Ometepe

We took a ferry to cross from the port at San Jorge to Ometepe Island. This place is pretty phenomenal; it's an island made of two volcanoes, Conception, an active volcano, and Maderas, a dormant one. Ometepe is the second largest freshwater lake in Latin America (after Lake Titicaca), and the lake is on average... Continue Reading →

Four Days in El Salvador

The drive from Honduras to El Salvador goes via Guatemala due to road and border limitations. That made it a fairly big drive day to get from Copán Ruinas to Suchitoto next to Lake Suchitlan in the heart of El Salvador. With a reasonably smooth journey we made it to Suchitoto in time for lunch... Continue Reading →

New Year in Guatemala and Honduras

It's been a while since I travelled somewhere new and exotic, which makes this month even more special in some ways. Over the next month I am travelling through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The major reason for me choosing this G Adventures trip is twofold, I really wanted to travel through... Continue Reading →

Here it is… Cairngorms Expedition

It's going to be difficult to describe the experience on the Cairngorms traverse but to sum it up in a word... Brutal. I didn't make it to the end of the traverse, having decided to head to the road at Braemar in light of a couple of severe weather warnings and having the waterproofing of... Continue Reading →

ESA Astronaut update

As I sit in Inverness, taking a break from my final preparations for the expedition, which I embark upon tonight, I thought I had better post the latest update on my astronaut journey. Sadly I didn't make it through to Round 3 in Cologne. I recently received the rejection email along with all of the... Continue Reading →

Training update – late January

I'm really getting into this now. Late January is off to a flying start! On the 16th I headed to Brecon Beacons solo to hike the horseshoe with an expedition backpack. I didn't leave super early, so it was a fairly "relaxed" day. Hit the trail at noon and once again headed up the gazillion... Continue Reading →

Training update – early January

January is off to a flying start. My swim buddy Lance is raising money for St Mungo's charity by swimming the distance of the channel crossing (22 miles) in January. Despite needing to get extra time out hiking I want to swim with him to keep him company. To meet his target it means swimming... Continue Reading →

Training update – late December

Now things really get going!! I'm launching into phase 2 of my training and it's all about steps, hills and weight. I hit the stair master for a 10 minute blitz wearing a backpack to ease myself into it. Even without knowing about the backpack, the machine reckons I burned more than 100 calories -... Continue Reading →

Training update – Early December

I don't know about you, but watching other people "climb their own mountains" is one of the biggest sources of inspiration and motivation for me. Usually I am referring to "striving toward their own goals" but this time I really mean mountains. I watched 14 Peaks on Netflix and it was just mind-blowing. My brain... Continue Reading →

Training update – Late November

I started "late November" with pretty epic DOMS after checking whether I was fit enough to climb and then swim, in that order. Turns out that I can, but that doesn't mean I should! And then Couch to 5k (C25K) - Run 5.3 is a warm up then 20 minutes running.. a massive step up.... Continue Reading →

Training Update – Late October

I had an absolutely lovely day out on horseback with my friend Regan at a gorgeous stable called Cotswolds Riding at Jill Carenza Equestrian near the village of Stanton at the northern end of the Cotswolds. The scenery was spectacular, and we hacked through some lovely moorland and up to some gorgeous views across rolling... Continue Reading →

Helen Sharman at Aerospace Bristol

When I heard that Aerospace Bristol would be holding a Family Space Day on Monday 25th October, with Helen Sharman, the UK's first astronaut, giving a talk under the wings of concorde, I immediately booked a ticket. It was clearly a day aimed at kids and was at the beginning of half term, so any... Continue Reading →

Training update – Early October

First stop for my preparations for the icy Cairngorms expedition was to see my physiotherapist, Gemma, who had helped me with some ankle rehab in 2020. I hadn't mentioned, but I sprained my ankle pretty badly on a run one day without much warning, my ankle just felt tight for a minute and then.. "ping".... Continue Reading →

…And the next challenge

So. Home safe in England, but still buzzing from my first trip out of the UK in 2 years, I started to get itchy feet. I reached out to one of the most adventurous people I know, Katie Comer, tour guide for Dragoman overland adventures all over the world, who led my journey through Uzbekistan... Continue Reading →

ESA Astronaut selection day

My Hamburg astronaut selection day arrived. I bumped into some of the candidates in the hotel lobby and we introduced ourselves and then walked the 10 minutes to the test centre, not knowing what to expect. We arrived at the facility which is used by the German Air Force, which also hosts this initial round... Continue Reading →

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