The Adventures of Cat, Adam, Eddie + Baby Sam
All things come to an end, and we made it back home. Our compact self converted camper van was an incredible home for 3 months and 2 days. We'd driven 7314 miles Visited 16 countries Stayed with 6 groups of friends & family Spent 10 nights on campsites 3 nights in Hotels Taken 8 ferries … Continue reading End of the Trip
Team Luxembourg were heading to the UK for half term, and so were we. Small stop at Duty free to maximise the use of our allowance on the way home. Small moan, we've all head of the post Brexit border issues, and we saw it here. Passport check to get into UK took so long … Continue reading Back to the UK
Pushing our late night drive a little too far this time, we woke up in a slightly dodgy car park in modern Pompeii with our sites set on the winding mountain roads of the Amalfi peninsula. Shortly after setting off we were very glad we hadn't tried this in the dark! Twisty, busy & beautiful! … Continue reading Italy- Amalfi Coast
Trusting in the power of google, we'd spotted something on google maps which sounded interesting... The Sunken City of Ancient Epidaurus. Now, City is a bit of an exaggeration, but the sunken roman villa under ~1m of clear blue sea, now inhabited by colourful fish and a million spiky sea urchins was certainly worth the … Continue reading Greece – Peleponese
The lure of a car free island and a treat night away from the van in a Hotel led us to Hydra. A 30 minute ferry took us to the beautiful port town. We resisted the offers of Donkeys to carry our bags as we went in search of a hotel for the night. Once … Continue reading Greece – Hydra
A bonus country from our original plan, but we’d heard from lots of different people that this was not one to miss. To make the most of our planned (yes, we occasionally have a plan) 2 days in Montenegro, we left the campsite early to jump across the border and gain more stamps for Sammy’s … Continue reading Montenegro
We left early from Ston along the awesome coastal road to Dubrovnik, Admiring it from above as we passed it to stay at camping Kate, where we bagged a pitch and got ready to go to town. We caught the water taxi from Mlini pier- an interesting experience, surprisingly there are still derelict buildings along … Continue reading Croatia – Dubrovnik
Finally time to leave our campsite, time to head to a Croatian island. We chose Mljet, home to Mljet national park and a host of unspoiled beaches. Driving along the coast of Croatia is an event in itself. The new motorway network is ace, but the real gems are on the smaller roads. We stopped … Continue reading Croatia – Mljet Island
Someone had a birthday.... We started out at a very pretty van spot, although it may have been a service station.... We then treated ourselves to an actual campsite near Trogir, Before Climbing to the top of a castle in Cat's new birthday dress (haggled from a shop in the way there) We stopped off … Continue reading Cat’s birthday – Trogir, Croatia
Now to get to the part of Croatia we were expecting, the Dalmatian Coast! We’ve been to Istria before on a previous van venture so decided to skip past that peninsula (highlyreccomend still!) The highway down to the coast was so incredibly that Cat, Eddie & Sammy all slept through the drive. Switchback motorway, Rain … Continue reading Croatia – Nin & Zadar
Plitvice Lakes Enough cities, time to escape! Plitvice Lakes national park - Now this is how to build boardwalk, well done Croatia! I’ve never walked on as much boardwalk anywhere, 22km through the park, many many waterfalls on 16 lakes! Also impressive was the effort from Eddie to walk about 9km! Boardwalks, paths, trees and … Continue reading Croatia – Hills
Time to hit one of the main goal countries on our very loose Euro trip plan! Time to leave the Shengen travel zone and fill Sam’s passport with stamps! First stop - Zagreb.Maybe a bit close to our last city wander, but hey-ho, we were expecing some slighlty different local food and sights to explore. … Continue reading Croatia – Zagreb
Time to let the van do some km with all 4 of us in it! Much as we do love Austria, we had our sights set on southern climes, so it was just a pass through this time. But as one of your famous film stars says, "I'll be back" The quality of Austrian playgrounds … Continue reading Austria: Travel and Thunder
Overnight camping on the ramparts. That is the fancy way of desribing the car park we slept in after a late night arrival in the land of Orange, bikes, questionable cakes & windmills. We could also see a windmill though, so it was a nice place. Morning excersise: Eddie +1 cycle a lap of the … Continue reading The Netherlands
We Came We Saw Eddie did a wee at the side of the road We Crossed the border into Belgium Can't really say more than that on this one...
