What an amazing day! We visited Uda Walawe national park near the central highlands and hired our own jeep (with driver) to show us around. It’s one of the world’s best places to see wild elephants, and the place did not disappoint.

The park was created in 1972 as a wildlife sanctuary and is an important habitat for Sri Lankan elephants. It wasn’t long before we spotted some of the beauties enjoying some of the trees at the side of the road. Turns out one of the pair was female, mid thirties and pregnant. She was enormous! Elephants gestation period is 22 months and the babies, when born, can weigh up to 150kg!! She moved on fairly quickly but the other girl did not want to move and we had to slowly edge round her in the jeep, which left me a bit closer to an elephants rear end than I would chose to be!!

Over the day we must have seen close to 50 elephants and a whole host of other animals – wild boar, lizards, water buffalo, sambar deer, horn bills, sea eagles, green bee-eaters, kingfishers, peacocks, and a load of other birds I don’t even know!

With the animals came the rain! A mega thunderstorm raged overhead for about half an hour, with huge lightning strikes and massive claps of thunder – luckily the jeep came with roll down sides so we managed to hide from the rain a bit!

It was such a great day – I’ll let the photos do the talking. Ooh, and we visited a tea factory on the way home. We were shown around by, probably, the most miserable man in Sri Lanka, but it was really cool to see the process from plant to packet.

If you know me well, you know it’s always snack time! Gone are the staple snacks of van life in Europe (peanut butter and jam on bread, as if you even needed to ask!) and here to stay is the wonderful local fruit!

There is a fruit shop just out on the main road, sandwiched between the buddha shrine and the people selling chickens and pigeons and a variety of other misfortunate birds. It’s super small and sells so many things; watermelons, passion fruits, mangoes, dragon fruit, pineapples, bananas, unidentifiable local fruits for which I’ve already forgotten the names. With tuk tuks and buses screaming and beeping thier way behind us, we selected our fruitful bounty to take home with us. I think we paid about three quid for a huge hoard.

And, I have to say it is delish! And it’s helping us get healthy. Win win!

🥝🍓🍒🍑🍑🍐🍎🍏🍇🍈🍉🍊🍋🍌🍍

Ever had a connection flight before? Me neither. And I’m not keen to do it again! We had a one hour layover in Kuwait before our final leg to Colombo, which at 1am didn’t seem so bad. Plenty of time to get off the plane, find the toilets and freshen up before boarding again. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Or so we thought.

The first plane was late taking off, queue slight panic wondering what time we were going to land. We asked the stewardess what time we would be landing local time and she informed us it would be midnight. Really? Because the time on the screens said the flight time was 5 hours, which would lead us to land just gone 1am, which is after the boarding time starts for the second flight and really doesn’t leave a whole deal of time to get that second plane, especially as we were sitting near to the back of the plane and you know how long people take to get their shit together to get off the plane. We asked another stewardess and explained our situation.

She said that just after we land we would be able to go and wait in business class to get off the plane first – phew! And she informed us that the airport was relatively small so we would have no problems. Major panics over until the end of the flight, and we managed to get towards the front of the plane (along with quite a few others who were in the same situation!) to get off first. Then we ran. As fast as you can after a long flight and with your hand baggage in tow but we ran. Skipping through the security, both flagging up on the monitors as we still had water in our bottles and I even had to get searched in a little back room. Argh!

One more little run to the boarding gate where they were making final calls, and we made it with 10 minutes to spare!!

Aaaand we made it to Sri Lanka, where it was H.U.M.I.D (Hello Monica hair). With two extra pieces of luggage in tow (we’ve brought stuff over for the charity we are visiting – more on that in later posts) we headed straight for the department of immigration to extend our tourist visas with an extra month (we want to stay 6 weeks and you only get 30 days online). After nearly being collared by someone trying to make a few bucks from us, we made it up to the right place in the offices and started the procedure, which we have heard can take all day.

Seems our luck was in. After getting a ticket from zone A, we went to zone B to hand in our forms and passports, then back to zone A again, then realised we had to wait in zone C to pay, then go back to zone D to wait for the bloody things…all a bit back and forth but we were in and out within about 1.5 hours. In my naivety I presumed there might be a taxi rank nearby…hahaha, no such thing. Shit. What do we do? Again, seems our luck was in – a man walking past commented on my badges on my bag and we asked him about where we could get a taxi. He said no problem, I’ll get you one and used his Uber app to hail us a cab. He even waited about 20 minutes with us to make sure the guy turned up! How nice.

We finally arrived to our accommodation an hour or so later, greeted with an ice cold towel and a cold drink! We made ourselves go to the shops to get some food and passed out about 7pm, sleeping for about 12 hours.

We’ve had a day or two chilling out visiting the local beach, eating the biggest plate of rice I’ve ever eaten, and making plans for the coming few weeks.

