Travel, outdoors & adventure blogger who loves Iceland, camping and swimming.
Yes, I know fire hydrants might be an odd thing to decide to do a photoset on but Reykjavik has one idiosyncrasy that I love. It has red and yellow fire hydrants scattered around the entire city and it seems to be a national pastime to draw faces on them. And I can’t resist taking … More Photoset: Reykjavik fire hydrants
Back in 2009, I flew off to Carlisle for a few days – and when I say “flew”, I mean that I took the train. It’s quite a long way from Dorset (seven hours!) and even longer back because it was a Sunday and our beloved planned engineering works meant I had to make three … More A few days in Carlisle
Friday night was not optimal tent-pitching weather but there we were – me, three Rangers and four Guides, up to our ankles in mud, in pouring rain, putting up our tents in the dark. We’d arrived at 6pm at Girlguiding’s latest event, Sparkle & Ice, a winter survival camp happening simultaneously at three Training & … More Sparkle & Ice 2017: it turns out winter camp is cold
I’m sorry if you’ve seen this post before but I know no one reads the older posts, which is why I’m taking the opportunity to re-write one per month. This is my favourite travel story ever and I really want to tell it to everyone. This is my Great Train Adventure. It was late October … More The Great Train Adventure
Back in September, on the back of a bad summer at work and an issue at Guides, I ran off for a short weekend in Manchester and Liverpool. I took the direct train from Southampton – and it kind of astonishes me that there’s a direct train to Manchester from Southampton – first thing on … More Manchester
You people seem to like the international chocolate tests so I’ve got a good one today. The fabulous Swedish Marabou vs the legendary Swiss Lindt. My bar of Lindt is a bar of pretty standard Excellence Extra Creamy 100g vs Marabou Milk Chocolate 250g, so the Lindt looks pretty insubstantial next to the Marabou, which … More Swedish chocolate vs Swiss chocolate
The boat is already waiting for me as I scurry down North Greenwich Pier on the coldest day of the entire winter. It’s been gritted but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to slip and that might cost me the boat. In fact, when I look up from making sure my feet are in the right … More Superspy hijinks on the Thames Clippers
At eight o’clock in the morning, having packed up my tent and hauled it across the campsite, I was on a bus. By one o’clock, with an hour’s detour to walk up a canyon formed in Iceland’s most productive eruption in history, I was at Landmannalaugar, an oasis and campsite in the Highlands. The plan … More Landmannalaugar circular walk
In today’s third instalment of my Useful Travel Items series, we have velvet leggings! I am a master of multiple layers for cold places. Thermals, t-shirts, shirts, jackets, fleeces, coats – I like to be warm. But it’s harder to apply the same layering principle to your legs – by the time you reach three … More Useful Travel Items: velvet leggings
Today I’m in the UK and I have a travelling companion. This is Tom: We took advantage of a beautiful day during the Christmas holidays (the first Christmas holiday I’ve had in five years). Actually, we chose the date five days in advance and the fact that it was beautiful was just us being lucky. So … More Exploring Swanage and Durlston: Tom & Julie’s Annual Adventure
I Am A Polar Bear 