And just like that, there were 10 days left in our trip. We were heading over to Vancouver Island for a good chunk of this and then onto Vancouver for the end.

Since we had arrived in Canada we had been watching wildfire progress carefully. We’d driven pretty close to a couple and seen their danger or the aftermath, but no dramas so far. One we were paying close attention to was right next to Highway 4 on Vancouver island. This was the route we needed to take to get to Ucluelet on the west coast – a real highlight for the trip. Wildfires earlier in the summer had at first closed the road and now it was operating for one way traffic periodically each day. Not ideal but still ok. There was a detour possible – with 4 hours on single track gravel road and we were pretty sure our hire car would be ruined by it!

We planned our timings carefully but then the day we arrived on Vancouver island we heard the road had been closed again due to the risk of landslide from heavy rain. We had an anxious day wondering what would happen. I checked the travel insurance in case we couldn’t get over / got stuck there / ruined the car etc. Good job I work in insurance as I managed to assess that we apparently weren’t covered for any scenario at all – and this isn’t the first time this has happened (think round the world travel pre Covid) 🤦‍♀️.

Thankfully on this occasion. It didn’t matter and the road opened around midnight that night meaning we got across the island with very little hassle

Hello Ucluelet. This was our planned home for an action packed 4 nights including John’s birthday. This part of the island was absolutely stunning. Clear inlets and waterways, dramatic beaches with loads of sea-life, cute coastal paths, temperate rainforests, huge Cedar trees, easy-going fun towns and the usual Canadian brewery scene that we’d got very used to.

We did our usual test of trying to decide whether we could actually live here, or if actually we had holiday rose tinted glasses on. Honestly, we’re not sure – this place is heavenly but we hear it can be pretty harsh in the winter.

First up a full day at sea and we had amazing weather (in fact the whole holiday has been similar). Whale watching was first and our wild-life luck turned (or it was impossible not to see them) and we met some very cute sea otters and then spent a good chunk of time watching a couple of grey whales as they surfaced every few minutes. I don’t think photos or film of this stuff can ever really capture the beauty of a clear blue sky and sea, bobbing on a small boat watching these incredible creatures as they go about their lives feeding and breathing. James really loved this too – he’s a hard to impress kind of boy and he was v excited. We had a small downturn however when he didn’t believe me that he might feel seasick if he mucked around inside the boat and don’t look out the windows. Thankfully we spotted him looking a little green and dangled him over the back of the speeding boat until he felt better 😂.

In the afternoon we took a zodiac boat on the inlets near Tofino looking for…you guessed it…bears! We got dressed up in some weird flotation suit designed to keep us warm as the boat whipped around looking for animals. Whilst the sun was out it was still blooming chilly in the wind.

Our guide was amazing. We saw (another) bald headed eagle, and then another, about 1,000 jellyfish, some seals and A BEAR!!!! Even better James got to see the bear poo – excellent! It was a black bear hanging around in the shore line looking for clams or similar under the rocks. I’m amazing such big creatures can get enough food eating such tiny things and I’m also delighted we were not on the shoreline with it – the ease with which it turned over boulders looking for food told me it has never missed a day of CrossFit in its life – it was a muscly chunk!

The following day dawned and it was John’s birthday. We kicked off with a birthday kayak around Ucluelet harbour. As an early present I offered John the solo kayak and I took the physically able, head-strong, ineffective 7 year old in the double. He was offered a pouch of snacks if he kept paddling (he didn’t) and after abundant starfish (no bears) and a strong headwind I for one was happy to be back in the harbour.

No one who knows John will be surprised that the day finished with beer and a cheese board at the local brewery ❤️.

Our final full day in Ucluelet was free so we hopped around a stunning temperate rainforest boardwalk and then headed to Wickaninnish beach – Canadian beaches weren’t supposed to be like this?! Miles long, golden sand, beautiful (cold sea) and incredible warm. As usual the boys headed out for a cold dip and established that if you stood still for long your feet got munched by little sea critters…nowhere is perfect I guess 😂.

Oh and just in case you needed a little more persuading that the west coast of Vancouver Island was perfect…we saw another bear early the following morning.

Victoria next, the main city on Vancouver Island. Lovely I am sure but honestly our hearts were a little broken having left the west coast 💔.

