Between The Mountains Adventure Podcast

Welcome To The Middle East  Jordan was Raj’s first experience in the middle east, riding into Aqaba. For a first place, what a great choice. Not only is Raj a history buff, but it is located right on the tip of the Red Sea, crystal blue water and jagged mountains scratching the sky.  From here, Raj heads to Wadi Rum Desert and beyond.  Exploring Every Inch Of Jordan  With his passions in the right place, Raj explored and hitchhiked every part of this country, and was a perfect guest to have on the show.  Talking on Wadi Rum, he talks about sleeping under the stars with nothing but a mattress, and how the landscape looks like the moon at night, and Mars during the day!  A must do for this gorgeous and under-estimated country is the ancient city of Petra and the Valley Of Moses.  Raj explores trails, speaks with the friendly locals, drinks tea, floats in the Dead Sea and tells us about his adventure backpacking through this corner of the globe.  You can read a more detailed article of his time from Raj’s guest blog with Travel With Cooky’s site.  Raj also hosts his own podcast, which you can follow here.  -------------- If you enjoy the show please subscribe/follow and share with a friend!  If you really enjoy the show please check out our Patreon site here. Supporting through Patreon really helps cover costs and allow to invest more time into the quality!  To come on the show or work with me, please email on: btmtravelpod@gmail.com  Join in with the community. Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and our new Facebook Page to share your own photos and videos here  Between The Mountains – Adventure Travel Podcast

8 Huhti 202029min

We welcome Rachna to the show who has come to talk about her time on the island of Socotra, Yemen. A wonderful time spent seeing mountains, caves, lagoons and bio luminescent algae!  For photos of her trips and more, check our her Instagram: @rachnasunder To come on the show or to fire any questions my way please contact me on: Twitter: @BTMTravelPod Instagram: @BTMTravelPod Email: btmtravelpod@gmail.com

8 Huhti 20201h 8min

Clear Water, Mountains On All Sides  Lake Tahoe is a great place for a not-so-short roadtrip away on the weekend (7-8 hours from Southern California) and offers some of the best kayaking in the area. Dustin from That Adventure Life knows all too well how beautiful it is there and the adventures to be had.  In this episode, Dustin goes over a perfect weekend itinerary: a kayak, via ferrata, and hike. Then, back in time for work on Monday! Or, for those outside of California, add this to your own itinerary and don’t go back to work on Monday!      At 1,897m, the water can get cold there (bring your skis!). So Dustin has mostly gone in April-July for the warmer months. It’s the best time for adventure and relaxing there.  A Weekend Itinerary  Kicking off the trip with kayaking, you can explore the lake launching from Sand Harbour. There are kayaks to rent here if you don’t have the kit. Cruising down the coastline is a wonderful drive, but with smaller parking spaces and busy location, Dustin recommends you get there early!  The via ferrata seems the most exciting to me. The route up has some beautiful views, and some great stories. One talks of a tree with a ski bolted to it. Why? A skier once crashed there. But to have views over the lake after a day of kayaking on it seems beautiful. If you’re going to do it, choose the four hour slot!  You have pine trees, mountain landscape and teal waters. To top it off, you can watch a beautiful sunset at Chimney Beach. What a perfect way to round off your trip.   If you want to read more information, check out That Adventure Life’s articles, or check out their YouTube.  -------------------------- If you enjoy the show please subscribe/follow and share with a friend!  If you really enjoy the show please check out our Patreon site here, starting from only £4 (that’s only a cup of coffee each month!). This really helps support the background costs and quality of episodes!  To come on the show or work with me, please email on: btmtravelpod@gmail.com  Join in with the community. Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and our new Facebook Page to share your own photos and videos here  Between The Mountains – Adventure Travel Podcast

4 Huhti 202033min

Barcelona is a beautiful city right on the Spanish coast. Attracting thousands of tourists every year, there is a multitude of reasons for visiting from football to museums to the surrounding landscape.  Hear and read more below in how Anthony and his friend explored this city from top to bottom!  The Perfect 8 Night Itinerary  Whether you're interrailing, stopping by on a conference or backpacking your way across Europe, Barcelona has to be a stop off for you to stop and explore.  Anthony talks through his itinerary in detail and the city exceeded his expectations.  Kicking off the trip, Anthony escaped the streets initially and went to Montserrat, a monastery and vineyard for wine tasting. From here, he goes on to explore La Sagrada Familia and just how stunning this architecture.  The rest of the podcast explores pricing, tips, football, Spanish Cider (you've got to hear how they pour this!), Gaudi and more!  What Antony remarks about Gaudi is just how unique his work is. He discusses how it's easy to become complacent with what you have at home in your country, so do to experience something so different is a pleasure, albeit it very busy!  Anthony also got time to himself to experience the culture and quirky museums, as his friend rented a bicycle to do a 140km cycle route in the area.  -------------- If you enjoy the show please subscribe/follow and share with a friend! If you really enjoy the show please check out our Patreon site here. Supporting through Patreon really helps cover costs and allow to invest more time into the quality! To come on the show or work with me, please email on: btmtravelpod@gmail.com Join in with the community. Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and our new Facebook Page to share your own photos and videos here Between The Mountains – Adventure Travel Podcast

