One Year On

Well it is one year since we retired and started to travel, so would we do it again – Absolutely! Obviously we lost Treacle in 2023 but we have to move forward with fond memories of her rather than heavy hearts over her departure, she lived a wonderful life and we thank her for all the joy and fun she brought us.

2023 has been without question the most enjoyable, eye-opening and rewarding year we have spent together. We have enjoyed more time with each other, met so many amazing people and seen some interesting and beautiful places but undoubtedly by far the most memorable and rewarding has been the countless doggie cuddles we have received from all our dog sit adventures.

This months post comes from the sunny Canary Isles as we relax and recharge after an incredible year and prepare for our epic American Adventure that is just around the corner. 2024 is already filled with exciting adventures and dog sit bookings and we look forward to seeing some of our new doggie friends and their owners again soon.

Now that we’re one year on I thought I would look back on some of the decisions and plans we made prior to setting off and evaluate if we got them right or wrong.

Let’s start with the campervan that has travelled the UK with us all year. We originally installed a sink and running water as we thought we would need a minimum of fresh drinking water wherever we found ourselves. The reality is that everywhere we have stayed in the van has provided fresh drinking water, this coupled with our ‘water2go’ filtered water bottles means we removed the sink in exchange for additional storage space half way through the year.

As previously mentioned we now have an electrical hookup point installed (thanks Brian for the assistance) so we have extended our range of cooking appliances (thanks Lin for the gift) and are now much more able to whip up snacks and meals when required – we still need to keep an eye on our waistlines though.

Clothing is another area we spent a lot of time researching and our extensive range of Merino wool garments and our insulated jackets are proving to be very good investments. We have added wellington boots to the list as we do a lot of dog walking as you can imagine and the UK weather has seen its fair share of downpours this last year.

The technology we brought with us has worked well so far and our online security is helping to protect our finances, however we are mindful that trouble can be around any corner and so a large dollop of finger crossing is also called for. If/when something goes wrong we’ll just have to work through it, no-one is 100% safe from scammers and thieves.

Finally we would like to say thank you to everyone who has followed our travels this last year, thank you to those who have posted replies and those who simply like to know what we are up to. 2024 sees us travelling further abroad and exploring new worlds and civilisations, to boldly go…

To be continued.