The end of the begining

We are currently sitting in our hostel in Munich, just off the flight that will see us start our 7 month odyssey through Europe, Egypt and the USA. And now we can finally take a deep breath from the insane last month we've had in the UK.

Rewind 3 weeks and we went down to Horton-on-Ribblesdale to tackle the 3 Peaks of Yorkshire. We were there with Rach’s cousin Carrie who is doing the 3 peaks of Britain and wanted a training run and some company.

The hike was 26 miles including 3 peaks, all around 700 m high each.

There was fog


There was bog

The challenge is to complete the route in under 12 hours but being the finely tuned athletes (FTA’s) that we are we got it done in 10hr 40min, stoked.

There were a few hiccups along the way, not to metion the fact that we had no accommodation when we got back from the hike as the hostel ‘misplaced’ our 2nd nights booking. Ah well Carrie laid down the law and got us a tent from one of the bar staff (which was much preferable to the plastic sheeted, snore city of a 16 bed dorm).

Rachel (small bladder shots)

The weekend that followed the Yorkshire 3 peaks and we had booked in a weekend of mountain biking with Mark and Sylvia (kiwi FTA’s from Edinburgh). So we packed up there car and went to the Scottish Borders to tackle 2 of the 7 Stanes mountain bike parks.

The trip was pretty cool, no major injuries (surprising since mark took a wee detour off the track in the Forest of Ae).

Come on Rach, Sylvia can do it, so can you.

It’s not what it looks like.

Finally on our last weekend before our big trip we took a mini break down to London as our first trip was not nearly long enough.

We visited the Natural History Museum,

Got lost on our way to the Design Museum

Saw a boat go under Tower Bridge, (note the ‘gherkin’ on the right)

Caught the Lion King on stage, which was AWESOME!!! (sorry no photos of the performance allowed), and yes Pam I knew all the words

Took in a street act, which was also awesome (but not capital letters awesome)

The audience member holding his arms out was freaked. He also jumped over 5 kids standing in a row but was too quick for me to get a good shot.

Rachel being arty

Between all this Rachel turned 26, and we had a leaving (but maybe coming back) party.

Birthday girl

Who said we had no friends.

Ps. Yes Rachel only owns one party dress.