LucyandTom

Before we arrived in Canada we had to stop in a few places. We stopped in Vegas not for the gambling and partying, and Portland and Seattle, not for their reputations as the home of the USA's micro brewery scene, but becuase the flights were cheaper that way....seriously... well ok, maybe it was a bit of both. One night in Vegas was all we could afford, we hit the wave pool and did some bodysurfing, and played the craps tables, Lucy putting her studies on probability into practical use for the first time, next thing we know it was time to leave, not sure what else happened. In Portland we stayed in a lovely AirBNB, and set off on a brewery tour where we sampled 24 beers at a number of different breweries in town, apparently ... read more

Patagonia! We flew straight into Base Camp, Patagonia, otherwise known as El Calafate, the kind of place people stock up on Gortex gear and have a big last meal before launching into Patagonia proper. The first item on our itinerary was a day walking on Perito Moreno, a huge, advancing glacier that spills into Lago Argentino. Before you get too excited parents; the walk had a strict age limit of 45! Looking at the glacier from the lookout was truly impressive, we saw huge chunks of ice crash into the water below so large Tom swears the impact created rideable waves (in case it’s not obvious Tom is keen to get back to a coastline)! Once strapped into some crampons and on the glacier it was hard to take in the scale of the mass of ... read more

We safely made it over the Costa Rica – Panama border and have since racked up a few kilometres. First stop in Panama was Bocas del Torres which is on the Caribbean side and renowned for its surf. We stayed on the most remote island; Bastimentos, which seemed to be overrun by a million crazy but cute Arfo-Caribbean kids. Much to Tom’s disappointment we just missed out on a huge swell by one day and in order to get to one of the most consistent surfing beaches we had to trek across the jungle 30 mins each way in ankle, sometimes knee deep mud, safe to say the island was pretty remote. The beach was stunning though, surrounded by jungle and with clear water. We also enjoyed one of our favourite activities of chilling with our ... read more

We picked up our campervan in Denver, Colorado and once we stocked up on supplies we hit the road. As usual we didn’t have much of a plan except that we wanted to see three of America’s National Parks; Rocky Mountains, Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Our first stop was Breckenridge in the Rocky Mountains National Park. We had planned to climb one of the ‘14ers’ Quandary Peak but once we reached the town we realised this probably wouldn’t be possible given the freezing temperature and the snowing. A quick visit to the Breckenridge visitor centre confirmed this when they asked what equipment we planned to take… equipment??! We were clearly out of our depth. Instead we headed north to Boulder, Colorado. We instantly liked Boulder, a college town at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, it ... read more

We are nearing the end of our time in Scotland, its been nice catching up with the family and enjoying some home comforts as well as seeing the sights of Scotland. Tom managed to survive the weather and meeting the entire Elliott clan... We stole mum's car a lot so headed off on a roadtrip to show Tom the best of Scotland and also show me a lot of the places I haven't got round to seeing. Highlights were climbing Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK, its about 1300m so not that high but it can be quite tough because of the unpredicatable weather. We didn't have too much trouble climbing it, got some great views from half way up but then it clouded over so we didn't see much at the top. Still, ... read more