We thought it was worth a little introduction to our home, as we are both pretty proud of this creation. Meet the Cadavan. It started life as a minibus before we got hold of it in 2019 and began our conversion. We made just a couple of modifications: Stripped, insulated, solar panel added, leisure batteries … Continue reading Home is where you park it
Time to resurrect the blog! Februrary 2022 saw the Family expanded with the arrival of Baby Samuel! Snug as a bug in a rug Amongst the sleepless nights of getting used to being a family of 4, a plan was developed… We enjoyed our last Parental Leave adventure so much, of course we would do … Continue reading Round 2
Upgraded bath on return home! Impossible to summarise. We will remember this trip forever, and always be thankful that we were able to spend so much time together as a new family.
Preparing for our return ferry to North Island, we cleaned ourselves up with a swim in Richmond, fed ourselves with Pie and Icecream and parked up in Renwick to finish with a classic Malbrough experience - walking between vineyard cellar doors. We found a small man & wife 5,500 vine winery specialising in our new … Continue reading Marlborough Wine Country
We woke up ontop of Takaka Hill, with great views over the flats and sea towards Nelson. We set off for Te Waikoropupu Springs and stumbled across an extra gem whilst stopping off our recycling. Labrynth Rocks Park. Completely unadvertised, apart from some hand painted signs at the side of the road, this little park … Continue reading Golden Bay
We woke up freezing! The clear sky had dropped the temperature in the valley, and the van to around 0°C! Ice on the grass and windows. Happily, the sleeping bags / duvets were warm enough for the three of us snuggled in the bed. Amazingly for a place with 200 days of rain a year, … Continue reading Milford Sound
This national park is actually quite hard to visit, as there aren't really and roads through it... it's a wild mountain land taking up the south west of South Island. You either boat, walk for days, or get fleeting glimpses of the wilderness from a few openings. Our first experience of this wilderness (and unrivalled … Continue reading Fjordland National Park
We drove the Southern Senic Route south from Dunedin to Nugget Point, where again we were treated to seeing Seals! As well as some cool rocks and a lighthouse. Yummm Nuggets #1 tourist spot in this part of the world is Slope point, the southernmost point of mainland New Zealand! Token photo with a sign … Continue reading Southland
By some miracle, we had arrived in Dunedin on exactly the right day! Paul was working away, but Jenny was free to give us a great tour of the area inc. Pub lunch. We wandered around a few picturesque beaches and up over staggering cliffs. Staying in an actual house brought many great benefits! Hot … Continue reading Dunedin
We did eventually tear ourselves away from the coast the next morning, stocked up on trekking snacks and headed to Arthur's pass, the route across the mountains in the middle of South Island from Greymouth to Christchurch. We stopped at the village of Arthur's pass and settled on plans for the afternoon: it was too … Continue reading Arthur’s Pass
No, we hadn't heard of it either, but after reading about it in the Bushline hut, it sounded fun! It's the northern west coast of South Island, the kind of place where "last fuel for 100km" signs are standard sights. Cape Foulwind - actually a nice place! Captain Cook came across this area in a … Continue reading Paparoa National Park
We had found ourselves a riverside campsite with mountain views for cheese dream breakfast with many Eddie Wiggles. We then headed to Nelson, and found there were many exciting things to do! We opted for cycling part of the Great Taste Trail. Basically a cycle path taking you past many breweries, vineyards and cafes. Sounds … Continue reading Nelson – Rest day
As the home of craft beer in NZ, we couldn't really miss this. We snagged a free camping spot at Evan's Bay Marina, got our laundry done, and went exploring! The museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongerewa was a great use of a rainy afternoon! Filled with Mauri stories, legends and artefacts, plus some … Continue reading Wellington
