Days not Homeless: 5 Years, 8 Days ...and loving every second of this alpine adventure!
Hopefully we were going to like La Fortuna more than we did last year where we spent one brief night before heading up to Los Chiles and Nicaragua. It was the same time of year, it was still a major touristy town and it still suffered from torrential downpours, but...
A very appropriate title for a special La Ruta del los Conquistadores 2013. This year La Ruta introduced a fatbike category and it was going to be all about the additional weight and four inch fat tires on the coast to coast mountain bike race. The fat bike provides...
After thirty six hours and barely enough time back in Florida to accomplish what was needed I was back to Fort Lauderdale airport for a flight to Costa Rica whilst Andrea remained behind to visit friends and family. The first ten days were spent just outside of San...
We left La Fortuna in Costa Rica on Monday morning and got an 8am bus to Florencia where we only had to wait around 15 minutes for the bus to Los Chiles. After walking through town we found Rio San Juan and paid an official looking guy 60 Colons each for a port fee...
La Palma to Sirena I’m sure we can’t put into words what a wonderful adventure this turned out to be in Corcovado, but we’ll try. Our second good decision, after deciding to go to Corcovado, was hiring Nito from Surcostours as our guide for 3 days. His knowledge of...
Surf Lesson Our friend Jamie was coming for a long weekend to stay with me whilst Wayne was doing the La Ruta bike race for 3 days, or so he thought. It was her idea to sign up for surf lessons and I’m glad we did. Jaco is extremely popular with surfers from beginner...
Pre Race Discovering La Ruta was pure coincidence. By chance I saw post from a guy on the Leadville 100 mountain bike news group asking if anyone doing Leadville had an available room for a Costa Rican Pro in exchange for accommodation at La Ruta. This peaked my...
The plan for the first couple months of our RTW adventure was for Andrea to remain working, this was her decision and nothing forced onto her by her semi-retired husband! That’s what also made Costa Rica our starting point, due to it being on a 2 hour time zone...
Saturday 20th October 2012 This was supposed to be the first day I get to ride day 1 of the “La Ruta de los Conquistadores” mountain bike race course, a 3 day event from Jaco on the Pacific coast to Limon on the Caribbean. I signed up for this crazy event after...
Thursday 18th October 2012, 10.45am Retirement is definitely not over-rated, at least not for me – Andrea may not agree with that yet! So we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica on a classy Spirit Air flight from Fort Lauderdale and immediately paid too much for car...
No idea why it had taken us so long to make it to Egypt but we're already raring to go back! This occasion was just a week long vacation to get us away from the cold of the Alps and for me to enjoy (if there is any enjoyment!) recovering from hip replacement surgery....
After what felt like an eternity it was a random email from a good friend in the US that prompted a plan of attack for the remaining 8 state highpoints. Unfortunately they were spread far and wide and included four that required some level of technique and multiple...
Our Route des Grandes Alpes map from Cluses to MentonCol d'Izoard DescentCol de Turini DescentSt Martin VésubieValbergArvieuxRoute des Grandes Alpes Day 1: Cluses to Le Grand-Bornand to Beaufort-sur-Doron Col de Romme, Col de la Colombiere, Col des Aravis, Col des...
With the forecast calling for rain to fall for multiple days on Chamonix yet again it was time to search out another European city. Having recently got back from Nimes in the south of France it was the turn of Italy. We toyed with a return to Venice, then thought that...
With the forecast calling for rain to fall for multiple days on Chamonix yet again it was time to search out another European city. Having recently got back from Nimes in the south of France it was the turn of Italy. We toyed with a return to Venice, then thought that...
Unable to take a rental car into Albania on a prior roadtrip through Europe we made it a mission to discover what would turn out to be a gem, and not one of those expensive gems! EasyJet supplied the direct flight from Geneva to Tirana, public transport was dirt...
Unable to take a rental car into Albania on a prior roadtrip through Europe we made it a mission to discover what would turn out to be a gem, and not one of those expensive gems! EasyJet supplied the direct flight from Geneva to Tirana, public transport was dirt...
Not quite what we had planned regarding a big Swedish adventure, our 3 week Kungsleden hike turning into a city break in Stockholm. Oh well, it was still fun, and we got to explore another scenic European city. With EasyJet flying the dirt cheap route directly from...
The thought of travelling for two days to visit family in New Zealand without adding on a South Pacific island trip was now only a thought! After spending a little over a week in Niue on our previous trip where would we go this time? Whilst my mum had already been to...
With a few hundred Euros in TAP Portugal credit and no real idea of where to go that didn't involve connections and long flights we decided to just head somewhere warm and that we'd never been to before. The Algarve sounded like that destination. Unfortunately the...
Approaching Greenland ice shelf from the air was humbling, the size of the glaciers tumbling into the sea, the iceberg’s with their turquoise underwater colours, the sheer expanse… and we were barely north of Greenland's narrowest point - there was a hell of a lot...
So here it is, time for another fairly long bike-packing adventure following the length of the mighty Rhine river. The other getaways I was toying with were either a north south traverse of Iceland on foot or a photography shoot in the Faroe Islands - for both it was...
Over eighty days of skiing under my belt, it was time for Andrea and I to head to warmer climates. We had spent some time in the French island of Corsica a couple of years ago and now it was time for the Italian island of Sardinia. We had zero plans; just the desire...
Not what we had initially planned but more than happy that crap high mountain reports ruined our early spring 4000m peak bagging adventure! What was a loosely organised Monte Rosa trip, overnight turned into a well oiled Haute Route ski tour (thanks for demanding a...
Andrea heading home to visit family for a little over 3 weeks made the perfect excuse to make my third trip to Nepal. This time would be kind of strange as it wouldn't involve the Icefall, the Lhotse Face, nor the summit of Everest! I had to find something different...
Not entirely hopeful that we would have time to attempt a second Dolomites high route we hadn't planned or reserved anything for Alta Via 1. Having a copy of the GPX route downloaded to Gaia and a list of the more popular refuges was the extent of it. Whilst winging...
Planning a long hike during Covid was not as easy as we anticipated. Our, or at least my first option of the Arctic Circle Trail in Greenland was pretty much closed - we needed a plan B. We had never really thought too much about the Dolomites but after reading...
Outside of Cape Epic in South Africa the Swiss Epic in Graubünden, Switzerland, is probably the big destination mountain bike race of the Epic series. Being one of the qualifiers for the Cape Epic, the two-person-team five day event is hugely competitive, packed with...
With the forecast calling for rain to fall for multiple days on Chamonix yet again it was time to search out another European city. Having recently got back from Nimes in the south of France it was the turn of Italy. We toyed with a return to Venice, then thought that...
Whilst Mont Blanc comes in at the highest mountain in western Europe its normal "Goûter" route is one of the easiest in the Alps. The 4810m snow covered summit looms over Chamonix, the lower glaciers of Bossons and Taconnaz winding their way down from the upper...
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