The Van Trip Family

The Van Trip Family More adventures in a van around Europe! This time........Scandanavia and Eastern Europe including Tu

Looks awesome.
02/11/2021

Looks awesome.

A week later and no news about our runaway van! 😟 The police have recovered CCTV of the whole break in by 4 men which to...
06/09/2020

A week later and no news about our runaway van! 😟 The police have recovered CCTV of the whole break in by 4 men which took them 30mins at 3am last Sunday. Fingers X but we're not counting on it.

In the meantime, we've been busy homemaking whilst in quarantine, eating yummy food, rediscovering all our belongings, enjoying some indoor space, a bathroom & the funny old cats.

Now we're free again it's great to start meeting missed friends & family & reacquainting ourselves with our lovely local area, as best we can in these different times!

Huge thanks go to those who've stored our worldly goods whilst we've been away, looked after our cats & helped us settle back in...you know who you are. We are so grateful & couldn't have done it without your help & support. 😘

Looking forward to sharing stories with more of you soon. 😍🤗😍

It's with a heavy heart I bring you this update. Our beloved campervan, Scooby was stolen last night, in the early hours...
30/08/2020

It's with a heavy heart I bring you this update.

Our beloved campervan, Scooby was stolen last night, in the early hours, from right outside our house!!! 😠🤬😤

Police have been informed. We're insured & luckily all personal belongings had been emptied after our year away. ( I hadn't cleaned it though, so still full of sand & grime!!! Ha!)

Others with campervans wherever you are, please be vigilant!

What a lovely homecoming!!!! 😟

So we're home 🏡! It's all a very weird but thanks to dear friends for making our homecoming bearable & wonderful so far....
20/08/2020

So we're home 🏡! It's all a very weird but thanks to dear friends for making our homecoming bearable & wonderful so far.

The cats are resuming positions already!

Can't wait to see everyone when we've decontaminated! 😷

We're coming home!We've finally succumbed to pressure by the kids to get back home, so we've booked the Chunnel & will b...
16/08/2020

We're coming home!

We've finally succumbed to pressure by the kids to get back home, so we've booked the Chunnel & will be back next week! We'll have to quarantine but that's no surprise.

Meanwhile, we've been moving up through a hot & sticky France this last week, from the beautiful Valle D'Aspe, Lescun & saying goodbye to the Pyrenees, up to the River Lot, a surprise cosmic alignment of friends just up the road & more paragliding, stargazing, a belated saucepan birthday cake, kayaking & generally making the most of our last days of freedom.

It's going to be a shock to the system getting back to home life but we know how lucky we are & will cherish this adventure for a long time to come.

See you all soon (well, from behind glass or on zoom!!!!)

Last week saw more glorious Pyrenean mountains, valleys, cols, pastures, cows, forests, lakes, rivers & paragliding galo...
10/08/2020

Last week saw more glorious Pyrenean mountains, valleys, cols, pastures, cows, forests, lakes, rivers & paragliding galore!

The Valle de Louren was a great place to celebrate Mia's 13th with some SUP, kayaking, pizza & party in our riverside wild camp spot. Will had some epic paragliding too (not allowed on Mia's bday tho!)

We drove via Lourdes (for a bit of spiritual help) & the engine light on the van, which had mysteriously come on the day before, went off & we haven't seen it since. A minor miracle!

We meandered up & down incredible historic Tour de France routes (glad I didn't have to cycle them!) & we're now in the Valle de Aspe & another stunning flying site.

Not sure how much flying is going to be had as the weather is changeable, hot, sticky & stormy! Even the sheep are finding the heat too much!

The storm last night nearly blew us off the top of the mountain (lost our pink washing up bowl!) so we're in the valley, by the river tonight!

Hope you're all staying cool. ☀️

After some fantastic weather & paragliding at Castejon De Sos, we reluctantly decided to head over into France (seeing a...
02/08/2020

After some fantastic weather & paragliding at Castejon De Sos, we reluctantly decided to head over into France (seeing as Catalonia & Aragon had become Covid hotspots since our arrival!!!!) The drive was breathtaking, along valleys & over passes.

First stop was Bagneres de Luchon, another flying spot. However, due to the weather (we've had some very hot days followed by incredible lightning shows) & other factors, Will didn't fly but instead, we did a day hike, from our amazing wild camp spot, the Hospice de France, up to a mountain lake at 2400m! A great achievement for us all, especially as we've only been wearing flip flops for the past 6 months!

After recovering, we made our way to another stunning, out of the way, paragliding place with a quaint village, forested mountains & stream to cool off in. Luckily, we are still being welcomed everywhere we go, including by the local donkeys!

Next week sees Mia turning 13, so plans are underway for a spot of shopping & adventures in another beautiful Pyrenean valley. Of course, she'd prefer to be celebrating with her friends after being on the road for over a year, but she knows she's not the only one in this strange situation! She'll have to make do with us 3 for a while longer me thinks!!!