Animal spotting total: Bear = 2, Moose = 0, Elk = 6, Coyote = 1, chipmunk/squirrel = hundreds, sea otter = loads, grey whale = 2

We took the absolutely stunning Icefields Parkway up to Jasper. Stopping on route at the Columbia Icefields for a jaunt on the Athabasca Glacier. We kicked off with a hair raising ice vehicle journey which descended a 30% gradient hill – eek! Once we got off the monster ice trucks we had a chance to play on the glacier, drink melt water direct from a stream and have a snowball fight. Big surprise of the trip was just how cold it was on the glacier…it was easy to spot the ill prepared family on the glacier in shorts 🥶. Of course the glacier is receding with our guide telling us it had lost half its volume in the last 125 years.

Our wildlife spotting luck picked up as we got close to Jasper. One giant elk on the side of the road greeted us and made us excited for what was to follow.

Our main activity in Jasper was white-water rafting. James’s first chance to give it a go and he was excited to put on his wetsuit and sit right at the front of the raft on chief rapid spotting duty. One set of rapids later we had a howling, saturated, grumpy and cold James. And we remembered that the front seat was the wettest. It was awesome…but perhaps we could have prepared him better…or sat at the back which is where we retreated to…oops!

Some of you might know that John spent a year safari guiding in Namibia and he is also a brilliant wildlife spotter in general. We were therefore supportive when he suggested another early rise, this time to drive to Moose lake on a route often frequented by bears. We knew our luck had been out partly because we were travelling in the middle of the day and we’re keen to change our luck. It didn’t work.

No fear on the lack of wildlife. We were heading west. Out of Alberta and into British Columbia. Our destination was Clearwater and on route a bear spotting power boat safari along the Blue river.

Power boating was exhilarating and a hit with everyone, especially James, who got to drive us at around 40mph along a section of the river 🙈 Still no bears though which was starting to leave us feeling that we were jinxed.

Next stop Alpine Meadows Resort, Clearwater, our home for the next few nights. Literally miles from anywhere and accessed via a dirt road. The ‘resort’ is a bunch of cabins overlooking lake Hallimore, a jetty with an assortment of boats for the guests to use, and apparently it’s grounds are frequented by bears.

We did venture into the nearby Wells Gray provincial park to take in its waterfalls and rivers but most of our time was spent swimming and boating in our very own private lake. John even braved a swim of the length of the lake (about 1.2km), followed by his trusty support crew in a clanky old aluminium rowing boat.

Guess what though, still no bears.

Animal spotting total – Bear = 0, Moose = 0, Elk = 6, Coyote = 1, chipmunk/squirrel = hundreds

We’re back! 4 weeks of Canadian fun as we hit the Rocky Mountains, and then head down to the West Coast of Canada. Baby Barrett is now a gappy opinionated 7 year with his own suitcase. Times have changed!

In order to keep the opinionated one happy after our jet lag recovery in Calgary we detoured east to Drumheller – Dinosaur valley in the Badlands. My best way to describe this place is of a tacky themed town in the middle of nowhere that also rightly has serious history in digging up Dino fossils. Many of these fossils are displayed in the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology. 2/3 of the family got their fossil grove on and even the third was mildly impressed. We also immersed ourselves in local culture with a visit to the town of Wayne (population 35) and dinner at the ‘Last Chance Saloon’ – v odd indeed!

The next day we backtracked to Calgary and then headed straight on into the Rockies. This is definitely the point when the holiday began! We’d heard great things and were ready to get our trip to the Rockies started.

We were facing severe criticism from the littlest member who has bad memories of ‘one of those walks’ from previous holidays. So being good parents 😂 we ignored the criticism and told him that our parents did exactly the same thing and one day he’d thank us – you’re welcome. Like lots of natural areas, it is super easy to find a great trail to walk on, a lake to admire or even a stream to play in (6 degree C glacial water mind you!).

We managed some more challenging walks by offering an M&M every 15 mins on the basis of no moaning. John did really well with this incentive and James was pretty good too 🤣🤣.

A brilliant perk of hotels in this part of the world are swimming pools with jacuzzis, which James loves. We’ve enjoyed minimum daily visits to the hot tubs, the best one being on the roof of our hotel in Banff.

First up in Banff was the gondola ride – James adored it and after a wander around the top of Sulpher mountain we had a great game of Harry Potter Top trumps before descending.