You know it's going to be a good day when your camper neighbour offers you free avocados. Whakarewarewa living Maori villiage is where we chose to get our dose of geysers, bubbling mud and Maori culture, and not just because they use the hot pools in the village to cook you a hot dinner! We … Continue reading Hot ‘n Steamy in Rotorua
After a long walk, we opted for shorter one today! We settled for two hours wandering around the Karangahake gorge historical area: a combination of big gorges and old gold & silver mine ruins & tunnels. Lots of chances to play in tunnels and excite Eddie with Headtorches. Next, thanks to the Marple Girls, we … Continue reading Karangahake gorge & Hobbiton
Things are really on the up now! Eddie slept well, so of course so did we, and then Cat triumphantly popped a spot on his bottom that had been the source of much grumpiness leading to a much happier Eddie and a great day! It was mostly travelling and van faff, as we headed south, … Continue reading Far North to Coromandel
Yes it really is called the far north, Far North District Council etc... Despite a shocking night's sleep (thanks Eddie) we got up at a decent time to head to 'the far north'. We made it to Te Paki giant sand dunes in time for a spot of lunch, hired a boogie board and trekked … Continue reading The Far North – Northland
After camping on the middle of nowhere we got to Pahia (pronounced pie here. Sadly, we did not get pie, here....) early and booked ourselves a boat tour. We rejected the sailing options for something more Eddie friendly and set off in a good sized boat to look for dolphins and whales and explore the … Continue reading Bay of Islands – Northland
We got up at a good time to start our tramp across the head, and unfortunately the promising sunshine of early morning soon vanished and we found ourselves inside a cloud. We pressed on nonetheless through some spectacular and tropical looking (if decidedly temperate feeling) forest to dramatic peaks, convincing ourselves that it would soon … Continue reading Te Whara Tramp – Northland
We continued up the coast to Waipu coastal track and headed out to see the Pancake rocks- a lovely path, although the only way we knew we were at the right rocks was by looking at Google, as there was a whole coastline of layered 'pancake' rocks. We had some snacks in a little cove … Continue reading Waipu – Northland
We said goodbye to Pete and Di and started driving north. First stop, Goat Island Marine Reserve for some top quality snorkelling. We missed the rays sadly, but both of us saw plenty of massive multicoloured fish (Red Kites were one type, and Goat fish, and we've no idea what the others were because we … Continue reading Goat Island – Northland
30th September Final short flight of our outward journey ended with unpacking half our bags to drag out the tent for inspection! NZ takes their biosecurity very seriously, with signs, dogs and scanners everywhere! A quick hop in our rental car landed us at Pete, Diana, Rebi, Holly & Harry's house (Holly & Harry may … Continue reading Auckland
When there was an offer of a 24hr layover in Fiji, who could say no? What a place for a stopover. It was needed after a 10hr flight in small seats with no extra baby space (I though Fijians were supposed to be big people, so why small seats Fiji air?) The first thing that … Continue reading Fiji
24th September Relieved, we finally dropped off our excessive baggage and went for a wander along the river into town as far the iconic boat on skyscrapers that is Marina Bay Sands Hotel. We got heaps of comments on Eddie in his baby backpack, maybe there aren't big round here? Note to selves- open baby … Continue reading Singapore
With just about as much stuff as we can carry, it's time to leave. 2 and a bit months of adventure awaits, see you all in December!
On the 2nd March 2019, Edward arrived on the scene. Now with a new baby, comes many new challenges, but also new opportunities. We now have a 3rd person to share our adventures with. So over the sleep deprived first few months of Parenthood, we devised a plan.We were always going to split the maternity … Continue reading Shared Parental Leave
Parenting Responsibly 