Sri Lanka – we have arrived!

Oops we did it again…except this time it was on a plane! We spent a mad few weeks at home seeing everyone and getting everything sorted for phase two of the Rooney adventures, and I am currently writing this sat in a lovely house in Sri Lanka!

It was always going to be, but the two week period we had back in the UK was rather manic. We had to sort the van out (unpack, clean, repack, sort tax and insurance blah, blah, blah…) and the lovely Rooney seniors are looking after it whilst we are away. We had to get our final instalments of a rabies jab. We visited all the family. We had friends over to our house. We went to see friends. Spent time with the doggo; my favourite Ruby Roo, who is getting a little old these days. Unpacked. Did some washing. Did some more washing. Did some more washing. Packed again and did so much life admin!

This trip is so different to the Europe road trip. For one, we don’t have the van and we will be travelling by planes, trains, buses, taxis, tuk tuks and our own two feet. There is a lot more to sort out at home (lots of adulting required!), like the house and making sure the tenants are behaving themselves, at home making sure we aren’t taking up too much space whilst we’re not there, and not hoarding things we no longer need; such a huge pile of stuff going to the charity shop! And we are going to be away for longer than four months. And no, we don’t know how long for! Would love to give you the answer you’ve all be waiting for but the truth is we don’t know. We have a set budget with us and once that runs out, we will come home, ensuring we still have some in the pot for sorting our lives out when we’re back in the UK. We have signed up to a volunteer network that allows you to ‘work’ for your accommodation and food in a variety of different business. Hotels, schools, animal sanctuaries…we’re hoping to add them all to our list, and hopefully make our trip last longer and more rich in experiences. I can’t wait to meet the locals and hopefully get some more skills under my belt. We’ve already been approached by someone looking for native English speakers to teach English in the middle of Sumatra – it wasn’t initially on our list but, hey, if I can visit there and do some work to earn my accommodation and food and learn more skills, I’m all over it.

With that in mind saying goodbye was really hard this time. I know we have things like skype and whats app, which makes keeping in touch easier but it doesn’t even compare to cuddles from your nephews and long chats with your best friends. I found the last few days leading up to leaving were really overwhelming and I didn’t really know how to deal with it, but somehow I made it through without too many tears and finally packed my bag (I might have left it until the day we left…).

And then we were off!! First stop, Sri Lanka!

Maaaan, I feel weak!! Before I went away for the summer I was training a lot at the studio (teaching and being a student) and I feel like I had a fair set of muscles on me. But now? I can safely say they are gone 😂 so long, farewell, auf wiedersehe n…

This afternoon I spent some time at the studio, after having a lovely lunch with the girls. I struggled to straddle mount into the hoop and could barely do one pull up! Was way harder than I thought it would be and it has dawned on me how little exercise I’ve done over the summer.

I mean, yes we have done endless hikes (hello legs and cardio) and some paddle boarding (sometimes more just floating) but nothing even comes close to the hard work of aerial training.

However, I am pleased I (just about) managed a shoulder mount on the pole and bossed out a meathook really easily on the hoop (this used to be one of my nemesis moves!).

So what if I had to cheat doing a front balance and so what if I pulled a muscle in my butt within about five minutes… I had a great time, and it has made me more determined to up my training game whilst we are away!

Operation abs is on…right after I finish the chocolate the mumma-in-law bought us.

We made it! After driving 5,847 miles over 109 days we are finally back in the UK.

We spent our last weekend staying with a friend in Belgium in a lovely little village called Manhay, in the Ardennes region. It’s a beaut.

Max lives in one end of a converted barn, and the owners have loads of land that they plant veggies on and use a plough horse called Billy to help harvest potatoes. The barn is built using eco methods such as using reeds for insulation and is fabulously rustic.

We visited a small brewery down the road and bought some locally brewed beer. We visited a friend’s 500 year old water mill to buy some flour and we got some water kefir grains from Max’s mum, who makes absolutely everything (from dried herbs to jams and everything in between!).

It was a lovely chilled end to our trip, or phase one as we are calling it!!

Now for two weeks of madness, catching up with family, doing washing, and packing again!!

Always nice for a bit of cooler weather but we weren’t quite prepared for a night of 6 degrees!!

We spent our last hot and sunny days in Istria, Croatia visiting lovely towns, swimming in the sea and having a good old rave up at Pula’s 2000 year old Roman amphitheatre (apparently the best preserved one of its kind). Then we headed up through Slovenia in a day, and then to Austria for the night where the rain started. And the symptoms of my cold started to appear. Damn those people at the concert!! First time around so many people for a long time and I managed to pick up a bug.

