Travels with Tuna

Travels with Tuna

Vanlife Moments

Recollections from past trips, notes from current ones and vanlife moments that have stayed with me as I (and Tuna!) continue to travel around the UK and Europe, climbing, diving, exploring - and underneath it all seeking that connection to the natural world that seems so easy to lose.

blue-butterfly-v1 — All the small things
2 weeks ago
This blog seems to have drifted unconsciously into ‘big things’ territory rather a lot. Politics, macroeconomics, climate breakdown. Important stuff of course but as someone in no position to affect any of those things also irrelevant in a way. So here's some small but still important things.
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lakeside-parkup-v1 — Vanlife realities
2 months ago
Vanlife is freedom! Freedom from responsibilities, freedom from work, freedom from the drudgery of modern life - emails, meetings, offices, concrete jungles. Freedom from decisions and mental exhaustion. Well... maybe not.
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france-1-v1 — Costa Blanca Revisited
2 months ago
As I write this from the roadside in England it's -1c. Even with the sun out it's bloody cold. I'm getting virtually no solar for the batteries, it's far too cold to go out climbing and Tuna is refusing to set paw outside. It's time to head back to Spain!
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GOPR2763_1578494701327_high-v1 — So long and thanks for all the fish
2 months ago
Pausing to reflect on my time scuba diving among coral reefs and the personal sense of loss as they disappear from the world
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P1080525-v1 — Opening the window
3 months ago
The story of a moment, Pico Gilbo in Picos de Europa national park, Spain.
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20240330_141836 — When your belayer says no
4 months ago
Why try harder, work harder, climb harder? Is it not enough to enjoy where we are? Do we always have to be pushing ourselves to something more?
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PXL_20230605_132518830 — Romania 2023 - Part two
4 months ago
Meeting guard dogs, snakes and mosquitos in the mountains of Romania, dropping into gorges and salt mines, reaching the Danube.
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PXL_20251109_213321793~2 — Van cat nightmares
4 months ago
It's not all sunshine and rainbows living in a van with a cat!
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PXL_20240402_104007520 — The moor the merrier?
1 year ago
Over 1 million acres of moorland in the uk - but is this a good thing? What is moorland and should we care?
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IMG-20241211-WA0007 — Rock climbing in Morocco
1 year ago
A quick summary of the climbing we managed on our first trip to Morocco
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horse-waterfall-3 — Romania 2023 - part one
2 years ago
Romania is a fantastic country for vanlife with amazing parkups available out in the middle of nature, fresh water from springs and so much to see
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monuments — Monumental Discoveries
2 years ago
The Bulgarians do like a monument, and they like them huge, concrete and on top of a very large hill!
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343673572_918494202689866_5016588986718168285_n — Bialowieza Forest
2 years ago
The first major stopping point on our Europe 2023 tour was Bialowieza forest in Poland. Situated right on the border with Belarus this protected area contains the largest number of European Bison anywhere in the wild, plus several wolf packs, elk and lynx.
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bobotev — Montenegro: a right old ecological state
2 years ago
Montenegro had declared itself the world's first ecological state in 1991 and the term "democratic, social and ecological state' was in its constitution the following year. But what does this mean? And has the country lived up to it?
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dog — Helen's house of hope
2 years ago
At the start of July 2023 we spent 2 weeks volunteering at Helen's house of hope, a dog shelter in north west Bulgaria. Our previous years Europe trip had included several weeks in Romania and we had been struck by the number of stray dogs roaming the streets.
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bear — Bear road
2 years ago
Stretching for 90km and reaching heights of over 2,000 metres, the Transfagarasan highway is the main road through the Fagaras mountains in Romania.
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P1100076 — Never mind the gap
2 years ago
Two days ago someone cut down the lone Sycamore tree at Sycamore gap in Hadrian's wall. You may have heard about it, or seen the usual rational and considered opinions on social media...
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