Welcome to our first blog post. We are so excited for you to join us on this journey.
I’m guessing, by now, you know what our brand is about (if not go check out the ‘about us’ page) so this post is going to be about getting to know us, Duncan and Jess a little more.
I’m sure like so many of you, we can’t wait to get back exploring when the world has calmed down again. We love to travel. I guess this is a good place to start, since we met in 2016 we’ve been on so many adventures- both in the UK and abroad. Our most epic trip so far was backpacking through New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia. It may sound glamourous, but trust me when I say- we did it on a BUDGET. From living in our car in New Zealand with a diet mainly consisting of vegemite on bread (yep, not even toast!) to staying in some, let’s say, interesting hostels in Asia. However, that’s how we managed to do so many awesome things like sky diving over lake Taupo and surfing on the south coast of Sri Lanka.
Whilst travelling we both kept a journal, here’s a little insight from Dunc’s diary of our first day in Hanoi towards the end of our trip. You’ll soon realise that this was one of my tougher days, but rest assured these were outweighed by amazing ones.
‘Hanoi 27/04/19
…Went back up the crazy market street. Just as jess was starting to enjoy the place, she got punched in the stomach by an old lady who was trying to get past…further up the road as the punch became funny to laugh about, she got hit by a moped. We were trying to cross a traffic jammed street. We were almost through to the other side where one bike turned around, accelerated and went straight over Jess’ foot!
Needless to say, jess was in a lot of pain and wanted to book the next flight to London! Got some beer and street food. Jess finally found something without meat in it- sticky fried banana rice. Without warning, the lady covered the whole dish in milk and peanuts. Jess is highly allergic to both and her opinion of Hanoi was decidedly set as a negative one.’
P.S The next day we had a great time exploring and meeting new people, and once again I loved the city.
When we’re not travelling, we try to go on as many weekend trips as we can- either climbing in North Wales, hiking in the Lake District or (attempting) to surf on the Gower. Recently we have found the love for wild camping, although I much prefer the comfy bed in the van!
Dunc loves to climb, sometimes I think he loves climbing more than he loves me! The last year or so I’ve also got the climbing bug and we’ve even built a mini home training wall during lockdown! However, when Dunc isn’t climbing, he’s working hard towards his degree in Geography. I have also started a degree In Environmental Science this year.
Even though we have a big passion for travel and adventure, we both have strong environmental ethics. Understandably travelling has huge environmental impacts and, in many ways, that’s why we have created this brand to help others like us, continue to see the world whilst lessening their impact.
How did I forget the most important thing…Bear- our dog. We fell in love with him in Thailand and just couldn’t leave him there.