It was then onto Lake Louise. Everyone I met who has already visited said it was amazing (despite the crowds) and I was a little sceptical. Perhaps more so when John ‘suggested’ a 5:45am wake up. But oh my goodness – what a stunning place. We had a recommendation to head upwards from Lake Louise on a hike to Lake Agnes tea house. James did amazing on the 4km climb all with the promise of tea made from lake water, and more importantly for him freshly made bread and cakes.

At this point it began to feel like we were going snow blind with beautiful scenery. And to finish us off we went to nearby neighbour Lake Moraine. As blue as it’s neighbour Lake Louise with fewer people – not least because public road access is closed to all except (expensive) tour buses.

Canada is shaping up to be as amazing as hoped, but goodness it is expensive. Most hotels don’t included breakfast as people like to eat out. But for us, 3 meals out a day when most are burgers is a little much. I’m proud of our preparation here – a large cool bag and ice pack stuffed into our luggage along with Tupperware and cutlery means we can picnic as required!

Next step Jasper. Apparently you can’t fail to see Bears and Moose in Jasper…

Animal spotting total: Bear = 0, Moose = 0, Elk = 0, chipmunk/squirrel = hundreds

We were now more than half way through our little adventure, happily finding our groove and remembering what we really enjoy but also (honestly), wondering exactly how we would make the last 2 weeks in Crete memorable. It’s not a bad thing and we weren’t in any way ungrateful but it was a bit ‘same same’. In the same timeframe on our last adventure we had gone from Colombia through Panama onto Costa Rica and reached El Salvador…so our benchmark needed a little readjustment let’s say!

To make things work we broke a cardinal rule – never go back! We returned to Paleochora – home of the heat dome. We had loved the town but were trapped indoors and now we also knew that the temperature when we were there had reached 45 degrees – so no wonder we felt like we needed to hide.

When in Paleochora this time around we went big…a whole day on a skippered private boat ride. There was a tricky choice to make around hitting Elifonisi in the west (famed pink sand Caribbean type beach) or head east to explore a coastline with little car access. We chose the latter and were blooming pleased we did. Greece at its best – startlingly clear sea, secluded beaches with dramatic backdrops, cool blasts of spring water where it fed into the sea from underground, swimming from the boat to beaches and lots of jumping from the boat action.

Big thanks to our skipper Pavlos who got us out and back safely. Not captured on camera (because we were holding on) were the water vortexes from the high winds on the return journey.

Aside from the return journey (or also perhaps because of it in part), this was the top day of the holiday. All three of us love being on and in the sea and it was totally blissful. James was epic on the boat trip loving jumping (and trying to fly!) from the front of the boat and being rescued in a mum / dad life-bouy tug of war game. This is the stuff you remember for the rest of your life.

Paleochora had more to give with a typical dirt track / pebble / empty beach that was superb, once again putting our little 1 litre car to the test getting there. It also had a gorge running from the car park up to the village above. Shame the kitchen was closed on arrival after nearly 2 hours of walking 🤯.

We knew from earlier in the holiday that James would get ‘beached out’ so we had to find some alternatives. Prior to the Paloechora return we spent some time near Rethymno, which had absolutely nothing to do with a stunning CrossFit box which was 5 minutes away. Yippee!!!

James will tell you this place was his favourite part of the holiday. He calls it ‘Lily’s place’. We stayed at a villa with 4 suites with a shared pool, bbq, help yourself eco-garden and playground. One of the suites was occupied by John, Ursula, Uncle Ken, Thomas, William and gorgeous 3 year old Lily.

We didn’t do very much (apart from daily CrossFit 😁). An easy day trip each day and one was pretty cool – Argyroupolis – but each night we stayed in and used the bbq, with Minoas our fab host holding an event on the final night.

John (the other one), Ursula and Kev (Uncle Ken) were fab company and we really enjoyed the stay. But James in particular was smitten with Lily and had the most wonderful time picking vegetables, having picnics and rolling balls down holes on the pool table. Ursula you are the most amazing mum and we wish you all the best with John for your new arrival in the autumn.

Enagron Eco Resort in the mountains was our other non sea locale. One word – DONKEY heee hooooorrrr !!!

James loved it. We thought we were epic on day 1, aside from a mild panic when donkey #1 appeared to want to canter. Day 2 I can confirm that donkey #1 and #2 wanted nothing to do with it and despite a John temping them with grapes and pomegranate they took one look at us and said no! For one brief half hour we found 2 creatures that made our 5 year old seem accommodating 🤣.

