Category: United Kingdom

Road trip on Scotland North Coast 500 Road

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The North Coast 500 road is a 500ish miles journey through some of the most remote areas of the north of Scotland. On this road trip you will marvel at beaches, mountains, lochs, fresh sea food and much more.

This is the story of a 7 day road trip on the North Coast of Scotland. The idea had been planted in my head several years ago, during a previous Scottish trip. We met travellers who couldn’t stop but raving about the wild beauty of the deserted North. We swore to come back and to see it with our own eyes.

Autumn colours over Little Loch Broom taken from the Badrallach campsite
on our North Coast 500 Scottish roadtrip.

Planning your trip

We had a week for the road trip and after a bit of research decided to start by the east coast. The West coast is definitely the most spectacular part of the road and packed with hidden gems. I would definitely recommend spending more time there. For the same reason, try to drive anti-clockwise (starting from Inverness) to go from beautiful to grandiose. You won’t regret it.

Let the landscape and a good map be your guides. As a co-pilot (with the boyfriend being the driving wheel), I planned our stops around view points, beaches and cafes, following the pictograms on the map. The below itinerary is inspired from our own trip in September 2019. Like all articles on this blog, I only highlight places we visited/ stayed/ ate that we particularly enjoyed.

The article at a glance:

North Coast 500: 7 day itinerary and points of interests

Getting there

We woke up with the murmur of the rolling train. It is the beauty of taking a night train, fall sleep in London and waking up in the countryside, on the over side of the country! The Caledonian Sleeper train links London to Inverness in 12h. Prices vary but a twin classic cabin with 2 bunk beds is likely to cost you around 200-250GBP (one way).

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How to have an adventurous year without leaving London

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What do you want this year to be? To kick off the new year I want to share with you a London outdoors and sport calendar, or 12 ideas (one for each month of the year) to have an adventurous year without leaving the British capital city.

It may seem counter intuitive but it’s during my 4 years spend in London, one of the biggest cities in Europe that I became really addicted to the outdoors and developed a passion for sports events. From swimming to cycling to paddling or climbing, living in a big city offers so many opportunities to try out new things and participate in epic events.

Dash for the Splash, a local cross run in the Wimbledon Park and one of the thousands of events held in London every year

I have put together a collection of events, challenges or micro adventure that I have tried myself, loved and which I can highly recommend. For most of these you don’t need any specific equipment, just a dose of adventure and a bit of motivation to get out of your comfort zone and try something new.

January – Get back in shape with Parkrun 

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Red Bull Neptune Steps: why sign up and how to prepare

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In March 2019, I participated in the Red Bull Neptune Steps event in Glasgow. Along with 600 participants, I dived in in the dark and cold waters of the Forth and Clyde canal, swam 420 meters up the canal and climb over 7 obstacles, one at each of the lock gates. I had my eyes on this event for 2 years, and in 2019, I took the icy plunge.

This is why you should sign-up for the 2020 edition and tips to not only survive it but enjoy this truly epic event…

Toughest swimming race Red Bull Neptune Steps
Fighting an icy waterfall to climb over the lock gate.
Credit: Red Bull

Red Bull Neptune Steps, the toughest swim event

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River Adur swim (UK), the fastest 5k you will ever swim!

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If you ever envied Baloo from The Jungle Book, floating downstream a river effortlessly, the River Adur swim in England is for you! The swim is a wetsuit legal (even mandatory!), tide assisted, salty 5km event, making it one of your fastest 5km you will ever swim. It makes it also a perfect first event for those you have swum a few times outdoors but are looking to cover a bit more distance. 

The perfect conditions for a great swim

It is always more fun to swim with friends. To celebrate the end of the season, we were a few members of our swim club to join that day in Shoreham-by-Sea, on the south coast of the UK. Our group represented mix experiences and abilities in term of swimming. Though we were all confident swimmers or triathletes, several did their first river swim that day while some others were open water swimming veterans. For me, it was the occasion to come back to river swim after my fantastic experience at the Dart 10km Marathon Swim.

Photo: Sussex Sport Photography
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Cycling London to Paris in 3 days

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Cycling London to Paris is a bucket list experience for many British cyclists. Some choose to do it under 24h as a sportive challenge and many others decide to enjoy every minute of it and making it a small trip.

