the sand dunes, we found a tennis ball and played football, we watched the surfers, we collected shells and then stomped on them, we were cold then we were warm. It was a magical place. It was a stunning.

The next few days we relaxed, we were tired from full on days and we needed to shower and wash our clothes. Eventually we made it to Aberaeron where we drove through the village and decided to have a quick stop and a look around. This is the cutest little village we have passed through so far, everything is so bright and beautiful!! All of the houses, not just some but all of them are bright colours, pinks purples, greens, blues, yellows!! It was great!! We quickly moved on though, as we needed to get to devils Bridge to check out the waterfalls there before the weather turns too bad. 

So far Wales has only given us patches of blue sky, it has been, for the most part, drizzly rain and grey skies.

We arrived at Devils Bridge and, can you believe it! they were charging a pound for one waterfall and 2 pounds for the other waterfall. No way am I paying to see nature! So up the road we went until we came across a very tall gate! So we decided to climb over. Not as easy as it sounds, the holes in the gate were small so I couldn't stick my foot in to get a grip and fling myself over, I fell, and despairingly looked at Aaron and told him I couldn't do it. Mr Muscles said it wasn't so hard and used his upper body strength to fling himself across. Easy for some. Didn't I tell you earlier I'm not that fit?? So after a few attempts, some grunting and my tongue out my mouth for extra strength I managed, only just, to haul myself over and fall onto the other side. We were in!! We had picked the better waterfall too!! it was a huge waterfall!! MASSIVE even. There were 14 different look out points just so we could see it all. Nature is beautiful. 

After the excitement of sneaking in and beating Wales, we carried onto another free event!! Kite feeding in Bwlch Nant Yr Arian (you can tell we're getting into the real parts of Wales now, look at the name of this place!!) At 2pm everyday they feed the Kites here because of the harsh winters and not being able to easily kill alive prey, Kites have a low chance of survival here, they almost went extinct, the number went from something silly like 4 Kites to 800!! All because of the feedings in the winter. It was a magical thing to watch hundreds of Kites come in for the feeding!! The people feeding them worked in the national park, and feed them bits of chicken and pork. Lots of it. Awesome! 

Now its today. Its cold, its raining, its raining all week, and next. Horrible bad rain. Its bad, and horrible and if it carries on we may go back to England for a few weeks and return to Wales later. We are living each day as it comes. Well see what happens, and i'll let you know next time. 

For now, football and pubs. 

NB: If you want to check out more photos, I have them all on Facebook, in my Wales and England albums.

Cornwall

My favourite county so far!

We drove into Looe at night drove around the harbour and found a beautiful spot in a residential area, on top of a hill, over looking the ocean. Parked up our van and we were out to it for the night. Cornwall is 'world renowned' (even though i'd never heard of it before) for its cornish pastys and cornish ice-cream, so our main goal on our first day in Cornwall was to have a cornish pasty and find an info centre. After the info centre and finding probably the best map ever, we went to 'Sarah's homemade cornish pastys'. Pastys are sort of like pies, they are made of pastry and filled with steak, spud, swede sometimes a bit of onions and some seasoning… they are so beautiful and very filling, but for 2.50pounds they are just too expensive to be buying all the time! Plus I have put on 3kgs since I've been in England, so I'm trying to keep away from all the pastry and pasta!! Probably doesn't help that I ate a bag of chocolate caramel buttons this morning at 10:30am...

Allow me to explain exactly how we are living. We bought an eight seater toyota van. We lay all the seats in the back down and bought a memory foam mattress off ebay and laid that down on top of the seats, we both have our own sleeping bag and a duvet to go on top, there are curtains on all windows including the back and behind the front seats so no-one can see in at all when we are sleeping. Our bed takes up alllll the room in the back except for one small space behind the front seats, and thats where our backpacks live. The back seats are 3/4 of the way down so when we sleep our heads are slightly on an upwards angle, which is surprisingly comfortable, so our boot space is very limited. We keep all our food and cooking utensils in the back on the left side we have a dry cooler bag for food and in front of that we have a cold cooler bag for the cold food. In the middle space we have the dishwashing bucket along with the tea towels and washing up liquid, and in front of that we have our 20L container of water, which needs filled daily. And on the right side we have a banana box filled with plates and pots and things. Under the seats are our extras that we barley use, plus our twin gas cooker along with the refill bottles, we also have an extra gas cooker that is sort of stuffed somewhere in the boot.

We use public toilets all the time and we shower every 4 days or so. We never pay for our accommodation, we find a space on the street somewhere, in a posh residential area usually - just depending on where we are, and we never pay for showers, leisure centres (swimming pools) will usually let you shower for free. Hand sanitizer, dry shampoo, a cloth and soapy water works a treat. I have learnt that when you need to pee in the night, you need to pee, so yes I have peed on the road, don't judge me until you've been in my position!! 

