We can’t believe that this is our 100th weekly blog – nearly 2 years since Early Retirement Wanderlust was born!! 100 weeks of cataloguing the stages of our mammoth journey, and what an incredible journey it has been. Looking back at some of the blogs, it is hard to recognise just how far we have come and how much we have changed. It is heartening to see that some of the anxieties that we had at each stage of the journey have all but evaporated and were not as unsurmountable as we first envisaged them to be.
In 100 weeks we have:
Early retired from our teaching careers of 30 years.
Launched our Early Retirement Wanderlust website and blog.
Sold our family home in Cheshire.
Lived in our VW T6 campervan for 14 weeks while we waited for the completion of our new home – we broke the chain so we did not lose the sale on our Cheshire house.
Relocated to the Yorkshire Dales and made a home for ourselves in our new community.
Taken on the project management and full renovation of our Dales cottage, including learning many new skills as we undertook some of the jobs ourselves.
Secured the long term care for Richard's mum in a wonderful home.
Been on 2 extended trips to the USA, visiting 7 states.
Spent over 20 weeks in total travelling to Europe and various Scottish island in our VW camper.
Become published authors with several articles published in the VW T4/T5+ Bus Magazine and the MMM – Motorhomers’ magazine
Launched a successful YouTube channel that has built up a really loyal community of like minded people.
The long journey home from the French Alps
Was it only last Monday morning that we were packing up the campervan in the French Alps and setting off on the 1000 mile journey home? It has been such a busy week and the journey just a blur in our memories. We were booked on a ferry on Tuesday at 7.30pm and our initial plans were to drive for about 5 hrs and find a stopover somewhere between Troyes and Reims. The roads were quiet, the weather was good, Richard felt remarkably well rested so we found ourselves in Calais by 9.30pm on Monday night!! We had booked a flexible ferry, so we hopped on the last ship of the day and have saved ourselves a much treasured Schengen day for later in the year! It also meant we were back home in the Dales earlier than expected.
As easy as the French 600 miles were to drive, the same could not be said of the English leg of the journey – we hit our first road works and stand-still within 5 miles of Dover and the journey went downhill from there! What must the European drivers make of our motorway systems that at times are literally ground to a halt? We finally got home to the Dales at 6pm – almost 10 hours to drive 365 miles.
It’s good to be home
We have grown to love returning home from our travels as we still feel like we live in a little holiday cottage. It is so relaxing settling down for the evening in front of the fire and watching the flames flickering – I think its better than watching TV!
As we have no gas or central heating in the house, we switched off the hot water tank for the 4 weeks we were away and the only thing that was left running was the fridge freezer. I worked out our total electricity bill for January, including 31 days standing charges, was about £28!
We made the most of our extra day in the Dales and a break in the weather to get out and about exploring. We set off on a hike out the back of Settle to find Scaleber Foss, we had seen signposts for it previously and a neighbour had told us it should be on our list of places to go. It was magnificent! It had rained heavily the night before and the waterfall was in full flow. I am not sure what we were expecting, but certainly not the colossal, raging tower of water we found. It will be interesting to return on a dry day in late spring when the blue bells are out to compare.
We have also managed to get out on a couple of local walks. I am keeping up with my aim of doing over 300,000 steps per month in 2024. It’s not hard to stay motivated in getting out there when we live in such a beautiful place.
A cheese and port tasting night to remember
On Friday we set off for weekend with some good friends that live in the Lake District. The much anticipated highlight of the weekend was an evening of cheese and port tasting! John, the host of the event, had gone to with a will and selected some truly fantastic ports of a wide variety for us to taste. We had much fun rating each bottle we sampled, it's amazing how wide a group of 10 people can judge the same product. I think I could be counted as an easy to please cheap port date as I liked them all, even the cheap ruby port! However as the evening progressed and the vintage ports came out, I could definitely taste the difference and can see why people do treat themselves occasionally to a more expensive bottle of vintage tawny.
We were truly spoilt by one of the very generous guests who brought along a special bottle from his personal collection. A 1966 Croft vintage tawny port – It was older than most of the guests in the room!! I was fascinated by the fact it had to be decanted and stunned at how much sediment there was in the bottom of the bottle. It was a wonderful experience and a night we will remember for a long time. I don’t think we will ever have such a fine port again in our lifetime! However, John did pull out a blinder of a port from his collection that he had bought from Aldi, A 20 year old vintage tawny, so we now are armed with at least some knowledge of where to get a more affordable tipple from.
Port aside, it was lovely to catch up with lots of our friends and get out on to the fells hiking. It was a very blustery Saturday afternoon so we made the decision to stay low and hiked around Kirkfell. We love seeing Luke develop a love for the mountains, particularly in the Lake District and hope it will become a life long love that he will return to regularly.
We decided to extend our trip and stayed for a night at the Wasdale Head National Trust campsite. It is stunningly located at the head of the valley with views of the Scafells and Great Gable from our bed. With the weather being very changeable, we cut our hike short and headed for a pint in front of the fire at the infamous Wasdale Inn. We did some filming for a YouTube campsite review to be released next Sunday.
With no phone service or wifi access over the past few days, I apologise that the blog is a couple of days late. It has actually been refreshing being in splendid isolation and having an enforced digital detox. We enjoyed time reading and were both asleep by 7.30pm on Sunday night. I managed a solid 13 ½ hours of much needed sleep!!
We are having a much quieter week catching up with a few jobs, planning some of our future travels and catching up with our lovely neighbours.
Have a great week
Jackie and Richard
You got a nice view of scaleber falls, I was standing about there when storm Gerrit was raging. You can’t beat seeing them in full pelt! Janet’s Foss was a sight the next day as well!! Is there a hobby name for waterfall hunting during bad weather? There should be! “Force Finders?”
100 weeks. Congratulations. I love watching your videos and we re hoping to follow a similar path soon. ( Both teachers 45 & 54 ) Question - How did you decide to buy your cottage where you did? We are definitely selling up in the Midlands when we retire but recently have thought we might be better renting for a couple of years until we find the place in the UK where we want to settle. It's scary thinking of having no home for a year or 2 but worth the risk if we cant find the right location straight away. How did you find the perfect location for you ?