We often have a tendency to move on too quickly to the next thing, the next plan, the next journey, without taking a moment to stop and look back. So today we decided to make time to reflect on a year which started with cancer treatment and ended owning a classic 1994 motorhome having walked 500 miles and fit in as many adventures as we could.
To be truthful I am tired. But tired from having achieved a lot and lived a lot this year.
Join us for a short trip down memory lane for this final update of 2022. I hope you find it maybe a little interesting and hopefully a lot inspirational!
January
The beginning of 2022 for us was all about zapping Mark’s prostate bed with radiotherapy - daily sessions of 20 minutes in the Radiotherapy Unit at Hereford County Hospital over Christmas and then throughout January. Mark finally was able to ring the end-of-treatment bell on February 4th 2022. Radiotherapy was tough but we got through it as a family and came out the other side.
February
With radiotherapy behind us but with Mark still recovering his energy, we headed off to London for a weekend to re-group and enjoy some treats! Mark had bought me tickets to see The Lion King and we had an amazing dinner at The Ivy in Soho.
March
Off to London again. Mark had mixed up the dates in the diary so we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to head down to the capital again for another treat weekend just for grown-ups! This time we took in the Cabinet War Rooms, the Postal Museum (look out for the underground train ride - not for the claustrophobic!) and Sir John Soanes’ House (which is a great, off the beaten track free visit in London!).
After a few days back at home, we were finally able to take our family Summer holiday from 2020 to Mexico. Moved three times due to the pandemic, our three youngest children were thrilled to get back on a plane! We spent a week treating ourselves to all-inclusive in Puerto Vallarta, plus a day trip out to whale watch and snorkel amongst the islands. It didn’t feel like a trip to authentic Mexico, but it was a very well-earned rest and bit of sunshine.
April
In April 2022 we started planning our exciting adventure which was coming soon - it was time to buy our walking boots, rucksacks and everything else ready for walking the Camino de Santiago. But first, we managed to tick one off Mark’s bucket list with a short holiday to Saint Lucia - another trip rescheduled multiple times during the Covid-19 pandemic. The island was just as beautiful as we expected and we were lucky enough to be able to explore the island with the brilliant Big Merv - who showed us the botanical gardens, the Soufriere sulphur springs and a tour of Hotel Chocolat’s plantation in the hills. This was the first time we took our vlogging camera away with us but the footage is still sitting on a hard drive waiting to be edited and published! Maybe we will one day soon, who knows.
At the end of the month, Mark was also able to take his Christmas present of a microlight flight from Shobdon Airfield in Herefordshire - which was also our first-ever vlog published on YouTube! You can watch our first attempt at vlogging here!
May
May finally saw the beginning of our long-awaited adventure - walking 500 miles across Northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago. We left for Paris on 16th May and wouldn’t return to the UK until the end of June. Two of our teenage children were going to accompany us on this journey - Henry (then 15) and Megan (aged 11) - and we faced it with varying amounts of trepidation and excitement.
We started with a day in Paris, followed by a train journey down to St Jean Pied de Port in the southwest corner of France, where we picked up our Camino passports and got ready to start walking on 19th May.
June
The first of June saw us waking up on day 14 of our Camino in San Juan de Ortega and walking 26km to the beautiful city of Burgos. June was entirely taken up with walking and we finally arrived in Santiago on 27th June 2022 which also happened to be our wedding anniversary. The walk had not been without its challenges - I had struggled for the first few weeks with awful blisters and then Mark suffered late in the journey with Plantar Fasciitis. Despite there being days where we wondered if we’d be able to finish, we achieved our goal and are so so proud of Henry and Megan for their tenacity and good humor along the way. You can watch our whole camino journey as a family on our YouTube channel here.
We celebrated (what we thought would be) the end of our Camino with a couple of nights in Porto, Portugal and then travelled home ready to rest our feet. Briefly.