At this point I had not shaved my legs in about 5 weeks, possibly longer and my body was in need of a good working over with some hardcore soap and hot water. Luckily for us, the little angels Beth & Rich, Aaron's sister and brother-in-law, had given us a spa retreat and tea for two voucher for Christmas, that voucher was sitting with my passport in a hidden location in the van. 

St Austell, Cornwall Spa Retreat and Hotel, here we come!!

We arrived at night slept in the car park and we were in at 8am. Through out the day I washed my hair and body in the shower 4 times, I went through 3 shavers, my legs were smooth and moisturised, we used the sauna and steam room, we swam in the pools and relaxed in the spa, we lounged in our robes, we got all dressed up and pretended we were rich and beautiful while we drank tea and ate scones and finger sandwiches and cakes until we could eat and drink no-more, we used the golden loo's that actually smelt like roses, then we returned to the pools. We did this until 10pm when after fully satisfied we returned to our lovely little home outside in the car park and slept wonderfully.

Fully rejuvenated with smooth legs and all, we carried on our journey around the coast of Cornwall. Pendennis castle is one of Henry VIII's Device forts, (a 'device fort' is a series of castles that were built to protect the southern coast of England, deal castle is also a device fort.) It was built in the 1500's for King Henry VIII to guard the entrance to the River Fal on its west bank, near Falmouth. St Mawes Castle is across the river on the east bank, they were both built to defend Carrick Roads from the French and Spanish threats of future attack. It is in such a beautiful location and the amount of history pilled into that site was spectacular! Once again we cheated England, and we climbed almost vertical walls using grass growing out of the cracks as our grips and stepping stones, and so we got in for free! HA! There were canons poking out of walls everywhere, great big war guns and bunkers everywhere, the gun deck was fantastic!! The castle was still in great condition, although we didn't get to go inside the castle its self. We took loads of photos until we seen a security guard walking around when we stealthily boosted it to a wall jumped a spiky fence and ran away laughing! We walked a short walk to the very edge of the ocean, where there were more war bunkers and another small castle like fort, the rocks surrounding the bank are so beautiful and they really suit the location, spiky and dangerous looking. Content with our adventure we moved on, we drove the coastal road past a few pretty spots stopped here and there checked out some gardens until we arrived at Lizard point, the most southern point of England. We watched a beautiful sunset and settled down for the night. The next morning our rough-guide-to-the-United-Kingdom directed us to Kynance Cove, a little gem not many people know about. Cornwalls coast is so dramatic, like really dramatic. The cliffs aren't just straight cut cliffs they are beautiful coloured rocks with huge drops and large spiky rocks pointing in and out from everywhere, there are coves and holes and little ocean ways everywhere, the water is crystal clear and bright blue. This particular morning it was miserable and drizzling, we were almost put off but decided to brave the weather and go for it, it was a 10 minute walk down a track, the rain stopped as we got to a point in the path that said "dangerous, path reconstruction, go that way -->" we totally could had gone the other way, but where is the fun in that? We veered off track and went rock climbing we found lots of secret rock pools and beautiful views, we reached the beach and explored some more, I just can't get enough of these wee treasures. The water is so gorgeous and the view is beyond words. Its as good as NZ you know, some English people just don't understand or appreciate what they have in there own country!! We slowly made our way back to the van sticking to the edge of the cliff enjoying the views, and just as we got back it started to rain again, good one England, you put on a good show!! 

Onwards we go, to a place called Minack Theatre. A women called Rowena Cade with the help of two or three men built this theatre after the first world war for her and her mother to live in. Minack Theatre is an open-air theatre built above a gully with a rocky outcrop cutting into the sea. There was no sneaking into this one unless we went swimming and tried to climb some super intense rocks, England got one over us and we paid 4.50pounds each to have a look around. Even though I hate paying for historic sites that I believe should be free and available for everyone, I thought this one was well worth it, and had they been showing a production, I'd have paid to watch that too!! The view from the theatre is magical and I can't get over the fact that a women back in 1890 decided to build a theatre in a cliff edge!! So crazy and so beautiful! Whitsand Bay and Lands End were our next destinations, both beautiful spots, Lands end is the most western point of England. We spent the night in St Just in a car park. Today was our 2nd year anniversary and what a great day it had been, we ended it with vegetables and fish cakes for tea. I am so lucky to be travelling Europe with Aaron, and we are so blessed to be able to live in such a small space together and love each other more, not less. Happy Anniversary to us :)

On the front of the awesome map of Cornwell we got from the lady in the info centre in Looe, is a big beautiful picture of two old houses on the rocks on the cliff edge, it is such a beautiful picture and I desperately wanted to see it in person. So we headed from St Just to Botallack where we were told the picture was taken after some searching and the non existent road signs, we carried onto the Levant Mines. They mined here for cooper and tin, the old mine site was beautiful, and right on the cliff edges, like everything in Cornwall it was all very dramatic and beautiful, it was a freezing morning, -1 degrees when we got up! We even snuck into an old mine tunnel which we weren't allowed in without paying, or guidance! It was scary, but cool. It was scary cool! hahaha. (Lars that ones for you!) 

