‘Not our first rodeo’ is one of Matt’s (current) favourite sayings, along with ‘barn door obvious’ and ‘what you need to remember is…’
He is right though, about this not being our first rodeo. Over the last few years we have been fortunate enough to explore a small part of the world previously – backpacking and by bike (not at the same time – cycling with a backpack on?! I can see the eyes rolling and he’s not even proof-read it yet).
Matt got his first real taste of adventure before we met, aged 18 on a trip to Australia and New Zealand before university. This was of course ahead of meeting me on his first day at uni (also his 19th birthday!).
We tried our best throughout our time at York to do mini adventures, even if it was only cycling to Selby or taking the bus to Castle Howard (!)
And after uni Matt taught English in Japan for a year (with a visit from me for Christmas and a meet up in Thailand).
Inter-railing in Europe with friends, and together followed, with the last big trip being our ‘honeymoon’ – three months travelling through India and Southeast Asia before living and working in New Zealand for three years, ahead of a two month trip ‘en route’ home through Central America.
In NZ we bought our first campervan, Carrie – and loved the freedom it gave us to explore at weekends and on domestic holidays.
It was a no brainer once we moved back to the UK (and did sensible things first like get jobs and buy a house) that we purchase a new van which has facilitated many a weekend trip around the UK and a fair few continental trips too.
The bike thing has also become more of a ‘thing’ over the last few years as Matt has worn me into submission by proving that holidaying by bike is a lot of fun. This has included time spent doing day cycling in Mallorca on a couple of occasions.
As well as our first big A to B ride in 2019 (just before our first round of IVF as it happens) – where we caught the ferry to Santander (Spain), cycled to Lyon (France) via the Pyrenees, making use of a range of B&Bs and hotels en route. This is where the penny dropped for me – do lots of cycling and see endless beautiful scenery, and reward yourself with lots of eating, drinking and sitting, during and at the end of each day. What’s not to like?
Covid not withstanding we’ve continued this with day cycling being a big feature of our trips to mainland Europe in the van (most recently summer 2022 where we cycled up and down a lot of French Alpine climbs).
In 2022 we thought it would be fun (and flat) to cycle the border of the Netherlands which we did in July and captured for posterity using moving media (not our first YouTube blogging rodeo please note). This trip was absolutely brilliant – in so many ways. Mainly the eating if the video is anything to go by.
So not our first rodeo… but this time is a little different. After all, hotels won’t be a nightly occurrence and we don’t have the comfort of the van in tow. I’m also not sure that the calorific intake we are capable of is sustainable (financially or for health reasons). But we will have our legs, our wheels and each other for company – what can go wrong?
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