4 Huhti 202052min

We welcome Rajjan Parmar from @rajjan_parmar on Instagram and Rajjan Parmar on Facebook. While backpacking in the Middle East, Raj spent three weeks here and takes us through his experience.  For all questions and pitches please contact me on btmtravelpod@gmail.com

4 Huhti 202037min

The Best Hiking Practice  Cheddar Gorge is one of UK's secret (not so secret) wonders. In my opinion, it is the best hiking practice that the South UK has to offer. It is easily accessible to everyone, especially in the South West being located south of Bristol.  It's an ideal location for anyone strapped for time or fuel money and can't make it to Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia, Lake District National Parks or Scotland.  The Walk  Cheddar Gorge offers beautiful and stunning views across and all the way out to the sea. Using the National Trust's directions, it was also a super easy to follow. Parking can be difficult at peak times, but here's a top tip: go mid-late afternoon. You will bypass a lot of the traffic which means more parking and less traffic on the route. The top is west facing, which means some of the most gorgeous sunsets, and a short walk (and a few hundred steps) to finish the walk back on the street below.  The only downside? I'm yet to go to one of the cute coffee shops before they close!    The walk begins with a sharp and long ascent, takes you over some Norwegian Flat terrain (basically: not flat), down on to the road and then back up the other side on a longer, less steep ascent to the highest point on the gorge.  It is the best hike in the area to make you feel worked, and take your breathe away on two counts: the elevation and sunset.  Not Just Hiking  If you're interested, the area also provides so much more than hiking. You can do rock climbing, explore the caves, or simply be a tourist in the town of Cheddar.  ----------  If you enjoy the show please subscribe/follow and share with a friend!  If you really enjoy the show please check out our Patreon site here. Supporting through Patreon really helps cover costs and allow to invest more time into the quality!  To come on the show or work with me, please email on: btmtravelpod@gmail.com  Join in with the community. Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and our new Facebook Page to share your own photos and videos here  https://betweenthemountains.org/

