Somehow we're almost half way through January already (!!), but I wanted to start this post by saying Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful break over the holiday season and got to spend time with the people you love. I was lucky to spend a very unique Christmas in Glasgow with my family and a romantic New Years with Brett in a delightful shepherd's hut in Devon.
It's hard to believe that 2023 is already over – it feels like only yesterday we were sitting down and drafting our adventure goals for 2023! As we watched the clock tick down the minutes towards the new year, Brett and I sat down at the small table in the shepherd's hut and came up with some new adventure goals for 2024. But first, we wanted to reflect on this year's adventures...
2023 goals
Go on another multi-day camping trip ✓
Our big trip of the year was a multi-day car camping trip in California in mid-November! The first blog post from that trip, about our time in Death Valley, was published in December. More will be coming soon!
Visit a new country together ✓
This might have been cheating, as we already knew we'd be visiting Germany when we drafted our 2023 goals! In early January, we took the train down to Aachen, a small German city near the Dutch border. Highlights of our one-night stay included visiting the Carolus Thermen spa, wandering around the city centre, and exploring craft stores (including a large model train store!).
Move in together in Exeter ✓
After 900 days living apart, Brett and I moved back in together in September! It's only for a few months, it's been a dream to have our own space again and to spend lots of time together.
Go on more micro-adventures ✓
Since moving back in together in Exeter, we've been using the weekends to go on lots of micro-adventures. Some highlights include hiking from Looe to Plymouth, camping on Dartmoor with friends from uni, and cycling from Okehampton to Lydford Gorge.
Go skinny dipping again ✓
Technically we went skinny dipping at the Wild Willy's Hot Springs in California! We were surprised to have the whole place to ourselves – a common theme for our trip (gotta love travelling in the off-seasons!).
Visit a city in the UK neither of us have been to before ✓
We didn't get around to visiting a new city in the UK, but we did visit a new city in France! Over the summer, we spent two nights in Lyon. We enjoyed wandering around the old city centre and riding bikes along the river to the Parc de la Tête d'Or.
We didn't manage to complete two of our 2023 goals: doing a Via Feratta and learning how to use an enlarger to make prints of our film photos. But luckily, these can be carried forward to this year's adventure goals!
2024 adventure goals
And now some new goals for the upcoming year!
Go camping in a new country
Complete at least one new section of the South West Coast Path
Explore a city in Germany (e.g. Hamburg or Berlin?)
Visit a new Christmas market (Bath, Strasbourg or Vienna?)
Visit the Alps
Do another chill getaway vacation (to actually relax for once!)
Do a multi-night bikepacking trip
Train more consistently (e.g. don't go a month without aerial, running, climbing, gym etc)
Write a postcard to each other for each new city we visit
Thanks, as always, for reading. Here's to another year full of adventures! ♥