Still, didn’t let it stop us exploring and we went to a lovely little lake called Altsausee in the Salzkammergut region of Austria (kinda like it’s Lake District) and then onto Hallstatt, a cute little town, also round a lake, but with a very curious tourist attraction.

The ossuary or ‘bone house’ is a tiny little house where 1200 human skulls and assorted larger bones are held. It was common practice for the bones to removed from the graves in the cemetery outside due to overcrowding, and they were then painted with the person’s name and sometimes some other adornments, and placed in this room. The latest one was placed there in 1995. These days cremation is a lot more popular so this practice is less common but in theory is still practiced if you pop it in your will that you want to be placed there! It has to be at least 15 years after you die for your skull to be exhumed and treated and painted. Odd kinda place!

Next, we had always planned to go via Munich on our way home to see Ulf and co, but we ended up going a day earlier and spending two days there as we checked the weather and there was just rain, rain, rain. So rather than just be sat in the van all day we went to Munich early! Always nice to have friends with a lush apartment when it’s pissing it down outside! We spent Saturday night catching up over drinks, and spent most of Sunday on the sofa under a blanket watching TV. Sehr geil. Danke Ulf!

Heading off to the Schwarzwald, Black Forest, after that we went to stay on lake Titisee (tee-hee) and experienced our coldest night in the van so far! It was fakkin freezing I tell ya! When I checked the weather in the morning it said 6 degrees but feels like 4. Oooof. Definitely hat weather.

Still, was nice and sunny during the days so can’t complain! The actual town of Titisee is cute and we did a walk there and back. And we have come to our final camping spot a little further up the region at a place called Steinbach. Lots of lovely hikes around here – we did a short walk this morning and we are now chilling in the sun for our last afternoon and evening in the van!!

Tomorrow we go to Belgium to stay with a friend for the final few days of phase one. How time flies.

Oh, it makes me sad just to think about! I can’t believe we have just under two weeks left of living in our van.

The summer has been amazing in so many ways – we’ve had the freedom to hike, paddle and explore to our hearts content. It’s also been hard at times; we’ve been tired after sweat filled nights full of mosquitos, we’ve struggled up some gravelly mountain ‘roads’ and slept in some weird (and some wonderful!) places.

It’s been fun discussing future van plans, deciding what we would do again, what we definitely didn’t need and what we definitely would want (bug screen please!!).

I never thought I’d say I’d miss living in a space smaller than my bathroom with a man who is 6ft 6in. But there you go!

This afternoon we went to the most magical place, and possibly one of my favourite places of the trip so far.

We drove to another part of Risnjak National Park, right past the border with Slovenia, and parked up in our ‘camp’ for the night.

We took a stroll down a steep, steep hill and got to the bottom of a valley and along what looked to be like an old dried up riverbed and along to the source of the river Kupe (also Kolpa/Kolpe). It was beautiful.

Mist rising off the waters, and a quiet atmosphere that gave off this certain energy that I can’t explain. It was so nice.

We went for an obligatory dip even though the water is only 7 degrees! Bloody chilly! Super refreshing though. What is awesome about this river is that we have already paddled it, crossing from the Slovenian border to the Croatian border, and we have also been at the river mouth where it reached the sea (about half way down Croatia). And now we have been to its source.

On our way back we even saw a stoat! Twice! It was so cute, at first it ran away and hid under a tree stump but after being quiet for a while taking photos it appeared again and kinda hung around a bit until it scampered off again.

We have finished the day with a yummy stir fry to the distant sound of bears in the forest – better make sure we lock the van tight tonight!! 🐻

Today was a good day! We spent about seven hours walking in the forest up to a peak in Risnjak National Park.

It was preceded by two days of basically driving, driving, ferry, driving, driving…we spent those two days travelling from the south of Croatia to the north via a car ferry to avoid the border crossings with Bosnia and Herzegovina. After spending the first night and a very lazy day at Lake Peruca (a lake we have been to before but this time was the other end) we then drove again to Risnjak National Park. We knew the mountains were going to be cooler and we could get some walks in.

Arriving at our free camping spot we came across another British camper! I actually got way too excited. I could probably count the number of GB cars we’ve seen on my hands during our travels but we’ve not camped next to one since Slovenia. And the couple were absolutely lovely. They were from Scotland and it turns out they were doing a similar thing to us – they quit their jobs and went off adventuring in their van with no fixed timeframe! Nice to know we’re not the only ones!!

We even did a little book swap with them; you end up getting through so many books during van life!

Anyways, back to today. We started off by doing a two hour educational trail around the forest learning about the local flora and fauna (beech trees and bears!) Then we decided to go for the highest peak (obviously) which took us on an awesome five hour jaunt through the forest and up to a 1528m viewpoint across the national park, all the while with thunderstorms surrounding us but not quite getting us. Lovely.

Now, time for beer…