About Us

Travel has always been a passion for us. When the children were young we loved nothing more than travelling through the scenic routes of France in our VW Trident Camper Van. Visiting vineyards and chateaux, kayaking down rivers and indulging in the French cuisine.

World Tour 2005

In 2005 our wanderlust led us on a 3-month trip to explore Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Hiring campers along the way. This really instilled the travel bug in our children, Naomi & Hamish, who now grown up continue to travel at every opportunity. Check out our blog post about the trip.

Canada & USA

With family in Canada and USA these are countries we visit often. Joanne enjoyed a fabulous 60^th birthday celebration on the banks of a lake in Alqonquin National Park in Canada. Tony worked as a bel hop in New York when he was a student and has visited 25 states, Including big wall climbing in Yosemite valley! We have completed marathons in Chicago & Toronto and had a visit to Disneyland when the children were young.

Africa

After Tony’s success at the Cape town Ultra Marathon we enjoyed some travel around South Africa including a safari in Kruger National Park and a trip to Victoria Falls with an invigorating swim in the devils pool. Also crossing over in to Zambia in process. We also enjoyed a great trip to Marrakesh, hiring a car, which apparently nobody does there to explore the Atlas mountains.

Asia

As well as the family trip to Hong Kong, Tony’s Everest Expedition took him to Tibet and Nepal. Joanne had a Mother and daughter trip to Singapore, Bali and Gilli T. Our first trip to India was to Goa in 2023. It happened by accident. We were just looking for a short break in the sun after Christmas and had planned to go to the Canaries but booking last minute meant accommodation was a problem. We stumbled upon a great deal to Goa and thought why not? We always say to keep an open mind when it comes to travelling and be spontaneous. I turned out to be a fabulous trip and somewhere we will return to. We loved the challenge of travelling from place to place on the local buses, watching the conductor hanging off the side of the bus as more and more people were piled in. We even got to teach Nordic walking on the beach when we came across the Purple Fest disability conference and taught a young deaf / blind girl to use the poles.

UK & Ireland

With Tony being Irish and Joanne British we have travelled extensively through both countries.

Joanne’s first experience of van life was a trip to Scotland in a bright yellow VW classic camper with her parents and sister when she was just 11. As a child all the family holidays were in the UK visiting castles, cathedrals and eating sandy sandwiches on the beach. The one and only childhood plane journey was to Jersey. More exotic trips came when she was a student nurse visiting Crete, & Corfu to enjoy the party life!

Tony’s childhood holidays were to Courtown in county Wexford. As a teenager he would venture to Scotland and Chamonix to pursue his passion for climbing. Climbing his first 4000 meter peak in the Ecrins just turned 17! On one occasion losing his passport and tickets, making his way home by hitch hiking. His parents were unaware until he arrived back in the kitchen!

Together we have travelled to every corner of the UK and Ireland. Sometimes in a camper, sometimes by train or car staying in a tent, Airbnb hotel or with friends and family. Some of Tonys weekend climbing trips included night trains sleeping in bus stops from Sheffield to North Wales and Fortwilliam. Whatever it took to get out climbing.

Europe

Apart from our campervan trips to France with the children we have visited many other countries in Europe.

Joanne’s work as a haemophilia nurse took her to conferences in Copenhagen, Lisbon and Prague. At 18 she travelled with her mum and 2 aunts to the Oberammergau Passion play in Germany and then onto Austria. A coach trip with her sister took them through France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. She enjoyed a walking trip to the Amalfi coast in Italy, completing the Walk of the Gods and a walk up Vesuvius.

Tony’s solo European trips were always about climbing so the Alps were his playground in France, Italy, and Switzerland. Chamonix has long been a favourite destination and it was where we had our first holiday together. As an IT consultant his work took him the Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands

Together we have had several trips to Italy, enjoying our honeymoon in Florence, ski trips with friends and a driving tour with the children covering from Florence, Venice, Naples, and Rome. When we trained as Nordic walking Master trainers we had our first experience of Eastern Europe, driving from Poland to the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. A wonderful trip giving us the urge to explore more of this area in the future. We had a fabulous time when we sailed around the Greek Islands with friends who were Master Yachts people, learning from them how to pull up and let down the sails, throw the fenders over the side and Joanne became an expert at pouring the G &Ts! More about that in our blog post.

Our first trip to Scandinavia was in August 2024. Tony had been asked to run a workshop in Copenhagen so rather than just flying we decided to take the opportunity to take the demountable and spend 5 weeks first driving through the UK, France, Belgium and Germany to Copenhagen before spending sometime exploring Sweden and Norway. Check out our Instagram page to see how we got on.