Where Have I Been In The Last Year?
The last year has been absolutely crazy, packed full of adventures and I couldn’t have been more thankful for it. At the beginning of last year, I sat down, thought back to all that we had gone through with Covid, and thought deeply about what I wanted to achieve. I have always loved adventure, for those who have been around a while, you’ll know that I moved back to the UK because of Covid so I was desperate to get abroad again. So for me, my biggest goal for the year was to explore as many new places as I could. Having completed my Padi advanced scuba diving courses, I wanted to get my Divemaster so that played a massive part in my planning for the year.
Throughout Covid and now, I have been working at Tesco and studying alongside. It allowed me to save up and in the summer, I was able to take a career break to travel.
San Diego, USA
This was my first time back to San Diego since leaving on the last flight back to the UK before the world shut down due to Covid. It was great to see family and friends, catch up and just spend time with everyone. I did also have quite a lot of stuff still out here, so it was also an opportunity to sort and get my stuff.
We packed our two weeks full, trying to see as many people as we could. From taking photos at San Diego Zoo, hiking Annies Canyon and exploring the beautiful beaches, there is so much we managed to do, yet so much we just didn’t have time for.
Skomer Island, Wales
For a few months, me and my friend Charlotte had been talking about travel, both abroad and in the UK. I had suggested Skomer Island and she jumped at the idea. We camped at West Hook Farm Camping, a basic but excellent camp site, and took the boat across each day. We had planned to spend two days on the island, however, our second day was cancelled due to weather.
So I decided to take Charlotte on a tour of my favourite places nearby. The highlights were Saint Govans Chapel & Broad Haven South Beach.
Cornwall, England
Being a member of Swanwick Divers, I had joined them on a diving trip to Porthkerris. I was meant to be tent camping, however, on arrival, the area they put me wasn’t comfortable so I opted to car camp on the beach instead.
We were supposed to have 4 days of diving, however, weather again had different ideas so we only managed one days diving at Porthkerris and one dive at Mullion Cove. Although the dive from Porthkerris was one of my favourite yet, diving on a wreck and seeing a 1 metre octopus shoot over my head and deep into the wreck, incredible!
On the days where we didn’t dive, I headed along the coastline, exploring Cornwall and visiting places such as Lands End, Porthcurno Beach and the Minack Theatre.
Koh Tao, Thailand
I spent quite a while researching where I wanted to do my Divemaster, however, after talking to people like The Scuba Girl, I decided that Koh Tao would be the best place for me.
With a week planned before and after my Divemaster course, I booked treehouse villas in the hills, and spent my time diving and snorkelling with whale sharks, turtles and rays.
I completed my Divemaster with Sairee Cottage Diving, staying in the dorm with the other DM candidates. It was such a good time, getting to spend almost every day in the water, working on skills and just getting as much as experience as I could.
Some of the highlights were my trip to Sail Rock with Mint, trying a cooking class and learning underwater videography with Oceans Below.
La Zenia, Spain
Having spent a lot of my childhood holidays here at our villa, I was hoping to get out in the middle of my travel plans. A lot of our family friends were also out visiting so I managed to get a short trip sorted between Thailand and Greece. My days were spent walking along the beach, eating amazing food, spending time with great people and wakeboarding.
Pembrokeshire, Wales
With 5 days free between my flight back from Spain and to Greece, I decided that I wanted to see about fitting another trip in. Last year, I visited Pembrokeshire a couple of times, one of the best was with Joe where we packed the days full of activities.
I usually go surfing with Megan, but with both of us having a few days free, we decided to do some wakeboarding, coasteering and exploring in Pembrokeshire. Staying at my favourite guest house and campsite, Coastal Stay, we spent most of our time out along the coastline.
Kefalonia, Greece
My last big trip of the Summer was to spend a month in Kefalonia, Greece. I spent a few days staying near Argostoli, exploring the town, scuba diving and doing some boat trips before I started two weeks in Skala with Wildlife Sense on their Marine Conservation program. I absolutely loved it, after these two weeks I moved to Lixouri, again with Wildlife Sense, to spend another two weeks but instead on a program focused on sea turtle conservation. You can read more about my time with Wildlife Sense here.
Once my time with Wildlife Sense was up, I booked myself a couple days in Fanari, near Argostoli. My friends over at Motoround sorted me out with a quad bike which allowed me to explore more of the island I hadn’t yet seen, including Assos and Melissani Cave.
Well it’s fair to say I haven’t included a lot of my trips in here, but I guess that means you’ll have to stick around and see where else I have been in the last year.