In a time before James, John and I would have trekked and run together earning our feta cheese and enjoying seeing the local scenery. With James only 5 it’s not really possible and so we separately headed off up the mountain tracks each day for a ‘run’ / stagger uphill and down. We each loved it although in the days that followed neither of us could quite walk, with some pains that definitely would not have been there in the old days – not sure why! One day we will enjoy doing this together once more 😊.

I think James’ second favourite part of the holiday might have been a trip to Reptisland – a room filled with various reptiles with loads of them available to be touched, held and fed. Ignoring for a moment the slightly aggressive tortoise that thought my green shoes might have been edible it was a cool experience. We didn’t dwell on just how Covid safe it was the transfer creatures person to person and also whether the passionate owner really thought about whether the chameleons, snakes and geckos totally loved being passed around. We did however visit it twice upon request from James!

We ended our adventures close the Chania. Checking out a few local tiny coves and almost getting stuck in our car and nearly burning out the clutch on a very steep slope out of one cove.

We also had dinner a couple of times in Chania old town. It’s just beautiful and would totally recommend a visit – especially if you stayed in a boutique hotel within the city walls and didn’t take a 5 year old with you!

So that’s a wrap. We’re on the plane home grateful for a massive holiday and also looking forward to a few months of less feta cheese. We’re all strangely looking forward to home and hopefully catching up with friends and family. So far the protocol of travelling from an Amber list country seems fine, if a little expensive with £200+ worth of Covid tests.

As ever we are planning our next big jaunt. Canada and Seychelles are currently top of the list. We’ll just have to see how thing develop into the Autumn!

Done with being in an all inclusive (although secretly missing the gluttony) we decided to head to the east of the island towards the town of Agios Nikalous.

Being August, accommodation was thin on the ground but we managed to find a place in Istro which was functional but a good base to explore the Mirabello Bay area. Enthused by our previous gorge walk, first up was a 5km trek through the Kritsa gorge. More taxing and spectacular than the Deliana gorge with rope climbs and plenty of scrambling up rocks, Jimbo enthusiastically led the way but needed a daddy shoulder ride towards the end.

We were all pretty exhausted afterwards so we rewarded ourselves with a chocolate milkshake (and iced coffees for grownups) in the enchanting nearby village of Krista.

Not wanting the days adventuring to end there, we headed to the upmarket costal town of Elounda and the nearby Plaka beach. We found a pristine pebble beach with irresistible crystal clear water and a view across the bay to Spinalonga island, a former Venetian fortress. Dusty from the morning’s walking and unprepared for beach action, we resorted to swimming in our underwear, much to the bemusement/entertainment of the others on the beach.

Whether it was the shared choccy milkshake or that evening’s seafood dinner the next days’ planned celebrations for my birthday had to be put on hold. The beautiful Plaka beach also became the destination for the arrival of a stomach bug for James and we then had a stressful drive back to our accommodation where we locked down for 24 hours waiting for Lucy and James to feel better. The joys of travel!!

In contrast to Plaka, late the following day we made a visit to the highly rated beach of Voulisma. Literally every square metre was packed with sun beds and people, the sand was littered with cigarette butts and the water was full of plastic fragments with virtually no fish to be seen. A sad and upsetting reminder of the negative impact we humans can have on the environment.

For the next leg of our journey in the east we were lucky to find a couple of nights in a posh (for us) hotel in a suburb of Agios Nikolaus, complete with an infinity pool on our balcony with stunning views across the bay. Just the tonic team JJL needed. The real gem however was the very Greek family beach on its doorstep with its own chilled beach cafe, tavernas which cater for locals and superb jetty for James to jump into the sea from.

We spent a blissful couple of days enjoying the beach with an early evening walk into Agios Nikolaus town – followed by an after dark ice-cream on the beach. A perfect ending to our exploration of the east before heading back west and inland for a few days to see what non beach fun we could find.

Ok it’s hot. Unbeknown to us southern Europe has been under what is known as a heat dome for the last 2 weeks. In non-meteorological terms this means it’s scorchio with temperatures +40 degrees. There are some horrific wildfires raging in other parts of the country which helps keep any inconvenience it is causing us into perspective.

Our first couple of days were spent in Chania getting into the swing of being abroad again. We hadn’t really noticed the full extent of the heat as, being pale skinned Brits we were avoiding the midday sun anyway. That said, it was a bit too hot to explore Chania town so we spent our time hanging out on a couple of local beaches building sand castles, playing in the sea and eating at some amazing fish tavernas.

