The idea of traveling together and making content along the way was planted in our brains since the first time talking about it on the phone. I can’t recall who said it first, but Runa and I both wholeheartedly agreed we needed to make this happen. This was a topic when we haven’t even met in person yet. But sometimes you just know beforehand that things need to take place and this was one of them. After meeting in december 2023 in Norway we bonded rapidly and our gut feeling was right.

Fast forward to May 2024, we came up with the plan of traveling down to the ABR festival together. Runa had to travel down to a harbor anyway, so I offered her a spacious place in my van and asked where I could pick her up. After two days at my home, we set off towards Hoek van Holland to board the Ferry to Harwich. After a long ABR weekend we would then be able to grab the van, load up the bikes and drive towards the north of the UK and see where we end up for a small adventure.

Us both had a pretty busy weekend, with Runa speaking on the main stage and myself working on the Peak Design stand again. This time I brought my recently purchased van, to run the logistics of the stand and this and more events to come, of which you’ll see much more in the near future. Together with an amazing mixed UK/US team (thank you Nate, Kaelen and John!) we wowed many people with all the Peak Design gear. Runa and her bike joined us on the spot from time to time, a very nice addition which I hope we can do more often. These events are SO much fun to work for a brand I’ve been using years prior.

With around 7 days to ride, it was hard to drop a pin on the map and go. We wanted to have the time to relax but also to make beautiful content which we could both use. Eventually we agreed on rocky mountains and moody backdrops so up we went. Wales didn’t disappoint and was stunning as always and we saw loads of twisty roads. We revisited some spots of my last years trip and added a lot of pins to both our maps to return to later. Save to say this would be a good start of any (solo) adventure, but we were mega excited to do it together.

And then it hit us, both fatigued and some sort of cold, Runa even spiking a fever and turning white while doing groceries. Time for a day off. But like, really off. And so we did, and it did us well. The weather wasn’t cooperating anyway so might as well take advantage of that. We got a short route planned and even managed to be able to meet up with John Rourke at the end of our trip for some special action content near the Peak District. Let’s go!

We started our day in good spirits with a ride towards the Cregennan Lakes. The National Trust website states “Lying on the Northern slopes of Cadair Idris, the Cregennan Lakes offer tremendous views of the Mawddach Estuary and Barmouth Bridge”. Well, guess what: we did in fact see nothing. It was pouring down and the only thing visible was some tarmac a few meters ahead of us and the ride up through the forest road. Wales had officially welcomed us and the rain contrasted beautifully with the sticker on Runa’s helmet.

Warming up with a good cup of coffee and a delicious homemade lemon seeds cake is the best after you just got rained on, there’s no way you can change my mind. And so we stopped at Caffi’r Hen Siop, a little gem I discovered last year. Friendly staff and amazing home made food is worth your visit. We spotted some patches of blue skies in the distance and took that as our cue to continue.

The Bwlch y Groes mountain road offers some jaw dropping views, IF you can see them anyway. When you change your mindset from “oh no, I really don’t want to ride in the rain” to “it will rain, grab your rain gear and just go with it”, that’ll change the game. Despite heavy rainfall and strong winds at some times we enjoyed our ride up to the fullest. Bleating and curious sheep on the hills keeping an eye on us and getting closer while we joked through our intercoms about being watched. you couldn’t break our spirit no matter how hard you tried.

Passing breathtaking views left and right, staring deep into the green single lanes we slowly made our way back to our accomodation Camp Stesion. We noticed the path leading up to our “home” could be ridden further. We checked it out and stumbled upon a private property, but the road up was beautiful. I set up the tripod, set the timer, ran back to my back and as I sat down the sun appeared. As if it was meant to be and we embraced the warm rays while letting out some random squeak hearing the shutter click every three seconds.

The big benefit of the van, is that it can haul bikes, gear and myself. In this case, an additional passenger next to me in the cabin. And that’s exactly what we did the next day, getting from A to B via a beautiful route over the Pen-Y-Pass. I have ridden here the year prior and I honestly didn’t see a thing because of moody weather. Even though it was beautiful back then with low hanging clouds, to actually see where we were going was even better. But now that I’ve seen it in better weather, I really must make my way back on two wheels to get the full experience. Third times a charm right? While we looked outside as we climbed the north side of the pass, we could see the landscape change rapidly. Low meadows made room for some impressive peaks and it seemed that the saturation button of the wet greens was turned all the way up. These luscious hills didn’t disappoint, even in a van. The “Ooohh’s” and “Woooah’s” filled the cabin repeatedly and we took a photo stop regularly.

After a night in a somewhat dodgy and cheap hotel dodging the rain we continued to a friend of a friend of ours that morning. Tim is a knifemaker with extremely awesome designs and is good buddies with John, a very talented photographer. Each knive is fully handmade and you can customise to your liking, so see anything you like on his page between the knives he put up for sale? Be quick, because they sell FAST! Rather not have the disappointment of being to late? Make a custom order via his messages. Next to a greatly stocked workshop he has two lovely Akita dogs running around, Kubo and Hara. They welcomed us after some good and thorough sniffing and Hara couldn’t leave Runa alone anymore.