1 Huhti 202011min

Never Underestimate Any Mountain    Never underestimate any mountain. This is the lesson my friend and I learned on this trip. Pen Y Fan stands at only 886m, and we rather ignorantly went into this hike confidently calling it a 'hill'.    What Pen Y Fan did was let us get close, bend us over, and spank us back out the way we came. But what a perfect place to fail on; low altitude, no sheer drops (that we got close to), local terrain, easy to navigate back to where you came from... and more as I explain in the podcast.    Pictured above, is Matt lying in the snow - completely fragged - and above his knee, on the horizon, is Pen Y Fan in the distance.    It Was All Going So Well    We start on the night before. I drove over to Matt's house and ready to do Pen Y Fan the next day, followed by Snowdon the day after.    We googled 4 main ways to do the route, and decided on doing "The Tough One" - the classic horseshoe hitting 4 peaks in the area.    We went shopping, got our food and extra water bottles, packed up our gear and hit the hay, ready for an early start. Thinking I had the right car park ready to go on Google Maps...    What Went Down    "We had no map and when we arrived swiftly discovered that we had left all of the food at home, 2 and a half hours away."    So, if you type 'Taf Fechan car park' into Google Maps it will not provide you with the right car park for this. So as you can imagine, nothing went right from the moment we left. Although we didn't realise this until later.    It's worth noting: we still had a blast. An awesome day. So everything from now, we were 98% of the time smiling. But it did go very wrong.  We arrive at the car park and start following the instructions. We had no map and when we arrived swiftly discovered that we had left all of the food at home, 2 and a half hours away. With the shorter December days we didn't want to drive back to civilisation, so we cracked on with just two army style ration packets (one of nuts, the other raisins).    We then began the walk (from the wrong car park) and we realised we had left the water in the car. Matt had his camel/hydration pack which holds 2.2L so we just decided to press on, even though we could never see how much we had left. Everything we did from now, water was rationed.    It doesn't help our simple and uneducated minds at the time that the horseshoe circles around a small reservoir, and that there is a larger one next to it that we decided was the correct one from the map. In addition, I recently went back with my daughter and found the correct reservoir to be empty, so who knows how long that had been and if we even would have seen it.    We pressed on, and after back tracking when lost in boggy woods, decided to just cut up the hill side and force our way on to the ridge; we'd have to get there anyway, right?! In doing so, we had to jump a river in high flow. Not exactly signs that we were on the right path...    We pressed onwards up the hill side through undulating grass which was threatening to twist our ankles at any second, sucking the energy out of us. Acknowledging we were likely - almost definitely - not on the correct trail. We then cut up a further hill side to get on to the ridge (video at the top).    Always Take The Right Way, Not The Easy Way    I explain further in the podcast, but what ensues is us doubling our, trying to take shortcuts, draining our energy while dehydrated and not eating anything.    Although fun, we messed up in a big way. At one point, we finally received 3G and loaded Google Maps, and we had been heading the wrong direction! So, instead of heading up the ridiculously windy ridgeline, we decided to walk the inside of the 'bowl', shortening our distance and staying out of the wind. Instead of choosing the right way, we chose the easy way... which was not easy. We drained our energy on more undulating grass, and had to reclimb the ascent on a steeper slope.    Pulling The Plug    Eventually we sat, drained, filled only with a little bit of water and some raisins and nuts. Using our newly acquired, state-of-the-art 3G we checked our timings. 2 hours to Pen Y Fan, 2 hours until sunset, 1.75 hours to the car.    We decided to head back, in sight of Pen Y Fan. So close, yet so far.    It's a good thing we did, including Matt falling asleep by a river for 5 minutes, it took us 2 hours.    I want to listen, now!    Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and all other platforms; just search “Between The Mountains”!    If you enjoy the show please subscribe/follow and share with a friend!    If you really enjoy the show please check out our Patreon site here. Supporting through Patreon really helps cover costs and allow to invest more time into the quality!    To come on the show or work with me, please email on: btmtravelpod@gmail.com    Join in with the community. Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and our new Facebook Page to share your own photos and videos here  https://betweenthemountains.org/

1 Huhti 202011min

Beautiful Beaches, Delicious Fruit, and King Philip II of Spain    The Philippines is a collection of over 7000 islands in South East Asia and attracts tourists from all over the world - pandemic aside. It is a country that can provide history and culture in the capital, and beautiful nature on its surrounding islands.    This is my second podcast interviewing a guest, the first officially for "Between The Mountains", and made for a very multi-cultural interview; a Brit interviewing a Chinese-Canadian staying in Vietnam about the Philippines. The world is a wonderful place.    A Journey Across The Islands    The Philippines is a place on my bucket list to explore, with places like El Nido, Palawan and Coron Islands naturally on the list to visit! When I do go, I will be using things like this budget trip article from Bags Always Packed to help me.    Starting the episode discussing history and culture, and the expectations of it. We also discuss the friendliness of the people there, supporting so much of what I have heard about this place. Rick compares Thailand - a place he describes as friendly but for your tourism money - with little situations in the Philippines like a local paying for his food out of kindness.    Rick discusses his day by day itinerary travelling across the country as he backpacked through South East Asia; perfect for researching or reminiscing your own trip! Join us as he hikes mountains, catches ferries, visits historical sites, and discovers secret beaches.    Sometimes It's Not All It Seems    Something I find interesting about Rick's account of the Philippines is that it doesn't always meet your expectations. So many people speak so highly of the country (well, perhaps not the capital) and yet Rick's experience differs.    This is seen every where. I personally compare Naples to real-life Gotham, and I have friends who find places like Cambodia completely horrible, even though they only went there from recommendation in the first place.    Rick expected to find a rather colonial country with so much history, and it wasn't all that he imagined it to be, despite how incredible the trip was. He also admits that travelling in tropical season wasn't the smartest idea either.    I really like and appreciate the honest account of his trip - which certainly isn't all doom and gloom. There are so many wonderful moments, including the featured photo which was their own special moment on the trip. You'll have to listen to find out where this secret location was!    --------------    If you enjoy the show please subscribe/follow and share with a friend!    If you really enjoy the show please check out our Patreon site here. Supporting through Patreon really helps cover costs and allow to invest more time into the quality!    To come on the show or work with me, please email on: btmtravelpod@gmail.com    Join in with the community. Instagram/Twitter/Facebook and our new Facebook Page to share your own photos and videos here  https://betweenthemountains.org/

1 Huhti 20201h 6min