Acclimatised (or so we thought) we decided to head over the mountains to Paleochora on the south side of the island. On opening the car doors we were met with a furnace. I’ve worked in the Namibian desert and have traversed part of the southern Sahara but it was rarely as fierce as this. So we quickly scurried into the holiday apartment that was to be refuge for the next couple of days to work out a game plan.

Paleochora is billed in our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook as being a pretty and laid back port town with plenty of good beaches. The only problem being that the furnace had us hiding inside for 6 hours each day. That said, when we did venture out the guidebook was right. Sandy beaches with mountainous backdrops, crystal clear water, bougainvillea covered walls, tavernas spilling out onto shaded alleyways. Bliss – as long as you don’t mind living in an oven!

Over the last year in London, when the various lockdowns allowed, I’ve been taking James swimming almost every weekend in an attempt to build on the good work of Lisa and Di Di teaching him to swim during our time living in Hastings. Jimbo took to the sea in Crete without hesitation and has become a proper little fish. I couldn’t be a prouder dad being able to take him 50m or so out to sea looking for fish, diving down 3-4m together to take a closer look at sea grass and urchins.

A few days in, the heat dome was forecast to stay until the weekend so we decided to retreat to the mountains to hopefully find some cooler air…

Because of the heat we chose to move inland and uphill, back towards the north coast. We were a bit aimless in terms of where next given the totally crazy weather, leading us to two very different types of accommodation.

First up Elia traditional hotel. 10km inland from the north coast this hotel has maybe 10 rooms and was set in an olive grove on a hillside with stunning views of the closest beach.

You arrive at a place like this – no playground, a simple swimming pool, hot, dusty. And you wonder how you will entertain a 5 year old for 2 nights.

You leave wondering how you will ever find a hotel as good as this one. For us, the brilliance came from the combination of a gorgeous rural setting with cicadas and stars, superb hospitality from Efi and team, gorgeous meals served on a terrace with the best views, a communal feel where all the guests interact as much (or as little) as they would like, and then some fairy dust sprinkles of 4 two month old kittens that James adored (note they did not feel the same).

Aside from the hotel we were in a pretty cool part of the island and headed one morning to Deliana Gorge. On route we took our little 1 litre car cross country. John had it all in hand and I learned to choose the bigger roads when map reading in the future.

To steady my nerves we did a little wine tasting on the way back. It was surprisingly tasty!

And so from our country retreat we headed east along the coast to Panormo. It gets a good write up in the Lonely Planet, though they didn’t mention our hotel – a rare trip to an all inclusive. We’ve been to a few in our time and enjoyed them lots. We’ve met good friends at places like this including Natalya and Shane in Mauritius 😘. That said it’s not our usual environment…less so in the middle of summer holidays!

Speaking of friends – we met Erin, Alex, Chloe and Madeline for an all too brief 24 hours whilst at the hotel. Chloe and Madeline are 6 and 4 respectively and between them and James much mischief was had. Just as we were about to leave the hotel the kids went for a little wander around the pool. We headed out to check on them and found them fully clothed, chest deep in the kiddies pool…bad parents 😆.

And so I write this blog from our balcony sun lounger drinking minibar wine, wondering if I could possibly be hungry enough to contemplate breakfast tomorrow. I’ll put my big girl pants on and manage a pancake or two and then be relieved to leave and head further east. But I will be forever grateful for the precious hours spent on the sun lounger whilst James was at kids club. Even if we paid for it dearly with our daily trips to the water slides!!!

This blog should be retitled…James is definitely no longer a baby and we are also not sure that a month in Greece really counts as travelling. But we do what we can with what we have and this time our trip will be all in one country. As a country Greece is one of our go to favourites and we plan to explore as much as ever.

We managed a cheeky half term break in October but otherwise we (like most others in the U.K.) have been completely grounded since March 2020. I make it 18 months and 12 days since our big 6 months adventure came crashing down only 10 weeks in. I rarely reread blog posts but I have read ‘Game Over’ time and time again. Reflecting on the timing of the pandemic and what it meant for our family and our dreams.

We remain grateful that our friends and family made it through in good health. There were some tricky moments for a couple but we are all still strong. I know that is not the case for so many people and I also know that many countries have more challenges than the U.K. who at least seemed able to get a vaccine rollout delivered double quick.