Once we were all packed up, I noticed some flaws in my electronics as my bike had been standing many days outside in the pouring rain both in the UK as during my trip to the Dolomites shortly before. My aux lights lit up like a christmas tree, so I suspected some damp. Tim tried to blow out some excess water out of my controls on either sides. Shortly after we waved Tim and his furry friends goodbye for a few days. Very grateful the van could stay parked at his property, we were on our way to discover the Peak District on two wheels. That night we arrived at our rural and cosy campsite Dale Farm. As the pitches were all the way up on this balcony campsite, we had to climb some offroad meters to get to our spots, while overlooking the rest. It felt good straight away and so we decided to stay some days, if not all.

We didn’t expect temperatures to drop SO drastically during the night. Not that the days were incredibly warm, but around 3 degrees Celcius was not on our bingo card, nor did we pack the most warm gear (which I didn’t even have at that point). Luckily I carried my wool socks that Runa gifted me from Norway and we shopped for some warmer layers in one of many adventure/outdoor stores. We love outdoor stores. During the day we got rain, sun and everything in between. Typically UK weather, although it could’ve easily been Dutch or Norwegian as well.

The route we made the night before had some pretty cool hotspots to check out, thanks to the great tips we received from local riders through our Instagram pages. First stop: Winnats Pass. This road isn’t long, but absolutely worth visiting when you’re in the Peak District National Park. It winds through a gorge surrounded by towering limestone pinnacles. The name is a corruption of ‘wind gates’ due to the swirling winds through the pass, which we clearly noticed. Nevertheless a great road to have seen!

As both Runa and I love to pick some quirky or special points of interest, we continued to Ladybower Dam. We spotted on Google Maps that there are lots of dams in the Peak District and some have that swirl in the water. Turned out that there’s two of them at this dam and that those are giant plugholes draining away excess water to prevent damage to the dam. Thank you Google!

Continuing our route, we slithered across the Snake Pass. This Y-shaped valley has some intense colors and when you look closely you’ll find hidden waterfalls everywhere. It was listed as one of the most scenic rides in Britain so we couldn’t skip it while already being close. Now, I wouldn’t be able to judge if it really is one of the most scenic rides, since I haven’t seen enough roads in Britain, but it was definitely flowing and beautiful! As the sheep watched curiously us setting up a tripod and started bleating behind us, we couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. What a great day!

After devouring a monster breakfast at The Yondermann Cafe, well known by bikers, we started our day with some light drizzle. Keeping our bikes mainly on the paved roads, we did spot a LOT of gravel and single lanes that looked pretty interesting. A lot of them are dead ends or farmers fields though. But when we spotted an ongoing road on our maps, we decide to roll with it. Although we didn’t get far, in this few hundred meters we laughed more than the day before while we tried turning around on wet grass and deep ruts. Slippery slides and intercom giggles.

Our original route would be taking us to dark grey skies and so we decide to ride in the opposite direction, ending up at a very surprising stretch of road, called Ilam-Moor Ln. We spotted this tiny platform where we thought we could make some funny pictures with a herd of sheep in the background, IF we hurried. They were on to us and by the time we had parked our bikes in the mud (and other questionable brown substances), the sheep looked at us from a distance. A nod with their heads would’ve made sense.

We had every type of weather, with changes every hour, along with stunning sceneries. Later on we found some more gravel to entertain ourselves. But that was not the end of our day.

This day kept getting better and better. Around noon we wanted to shelter for the rain and noticed a sign with ‘Cafe Ye Olde Rock Inn’. A traditional cafe with incredible food and while we sat down we could hear our stomaches rumble. With all that running around you easily forget how hungry you are. After two hours recharging both ourselves and our gear, we got up. What happened next completely blew our minds away. While we cruised down the main road, we spotted rocks lean out towards the road and we couldn’t help but wanting to take a closer look as we spotted this small road behind it on the map. To our surprise we could actually walk up the Ramshaw Rocks and while humming ‘Old MacDonald Had A Farm‘ – don’t ask me why – we climbed and clambered to our pointy surprise of the day. It was breathtaking and scary as f*ck at the same time to stand on the edges and stare into the abyss. We then decided to let the drone do the hard work while we “glued” ourselves to the rocks beneath us.

And as if the day couldn’t get any better, we made our way up the long Cat and Fiddle Inn pass to hopefully catch a colorful sunset. But finding a good spot was harder than we initially thought. After riding around on this and adjacent roads with views for days we spotted this one hill with a single track leading up to it. Not sure we were allowed, but without any signs, we throttled our way up and we struck gold. Making ourselves comfortable, with the bikes in our view and a sun lowering rapidly, we were just in time for a grand finale. The colorful palette of the sky filled our bodies with warmth and made us look back at a very successful mini adventure together. The sun disappeared suddenly and temperatures dropped rapidly. We looked at eachother and agreed that this week leaves us wanting more.