After some exploring we thought we would attempt to find that picture I so badly wanted to see, so we walked and walked, we didn't take the normal coastal walking track, we made our own, again on the cliff edge, we can't get enough of it!! We climbed the massive rocks and jumped from point A to point B and before long we were missioning it along the coast!! Staring death in the face, Aaron clinged from rocks with huge drops into water he wouldn't survived, while I ran down steep banks with a small gap of a path before a drop into the wild ocean, you would think we are stupid, but its so much fun, adrenaline rules our lives these days. After an hour or two of walking I looked down the edge of the cliff and seen my picture!! We ran down and around onto a big rock that sticks our to get the big shot!! Pulled out my camera and absolutely gutted, it was flat!!! So instead we used Aarons phone, the quality is average, but what a shot!! We sat on the rock and chatted and enjoyed the view for ages. It was my favourite moment, equal with the seven sisters. What an absolutely beautiful place. It was surreal. It was only 11 in the morning and we were already being stunned by England. We spent the rest of the day travelling around and checking out beautiful beaches and just chilling out.

It wasn't long before we'd driven to New Quay. Stunning place, but we didn't spend long here, we drove to Watergate Bay Aaron jammed on his guitar I did a word find we relaxed and watched the sunset and the surfers, a gorgeous beach and a pretty sunset.

Tintagel Castle. Just up from New Quay. A beautiful castle, one half of it is on the main land and the other half is on an Island just beside the main land. Built into the cliff side the castle is believed to be built in the Roman times and is also believed to be the birth place of King Arthur, although there are doubts if he even existed!! Still it is a very beautiful place and the ruins are gorgeous. Once again it was 6.50pounds each to go to the Island and see and explore the castle. We didn't want to pay, of course, and they closed at 4pm so we decided we would just wait until then to see the other half of the castle. The part of the castle on the mainland was really easy to sneak into. We walked around a bit and waited until 4:30pm. It wasn't until we climbed the stairs and snuck up until we realised they shut the door! Allow me to explain exactly, the bridge and stairs leading up to the second part of the castle is almost vertical, there are HUGE stone walls on the cliff edge, the door that we didn't realise even existed was closed and bolted and padlocked shut. There is no chance at all of climbing that wall, and if you did try and climb the dirt and rocky ground and attempt to get over the wall, if you fell, you would fall a very long way to a horrible death, it was far to dangerous and risky. England had got one over us and we were gutted!! Never mind we saved some pennys and that would pay for our next few meals, instead we walked to a different point on the mainland and enjoyed the views from there. 

I love Cornwall.

A Cornish Pasty.

Minack Theatre

Botallack Coastal Walk, the much wanted picture :) 

South Coast of England

Leaving the not so sunny East Coast behind us we headed off to the more so sunny South Coast of England, we passed through a few small towns, seen some more castles and plodded along gently. We didn't have a plan, or any places we specifically wanted to see we were just driving the coast, we passed through Dover and seen the white cliffs, they were pretty but we didn't have time to stop and see them, it was going dark and the traffic was crazy… not too far from there we parked up and slept in a small historic town called Battle. This is where William the Conquer came with his army and fought King Harold the 2nd, won and became the King of England!! Most of these historic places are closed until end of March as there aren't people silly enough to travel England in these cold winters, except for me and Az of course, but we didn't vear off our main track to Battle to be beaten by the English Heritage people, no. We jumped the fence and snuck our way in! The main big Castle was busy with people who lived and worked there, so we didn't get to see that part, we weren't to bothered about that anyway our main goal was to see the Battle field where it all happened back in 1066, so we walked the track all the way around the battle field and snuck past the great big castles walls back to our car. It was a real strange feeling walking around the Battle Field, knowing that, back then there was a battle so big it changed the history or future as it was of England. Knowing that right where we were walking men had died fighting for what they believed in, pretty cool.

On the road again, the sun shinning. 

Crusing along a windy road, green grass and sheep on each side we arrive at Eastbourne Beachy Heads/The Seven Sisters. Big beautiful white cliffs with a 575ft drop to gorgeous sandy beach and a blue sea. There was no wind and lots of sun so we parked up made a cuppa tea made our way to the edge. 