July
Mark finally treated himself to a DJI Mini Pro drone in July - and we wished we’d had it in June but that wasn’t to be. Also in July, we were able to fly it over the beautiful city of Seville, a long-awaited bucket list trip this time for me. It was a weekend of tapas and tours as we explored the historic centre, cathedral and the Royal Alcazar of Seville. The food was incredible, as you’d expect of Seville, and you can watch our Food Tour of Seville vlog here. This vlog actually became our highest-performing vlog of 2022!
August
Walking the Camino had made us start to re-evaluate how many of the material things we really needed in our lives as we’d learned that you can survive with just what’s on your back and the people around you. We were starting to think about finding more ways to travel and so in August we began looking for a motorhome to help us on our way.
We were also able to finally use up some of the Virgin Atlantic points that we’d been sitting on since pre-pandemic, and so we took our three youngest children for a road trip to Boston and New Hampshire in the US. Flying in and out of Boston, we took in Salem, Franconia in New Hampshire, Flume Gorge State Park, Mount Washington and then on to Vermont where we visited Stowe and of course the Ben and Jerry’s Factory there and the Trapp Family Lodge.
On we drove down to Cape Cod, where we had a couple of nights visiting Mashpee and Provincetown and then back up to Boston where we had a brilliant two nights in a fantastic floating Airbnb. You can watch our Boston vlogs here.
September
In September we finally found and picked up our new motorhome a 1994 Niesmann and Bischoff, who we named Lilibet after Queen Elizabeth II who passed away on the day we picked her up. We took her straight off for a weekend in Oxford and spent most of September getting to know her - warts and all. Whilst she had been taken great care of cosmetically over the years, under the bonnet she wasn’t in such good condition and so we’ve been taking some time to get her up and running properly.
At the end of the September she went off to the garage for some tender loving care, and we prepared to travel back to Santiago, gluttons for punishment as we had decided to walk the final 90km from Santiago to the coast.
October
We found ourselves unexpectedly drawn back to the Camino and so the four of us returned to walk the Camino Finisterre across four days and it was glorious! We hadn’t seen the need when we’d planned our first walk into Santiago but we soon envied the pilgrims who had carried on to the coast. That 2km walk across the beach into Finisterre at the end was without question one of our favorite moments of the whole walk across northern Spain. You can watch our Finisterre vlogs and see for yourself here.
November
Texas baby!! In November we picked up a convertible and hit the road across Texas, again just the grown-ups, travelling between Austin, Houston, Waco and San Antonio. We took in Houston’s Mission Control, Magnolia Market at the Silos in Waco as well as downtown Austin and San Antonio, the Alamo and Pedernales Falls State Park. We had a brilliant trip and will definitely be headed to Texas again someday.
At the end of the month, we started our journey into Europe in our 1999 Volvo - again with Henry and Megan - Lilibet still not quite ready to venture out confidently.
December
December saw us driving over 2,000 miles across Europe, taking in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. We learned a huge amount about travelling as a family on this trip, especially as we also took our two dogs Bertie and Monty with us. We’re still editing the vlogs and so watch out for more content on our brilliant day at Europe’s Highest Train Station as well as more journeying through Italy and France still to come!
We arrived back in Herefordshire with just enough time to get the Christmas tree before we headed off for our very last trip of 2022 - a long weekend in the stunning UNESCO city of Krakow in Poland. Our Krakow vlog is coming soon!
Final Thoughts
After Mark’s diagnosis in 2021 we’d known that we wanted to travel more and take more time to do the things that are important to us, but I don’t think either of us could have predicted just how much we would manage to squeeze into this year! It is crazy looking back at every trip that we achieved and the experiences we had with some of our family. We feel very grateful that we’ve been able to do this and we’re excited to see what’s in store for 2023!
We have lots of ideas for the next year but so far not many firm plans at the moment so watch this space!
Happy New Year and we’ll see you in 2023!
Louise and Mark x