In roughly 7 weeks we are taking on our biggest trip together ever!

It’ll be the longest trip we’ve taken together and it’ll include 12 hotels, 16 waterfalls, 7 beaches and over 1800 miles driving. There will be days where all we do is eat in the car as we drive from place to place and it’s completely different from all of our other big holidays. 

We. Are. So. Excited.

Last week I set out to research just how many wild swimming spots we could include on our itinerary. There are a lot of rivers, beaches and lochs on the trip but I wanted to work out which ones are safe in the access sense and also safe once in the water. It has opened my eyes majorly to just how particular the precautions are. Keep out of the sea due to the meetings of three currents. Watch out for the depth of the lochs. How cold certain places are. Slippery rocks. Where and when you can’t. The list goes on. And something that kept coming up was COLD WATER. And even though I’m going into this trip with such a big leap of enthusiasm, cold water is a big deciding factor for me. If it is the pool in our garden, I quickly jump in and then into the warm house/sun/shower. It will be an entirely different story in Scotland. The water will be glacial and we’ll need to strip down in the air, dry as much as possible and then jump back into the car for the journey ahead. So raring to go for it, Mr W and I had a chat about wetsuits. Making sure we definitely wanted to try the swimming I searched online for some that would fit our bigger bodies and was surprised to find a site that was selling them for a bargain at 60% off! 

Today, they came and without hesitation Mr W grabbed the bag and headed upstairs to try his one on. After a while I heard him coming back and wondered if the wetsuit had fit or if he needed help. As he reached the final steps, I heard the noise of the neoprene brushing against itself. It’s a peculiar sound. And there he was. Smiling but needing help with the zipper. Ziiiiiip. Up it went. And then the laughter began. The noise is hilarious. Him squatting and twisting was hilarious. All he said was how hot he felt. It is currently 27° in Essex. I wonder why he was hot. Then it was my time. 

I had forgotten how difficult these things are to put on. The last one I wore was 9 years ago in Australia and it was a lot thinner in its material. It was less to do with keeping warm than protecting your skin from jellyfish. This one is thick and less stretchy so wrestling it on, I hoped it would fit and keep me warm in the Scottish waters. After wrangling it onto my legs and body, Mr W zipped it up and it dawned on me just how difficult it’s going to be to do this out in the open. I couldn’t stop laughing. The legs are slightly too long, that’ll be down to me being 5’5”, but it fits which means we are ready to go! No stopping us now. 

Now something that is very daunting is packing. As we are taking our two weeks worth of food you can imagine that it’ll take up quite an amount of space in the car. So when it comes to clothing and other essentials we have to be strict. Currently there are boxes of food in our guest room that have been organised and it all looks very structured. Turning round there is a pile of other bits and pieces that need sorting and I get deflated every time I see it. But it’s there waiting and if Essex ever gets a rainy day, it’s a job I can tackle with some loud music in the background! It is really silly stuff like toiletries, water shoes, zip lock bags for dirty clothing and now, the wetsuits. It needs doing, but it’s just so boring!

The itinerary itself is maybe a day away from being finished. Which is… unreal. 

Something Mr W and I need to do, almost our biggest priority, is to get some real hours of drone flying under our belts. Our initial flight went really well and I surprised myself by really enjoying it, but to be completely confident we need more time. So that will be scheduled in the next few busy weeks. 

Can you believe it? How is that for being prepared? 

Now it’s the time to let the excitement, and a few nerves, to build!