This challenge gives you maximum flexibility and can be adapted to suit all tastes, budgets, levels of fitness and bikes. The appeal of this adventure is also that it can be done within just a few days, making it a serious options for all of us with normal jobs, families or other commitments! Whatever your choices end up being, there is a profond sense of satisfaction from reaching Paris by bike just by the power of your legs.

We did it!

After towing with a few ideas on what to do other the Easter bank holiday week-end, we decided we will set off from home, in London to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I was excited just thinking about it and swiftly started planning the logistics (you will see a bit later that there are quite a few aspects to consider!). I am now sharing the adventure and some tips. I hope you found this article inspiring and that I am looking forward to hearing about your experience of cycling the iconic London to Paris route.

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A week-end of cycling and hiking on Isle of Wight (UK)

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For our first British getaway week-end since we sold our car, we chose the Isle of Wight delighted by the idea of cycling its 65 miles of coast in a place we could easily reach by public transportation. The weather was definitely on our side, the skies were as blue as the sea and the 3 days spent cycling, hiking and eating ice cream were a delight. Learn more about a week-end destination to put on your list.

Cycling 110km around the Isle of wight

Start and Finish: Ventnor, but as it is a loop you can start from pretty much anywhere around the island. many people start from Cowes.
Distance: 110km | Duration: 6h30min (depending on fitness) | Difficulty: challenging

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Swimming 10km in the river Dart (UK)

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The Dart 10k is an open water swim in the Dart river in South Devon (United Kingdom). It is usually hosted in the beginning of September and gathers more than a thousand of swimmers of all ages and abilities, who aim to reach the village of Dittisham starting from the town of Totnes.
As I walk towards the start line of my 10k swim in the river Dart on an early morning of September, I think about the dozen of messages of encouragement I woke up to that morning: from colleagues, triathletes, family and friends… If many people run a marathon, not so many have swam one, elevating those who would even consider signing up to the status of super humans. I look around but the only thing I see is a bench of weirdos in highly unsexy rubber one pieces, ready to dip in a muddy cold water on a Sunday afternoon while the smart ones of this world have not even finish their first cup of coffee (or tea).

1600 swimmers took part in the 2017 Dart 10k. Here: the start in Totnes

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A week-end of hiking on the South Downs Way (UK)

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I have always liked long distance trails. I like the idea of going from A to B by the simple power of your legs. The idea of hiking part of the South Downs Way came as I was looking for ideas of activities with mum, who was visited me for a few days. But I didn’t want to spend hours in transportation. I wanted an epic week-end adventure just a stone thrown from London, mixing sea and countryside. I had heard about the Seven Sisters hike so I decided we should tackle the last part of this national trail. We went up steep climbs, avoided cows, had fun on bales of hay, embraced Sussex views and ended up with our toes in the English channel – all under beautiful summer skies.

The north panorama from Firle Beacon, highest point of the hike

The South Downs Way

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A week-end of hiking in Peak District National Park (UK)

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It started with a misunderstanding. I had been talking for a few months about going for a week-end to explore the Lake District area, in the UK. Imagine my surprise when unwrapping the paper of my birthday present I discovered a guide of the best hikes in Peak District instead. But it didn’t really matter, I didn’t return the guidebook and instead we book a week-end to celebrate spring and the return of the outdoors season on this maybe less hyped destination. And guess what? Peak District didn’t disappoint me.

For this week-end we choose two hikes that we believe will offer the most dramatic landscapes, they also happen to be among the most popular. But outside of the week-end, you will have the hills for yourself!

Hill walking on Kinder Low plateau (Peak District, UK)

 

Day 1: Kinder Low hike

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Hiking Mount Snowdon, a welsh microadventure

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It was spontaneous. We decided to go just a few days before, and to leave on the Friday, just after work, direction: Snowdonia National Park in Wales.

Overcrowded camping? Grey sky? Busy trail? Who cares! The majesty of the scenery, the fresh air of the outdoors and the smell of the mountains was just what we needed for the week-end break, far from from London life. Sometimes it is just about getting out there in the wild… and enjoying a good beer at the end of the day :-).

Made it to the mountains... Happy!

Made it to the mountains… Happy!

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