Since I’m not Dominic Cummings and this isn’t a political blog 🤣 I’ll crack on with talking about our travels. We’ve got the month of August on Crete, with the option to island hop along the way.

We’re on day 2, maybe 3. Frankly I’ve already lost count! We’re in Chania right now and plan to potter around the island at least for 2 weeks. This morning we’re on a typical Greek beach…a little sandy cove, blue clear water, sheltering from fierce heat under olive trees or similar. The noise from the cicadas is incredible and totally welcome. Chania is full of Greeks – I can’t figure out whether it is just because all the English are in the all inclusive resorts down the coast or if Covid really is having an impact. I guess a bit of both.

Some things haven’t changed. Greek salads rock and John’s love of feta cheese continues. You can survive on €5 bottles of white wine indefinitely. The seafood is great. The Greek people are lovely. And James given the choice will also always choose chips for dinner!

Time will tell whether we see / do anything really blog worthy on this trip. But we’ll keep you posted and for now focus on a little bit of rest and relaxation.

Overnight it all changed. Through the lens of Coronavirus Hawaii is certainly safer than the U.K. right now. And yet a simple change of U.K. foreign office guidance effectively ended our adventure. Literally overnight it was clear that we had to leave the USA.

We’d been developing alternative plans for weeks as Coronavirus progressed and grew ever closer. Thoughts such as running away to Australia and New Zealand were curtailed due to their new immigration stance and so we were left with heading to Japan early or skipping Japan and China and hiding somewhere in Thailand.

In the end the risk of hitting mandatory quarantine in these places, or the treatment of those travelling from the US suddenly changing felt very risky. We have a friend working for BA and he was also helpful in letting us know just how much long haul travel was being grounded. Little did we know that a mere 24 hours later the U.K. foreign office would recommend against all but essential travel anywhere – thank goodness we were not at this point on a plane to Asia.

Suddenly we faced the real threat of our travel insurance being invalidated or worse still being locked in the same room as James for 2 weeks! We also couldn’t be certain we could get home if our family needed us and that was when suddenly 6am Hawaii time on a Monday morning we planned our escape.

In 40 hours we would land in Heathrow. Our family and friends we think were unsurprised and in parts happy we would be back. We were sad. We broke the news to James and he simply said “no, no, no”. Happily he was placated within seconds by being told he could see his old toys and then he wanted to know why he could not board the plane immediately.

One of the reasons why travelling as a family works for us is that we seem to do ok when things are tough. There was no hysteria, a factual discussion followed by packing – something we are now very good at. A final tight hug and kiss signalled the sad end of a fab adventure and early departure from our Hawaii Big Island holiday home. That was John and I – James was waiting to get on the plane already 😂.

We spent our last hours trekking down into the Kilauea Iki Crater and across the solidified lava lake formed as part of the 1959 eruption. Other worldly, relaxing and beautiful – a poignant way to end the adventure.

Cutting short our adventure means we miss so much – for now we won’t see Japan a big bucket list destination. China was much anticipated and James was really excited at the prospect of seeing elephants in the wild in Thailand. We also cut short our trip to Hawaii and we honestly don’t know if we will come this far round the world again. We saw such a tiny snippet of this beautiful unusual place. But, we are safe and well and can always travel again. Sometimes things are not meant to be.

The adventure was also so much more than a visit to a few cool places. It was family time to hang out together before school starts. Happily we have all survived close quarters with one another and frankly the family time piece of this adventure doesn’t end at Heathrow – neither of us have jobs to go to. We expect to be spending more time together in an even more unusual situation in the coming months!!

Both of us were also done with day to day routine and work and needed a break. For me it was also a chance to reflect after 20 years of working fast and hard. To figure out what next. Some of that thinking has been done, the trip gave space to unwind, get sleep and let the mind wander. There have been no lightening bolts for either of us but we are recharged with a clearer sense of what to focus on.

Going away with just one bag is also an eye opener. It reminds you of how little you need and simplifies life. I hope to remember this when we get home, but from our last big trip I remember how quickly that feeling disappears for me, unlike John who is a good influence in this space.

So what to do in the U.K.? We’ll take a couple of weeks to decompress, eat curry, stop eating trail mix, enjoy a couple of gin and tonics and find a new routine. We had hoped to see family and friends but this is already ruled out and instead we will focus on doing our bit to help the world get rid of this virus.