Take care everyone. X

So from the mountains just north of Madrid we travelled swiftly up to the Spainish Pyrenees, passing hot plains & more m...
26/07/2020

So from the mountains just north of Madrid we travelled swiftly up to the Spainish Pyrenees, passing hot plains & more mountains.

We spent a lovely few days on the Serra de Montsec in the foothills of the Pyrenees where Will had some lovely flights whilst the girls & I built dens, studied Spanish, enjoyed the wild flowers & crafted. By night the sky was incredible & we marvelled at the milky way, shooting stars & the comet Neowise, along with keen stargazers. Unfortunately, the night we chose to sleep outside ended in disaster as we got pelted by heavy rain at midnight, resulting in a massive thunderstorm overhead & an abandoned sleep out! The girls were happy that at least we'd got to eat all the midnight snacks in time!

Found an amazing turquoise lake to wash in & canyon to kayak up before moving further north.

We're now at Castejon De Sos, another paragliding mecca, surrounded by mountains, rivers & forests. There's an outdoor pool for us girls to cool off in whilst Will paragliders amongst these majestic snow capped peaks (well not quite that high!)

We're staying well clear of hotspot Barcelona, surrounding cities & people in general as much as possible, but the system here seems quick acting to contain outbreaks & has learnt a lot, so fingers X it succeeds.

France in a few days we think...

Hasta luego amigos! ☺️

We're loving this area so much, we've stayed longer! More mountain walks, pools, river walking, paragliding & sunsets. W...
19/07/2020

We're loving this area so much, we've stayed longer! More mountain walks, pools, river walking, paragliding & sunsets. Will flew nearly 50km one day, landing just outside the lovely town of Avila. The girls & I have become familiar navigating the roads & retrieving him from farmers fields!

There seems to be good Covid 19 awareness & caution here. Most people wearing face masks (rather than using them as neck warmers as in Morocco!) hand sanitizers, social distancing, queues for shops etc which is great.

We're now in the nearby Sierra de Bejar, with more paragliding (another competition!!!) mountains & cow bells! Definately moving on today towards more remote locations in the Pyrenees...via ski resorts (as these are the coolest places to camp plus the bonus of paragliding!) & staying clear of new Covid hotspots in Catalonia!

We are coming home one day, honest! 😉

It's been a week of travelling, vino drinking, Spanish food, searching for cool camp spots (it got up to 44°C one day 🥵!...
12/07/2020

It's been a week of travelling, vino drinking, Spanish food, searching for cool camp spots (it got up to 44°C one day 🥵!), a monastery high up a hill was a very welcome break, swimming in rivers & paragliding! We're now in the beautiful Gredos National Park, south west of Madrid. We were surprised to find the Spanish National Paragliding competition taking place at Piedrahita on arrival (Will swears he didn't know!!!????) & so have enjoyed watching over 150 pilots take to the air. Will has done his own flying, as he's obviously far too good to join a comp!
Social distancing, masks & hand washing seem to be very evident & respected everywhere we've been so far in Spain, which is great. We're being as careful as we can, however, we're now at a campsite for 2 nights so we can shower, do laundry & spread out to celebrate Florence's 10th birthday today!
Next week we'll journey north to the Pyrenees.
Sending love & sunshine to all ☀️

We've made it!After a long day of waiting & queuing, along with hundreds of other European nationals/joint nationals, we...
07/07/2020

We've made it!
After a long day of waiting & queuing, along with hundreds of other European nationals/joint nationals, we finally touched down on Spanish soil last night. We celebrated with a delicious bottle of vino tinto overlooking the rock of Gibraltar 🍷😁
Hola Espana! 🇪🇦

Goodbye Africa!Tomorrow we set sail for Europe! We've had a an unplanned 5 months here in Morocco due to Covid19 & I don...
05/07/2020

Goodbye Africa!

Tomorrow we set sail for Europe!

We've had a an unplanned 5 months here in Morocco due to Covid19 & I don't think we could have asked for a better place to have been stranded.

On top of all the amazing delights Morocco has to offer the traveller, we've experienced incredible kindness by strangers, locals who became friends & fellow travellers and were generally made to feel right at home during these strange & difficult times.

We've all learnt a lot during our extended time here, as it's the case for many people in lockdown around the world. Here are some of mine:
I've learnt to bake cakes in saucepans, gut fish, cook a tasty tagine, appreciate dogs, speak better French, that time is precious, the power of waves, to hold a handstand, love podcasts, happiness can be found in the simplest of things, water is precious AND plastic in our oceans & rivers is a curse...

Finally, I'm so grateful for my privileged position in life. SO many are not as fortunate and work hard & relentlessly for little.

These memories we'll cherish & take with us. Shukran Morocco. 🙏

Photos are from our last week travelling north through some greener & fertile landscapes. We're now camped on the Med coast next to Tangier Med, after being moved on politely by the police from a wild camp spot!

So Europe tomorrow! Eeekkkkk! Who knows what the next phase of our journey will bring and we go forward with an open mind & mixed emotions but happy to be homeward bound.

Espana here we come! 👋

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