Category: Vanlife
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Weeks 35-36: Lofoten Islands
The Lofoten Islands are an archipelago in northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle. There are 6 major islands that were formed from glaciers carving steep sided valleys between razor-like ridges and peaks. These vary from dramatic to extremely dramatic. Human habitation is largely defined by coastal fishing towns. Lofoten sits near the meeting of the…
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Weeks 32-35: Sweden
Highlights: Beautiful and interesting landscapes, lovely mild weather this far north, top-notch bouldering, interesting cultural quirks, some surprisingly excellent fast food, and great facitilies and resources for campervan-life. Lowlights: Miles and miles of flat land, forest and lakes make for ideal mosquito conditions in June. Our journey north from the UK We left on the…
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Weeks 26-31: Adventure break (Return to the UK)
Our journey back was not without incident From Slovenia we began our long journey west back to the UK. We had booked our Eurotunnel return crossing for 6 months minus 1 day from our departure last November. Our 6-month visas were due to expire so a return to the UK to apply for new visas…
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Week 24/25: Slovenia
Highlights – wine, wine and more wine, stunning countryside and opportunities for outdoor pursuits, interesting geological features (karsts and related), small but perfectly formed Ljubljana Lowlights – we didn’t have enough time to explore this beautiful country East Slovenia – Wine, walk and bike ride around Maribor From Croatia we drove north to the northeast…
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Week 21: Crossing Italy to catch a ferry
After Sicily our intention was to head to Croatia. At this time of year the only ferry running departs from Ancona to Split. Ancona is about two thirds of the way up the east coast of Italy. This required a few long driving days and there were a couple of things we wanted to do…
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Week 19/20: Sicily
In this blog post we explore Sicily’s numerous Greek and Roman archaeological sites, get a taste for hiking in its beautiful countryside, and savour some Sicilian food specialities and wine. James also gets to flex his climbing and mountain biking muscles. Getting There We spent a couple of weeks meandering around Italy waiting for the…
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Week 17/18: Avoiding the rain in Italy
In this blog post we do our best to avoid rain and manage to visit the classic Tuscan cities, and get a taste of Marche, Abruzzo, Puglia and Calabria in the process. Our “Italy plan” was to take a ferry from the north west coast of Italy to Sicily, and then work our way back…
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Week 15/16: Porto, Douro Valley, Peneda-Gerês, Santiago de Compostela and a looooong drive to Italy
Porto We had planned to head west from Sintra, on our journey back through Spain, but when we checked the weather forecast, Porto was enjoying equally good weather, so we headed north instead. We found a dog friendly hotel, the Catalonia Porto, with a good parking lot nearby and spent 2 days exploring the city.…
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Week 14: Sintra and Alcobaça
This week’s exploits mostly cover climbing and mountain biking in Sintra, but we squeezed in some cultural sights in Sintra and Alcobaça too. Sintra From Lisboa we headed 30 minutes west to Sintra, a mountain ridge that sits along the coast west of Lisboa. Sintra is a magical place and it’s not surprising that throughout…
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Week 12/13: Sip of Sherry then on to Portugal
In this blog post, we visit a sherry bodega in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and then hop over to Portugal, which unexpectedly was a bit of a shock to the system. Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Sherry Bodega Tour We had some good luck disguised as bad on the way to Sanlúcar de Barrameda (SdB). The Autocaravanas…
JAZ Adventures 