Beautiful.

There was a grassy bank that went off the edge of the cliff that lead out to a point so we braved it and sat on the very edge. Its a long way down there. My feet were tingling and I was feeling a little bit giggly and silly because how high I was up and yet so close to falling off. We played and took photos before getting off and back onto 'real ground'. The scenery was unreal, two lighthouses, one just for show I think. We ran along the edge of the cliffs, lots of laughing and being silly, so much adrenaline was pumping through me, it was dangerous what we were doing, Aaron even pretended to jump a crack that he could have totally fell through, I nearly cried then, it was funny looking back on it, and just added to the adrenaline!! What a feeling!! I felt so free. I felt more than free actually, I felt… love, and fun and a little bit childish, cheeky and daring, like i could conquer England!! Haha, it was a really nice day. My favourite day so far.

Back to the car we went and rested, we were tired from so much craziness. 

We travelled along the coast, spent two days in Portsmough/Portsolent catching up with Aaron's friend Laura who works in the Navy, she gave us a sweet tour of the navy area where all the old navy war ships are, and the ones they use now too. Fun fact: the navy sells old navy ships they don't want/use to Gillette for razor blades….. so your shaving your legs, or whatever else, with a little piece of navy ship, awesome! 

Onto Winchester where we visited our beautiful friend Imogen, then up to Stonehenge. If anyone was to ask an English person about Stonehenge they would probably say its just a pile of rocks, nothing special, don't bother. I don't know why they have such a crappy look on it but they do, me however….i loved it!! Firstly, as a kid growing up at school, all the computers screen-savers were stonehenge so its something I've always seen and though 'thats pretty' and its quite a magical feeling to have the chance to see it in person, secondly the mystery behind it all is soooo, mysterious! Ha! The people from the "Bronze-Age' found these massive rocks, somehow then moved them (these things are 9 metres tall and weigh up to like 25 ton and are only found in western parts of Wales), whether by boat or cart they don't know and then miraculously, as if they had a huge crane, lifted them onto each other, but not just for the sake of it… no, they found the perfect spot of flat land between two sloping hills, that spot just so happened to be a the perfect place for the summer and winter solaces or something! Anyway theories are its a huge calendar, or a healing centre, or even a sun worship temple!! So i found it pretty special to be able to go and see that for myself, the wonder behind it all is what gets me. People back then were really smart.

That afternoon after all the excitement of the 'stones' we drove to the New Forest, a sweet place I'd heard loads about from all the english folks! Ol' William the Conquer bought deer and pigs and horses and donkeys to the New Forest for Gaming reasons, and now it is a national park where all the ponies and donkeys and rest of the animals run around freeee and live beautiful happy lives! Its not what you'd expect it to be though, its part forest/trees part swampy hilly land. Still very beautiful and majestic, with little villages here and there with wild ponies chomping on the peoples front lawns. They have cattle stops and fencing around the New Forest (which by the way is actually HUGE) to keep all the animals in. Quite cool. 

NB: a donkey stuck its head in the van window and I pat it and he was really cool.

After all the excitement we moved onto a small town called Lulworth we arrived late found a spot to sleep and crashed out it was dark and creepy, little did we know what an absolute gem this place would be!!

In the morning after our bacon sarnies (english slang for sandwiches) we walked down to the beautiful Lulworth Cove, a nice beach with crystal blue/green water! After oohing and ahhing we carried on to Durdle Door, up a huge hill that i nearly died walking up cause I'm super unfit and over the top we walked to Durdle Door, its similar to that of the 'Hole-in-the-rock' In Bay of Islands NZ. Huge golden cliffs beautiful sand gorgeous waters and the hole in the rock!! It was truly such a beautiful place, i could have sat there all day and just chilled out. The sun was shinning and the waves were crashing and Aaron was beside me, what a dream. Anyway, on we went back over the hill and too the car with happy faces! 

After a quick stop & sleep in Lyme Regis to watch the football and chill, we headed inland to Dartmoor, little did we know it would be SNOWING!! 

We spent the entire day driving around the Dartmoor National Park. Lots of steep hills which our van struggled up and lots of snow to play in! The main attractions in the Dartmoor Nat.P is the rocky hill tops, known as Tors. The people from the Iron ages used to live at these Tors and build there little villages around them. We visited a few different Tors, Haytor Rock, Hound Tor, and walked 45minutes in the snow up to a Tor, which I cannot remember the name of, pretending to be attackers….you have no idea what the cold does to us!! Snow ball fights and running and laughing and kicking over other peoples snowmen it was a fun day.