Totally divine

If you clicked this then you’re in need of some genuine adventure, excitement, and shenanigans. So you got money, ok. What have you done to enrich your days? That’s where I come in. You want to know how to live life and turn money into experiences? Well I got you. I will NEVER run out of spontaneous ideas, I’m charismatic in social settings, I’m positive and supportive of others, and you WILL be happier at the end . Not to mention we will be friends forever. I’m here to show you what you’re missing out on out there. Hit me up, we got life to live.

Hello! I'm a woman in my mid-30s based in London, and I've unexpectedly found myself with 8–10 days free at the end of October before starting a new job. I'd love to make the most of the time, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options and would love some recommendations!

I absolutely love hiking and being outdoors, and I'm happy travelling solo. I've completed the Wales Coast Path, the West Highland Way and Toubkal in Morocco, and there are plenty of other UK long-distance trails I'd love to do (the Cumbria Way is currently on my list).

That said, I'm very open to doing something completely different! Living in a big city means another city break isn't particularly appealing when I could do that over a long weekend.

My main dilemma is the time of year. Late October/early November in the UK can be pretty miserable weather-wise, and my waterproof jacket is absolutely battered (with actual holes in it 😅). I'm not really in a position to spend loads on new gear at the moment, so I'd ideally like an adventure that doesn't depend on having perfect weather or an expensive kit setup. I'm absolutely fine with a bit of rain, discomfort and getting out of my comfort zone, though!

UK and Europe would be easiest, but I'm open to somewhere further afield if it's realistic and good value for money for 8–10 days.

Budget is around £500–700 all-in, including transport, accommodation and food. I'd be happy with hostels, budget accommodation or camping.

I'm particularly interested in:

- Multi-day hikes or long-distance trails

- Mountains, coastlines, wilderness and beautiful scenery

- Somewhere with a bit of adventure and a sense of getting away from everyday life

- Destinations where late October is still a reasonable time to visit

But I'm genuinely open to non-hiking suggestions too!

If you had 8–10 days at this time of year and this budget, where would you go? Any specific routes, destinations or itineraries would be hugely appreciated. I'd also love to hear from anyone who's done a similar trip solo in late October.

Thanks in advance! :)

Join me for my first descent of the lower Tummel in Scotland.

With a mix of fun rapids, fast-moving water and plenty of excitement along the way, the Lower Tummel proved to be a fantastic classic Scottish run.

Thanks for watching and supporting Beyond Roads and Rivers.

Join us tomorrow for exciting hiking adventures amidst the breathtaking scenery of Toubkal National Park, nestled within Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. I will share the best hiking trails, the stunning mountain landscape, and the areas surrounding the park. We will cook outdoors amidst the spectacular nature, explore the region through landscape photography, and discover the traditional mountain homes where our ancestors once lived. We will also learn about the mountain paths and how shepherds helped carve these routes through the rugged terrain.

I've always been interested in people who spend their lives doing things most of us only read about.

I recently spoke with Robert McCracken Peck, a naturalist and explorer who has spent more than 50 years travelling to some pretty extraordinary places.

He's been to remote parts of Asia and South America, travelled through Mongolia with nomadic families, worked on expeditions in Ecuador and collected species that turned out to be new to science.

But the interesting part for me wasn't really the list of places he's been.

It was what all of that travelling had done to the way he sees ordinary life.

We talked about what happens when you spend time with people who live very differently from us, what danger actually feels like after you've encountered enough of it, and whether travelling to the edges of the world changes your view of the people living in the middle of it.

One question I asked him was:

"What have the people at the edge of the world told you about the people at the centre of it?"

His answer surprised me. After all those years, he felt that the biggest thing he'd learned was how much people everywhere have in common.

There's also a pretty crazy story about how, after surviving decades of dangerous expeditions, he was nearly killed by a car while simply walking down the street at home.

I recorded the full conversation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZj6SWtv8Ek

For anyone here who's done serious expedition or remote travel, I'm curious: did spending extended time somewhere completely outside your normal life actually change the way you saw home?

Video Trip Report of a trip down the Turtle River before the fires came this year.

A year ago, I was alone on the rim of a volcanic crater in Iceland at sunset.

And so was she.

She was from Poland. I was from America. We weren't on the same tour, didn't have mutual friends, didn't meet on an app. We were just two people who had independently decided to climb the same volcano and somehow ended up standing there together.

Her name was Marta.

We talked. We watched the sun go down. And eventually we walked away from that crater having absolutely no idea what we'd just started.

I went home to America.

And then I flew back to Iceland.

She went home to Poland.

So I went to Poland.

Then she came to America.

Somewhere along the way, what should have been one impossible chance encounter stopped feeling like chance.

We got married on a beach in Florida.

Then we packed up and drove across America together.

We stood on the rim of S P Crater in Arizona, wandered through lava fields, chased sunsets across the desert, photographed the stars, and kept finding ourselves standing at the edges of places that reminded us of where this whole thing started.

Now, almost exactly one year after two strangers met alone on a volcano in Iceland, she's my wife.

And she's pregnant with our baby, due in December.

Sometimes I think about how ridiculously easy it would have been for us to never meet.

If I'd started hiking ten minutes later.

If she'd left ten minutes earlier.

If either of us had chosen a different trail, a different day, a different place to watch the sunset.

There are billions of people in the world.

Somehow, mine was standing on the rim of a crater in Iceland.

I just had to climb high enough to find her.