This time it’s only for 14 days rather than 14 months, but still, we enjoyed writing about our big trip so much that we thought we’d bring back the blog for a limited time only. Before we get started on our plans, it’s probably a good time to introduce the newest member of the crew…
Alex turns five months today, so after some practice trips to Lyme Regis, Canterbury and a beautiful Somerset wedding (between two of our favourite blog readers Katie and Dan), we decided it was about time to leave the UK and go on an adventure. My brief was to find somewhere exciting but with a relatively small time difference, so of course I immediately got carried away and started planning a trip to China. After a particularly bad night’s sleep with Alex, we realised that a seven-hour time difference was going to be fun for no one, so we settled instead on Iceland, a country that neither of us have visited previously. We concluded that it had enough active volcanoes, ice caps, bubbling mud and epic vistas to keep us busy for a couple of weeks, not to mention that it’s a country full of hot pots, which sounded awfully similar to my favourite hangout: the Japanese onsen.
Oli and I are travelling very light, but Alex didn’t get the memo and is taking up half of my bag and half of Oli’s! To ensure that we can take good care of him while on the road, we’ve brought along some extra kit, such as a pop-up travel cot, a cold-water steriliser and an all-weather cover for our baby carrier so we could skip the pram.
With careful packing, these all fit into our two suitcases – just about! We have made some concessions, though, including hiring a very sensible family car so that we have more control over our schedule rather than relying on more carbon-friendly public transport. We will of course still track our carbon emissions as we go and offset the total at the end of the trip.
Our rough plan is to begin in Reykjavík and follow the ring road that circles the country, with a healthy number of detours, including to the beautifully-named Snæfellsnes Peninsula, the frozen north and the Eastfjords. The ring road itself is 1,322 km even before adding our detours, so we’ll be doing a fair amount of driving (and by we, I mean Oli – Alex and I plan to nap and eat chocolate, respectively).
So, with Iceland’s ‘summer’ long gone and its harsh winter just around the corner, we set off on our next adventure. We’re looking forward to sharing it with you!