What’s clear, is that the world is experiencing something quite extraordinary and dreadful. I hope family, friends and loved ones fair well through this – we are sending good wishes to you all and will remain thankful that we had the opportunity to travel even if it didn’t work out quite a planned.

Until next time.
JJL x

After enjoying our time there so much we reluctantly left San Diego and headed to Las Vegas for a few days. Vegas was on our itinerary for a few reasons. Firstly it is a good flight hub for getting to Hawaii. Secondly the Californian national parks we really wanted to visit further north (Yosemite, Sequoia, Redwood etc) are too cold and snow covered for the meagre contents of our bag at this time of year. Finally, to satisfy our mild curiosity as Vegas seems to be on a lot of people’s bucket list. It’s not the sort of place we’d ever make a special trip to visit so since we were in the area we thought we’d see what it’s all about.

Thanks to the generosity of some of our colleagues and friends at Hastings Direct our stay was made much more comfortable and fun than it would have been otherwise. Caesar’s Palace, Cirque du Soleil and our posh (relatively when you have become accustomed to rice & beans) dinner were fab guys, thank you.

Before we left for Hawaii we decided to splash some cash and take a helicopter ride over the Hoover Dam and into the Grand Canyon. Throughout the trip so far James was adamant that he wouldn’t go in a helicopter but some gentle persuasion convinced him to give it a go. Of course he loved it and was added to the growing list of truly memorable experiences on our trip.

Next, onto Hawaii and if we had known we would only have one week there we would have approached it differently. We were expecting 3 weeks and had planned time on Oahu, Big Island and Kauai.

Leaving Vegas for Hawaii we thought we had timing on our side once more and had out run Coronavirus. It was only when we landed in Honolulu we saw that the US had extended its travel ban to include the U.K. and even then it appeared that having been away from Europe for 10 weeks would mean we were good to stay. More on that in our next blog!

In Honolulu we had just 2 days and so headed straight to world famous Waikiki. Time for some sun and surf. It turns out that the world famous beach in Waikiki is man-made and suffering from terrible erosion. In the early 1900s sand was brought in from California and this has continued along with donations from nearby beaches on Oahu. We didn’t love it – the beaches of Roatan, Belize and even San Diego rested heavy on our minds. Thankfully given the early ending of our trip we did head out to surf whilst we were there – it was an intimidating crowd that surf Waikiki which definitely impacted our form!

We did quite like the food in Waikiki and found a fab cafe serving healthy food and smoothies, some of it was even accidentally vegan! Poke, cured raw fish bowls served with rice and other veg, nuts etc was also favourite.

What we were really waiting for was our trip to Big Island. Although flowing lava was no longer visible since Kilauea stopped erupting in 2018 there remained lots to see and we were excited. Purposefully we started on the less popular east coast. With plenty of rain and no stereotypical golden beaches it was short of resorts but right up our street in terms of slightly run down tropical charm.

We based ourselves in Hilo and headed a few miles out to Robertson’s and Carlsmith beaches. They were directly off an unassuming road but were totally spectacular.

We visited Robertson’s because it was a black and green sand beach, created by the lava eruptions. It was dramatic, rugged, chilled and stunning. A small walk across some rock pools and we found 4 green turtles just chilling out!! The waves were lively and John couldn’t resist a dip. The variety of fish he saw were quite amazing although I think the fresh water seeping up from the rocks beneath were a surprise and kept the tropical waters a bit nippy!

The following day we went to Carlsmith beach just next door. This time a tiny yellow sand beach set in a dramatic black lava rock secluded bay which was perfect for swimming. Crystal clear waters and more turtles were once again joined by rising cold ground water. John loved it but James and I only managed a short dip.

In our time in Hilo we also made visits to an eerie lava-tube cave, spectacular waterfall and a grove of huge banyan trees all just on the outskirts of town.

We were sad to leave the east coast but excited to be heading to Volcanoes national park on the slopes of the Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. We stayed in a small apartment nestled in the rainforest surrounded by giant ferns and dripping moss covered trees which was like a scene from Jurassic Park. We didn’t know it yet but our time there was to be very limited. We did however manage to take in the views from the crater rim and visit some steam vents where ground water seeps down into the volcanic rock and returns to the surface as slightly stinky (sulphurous) steam. There was also a trip to a vineyard to sample the local produce which was of dubious quality.

It was at 6am the next morning when things rapidly started to unravel…