It's finally here! Maybe a little late but ready to look back on the previous year, all of its successes and failures as well as all the things we did right here on Love Our Adventures. Usually, I try to do this around the tail end of the year, but 2024 (and the beginning of 2025) was certainly a busy year; 2024 was a mix of interesting and often challenging events, with multiple instances of creating some of the greatest memories I have ever made, juxtaposed against moments of sadness and frustration. But, they all often make for interesting stories, so let us recap, look over some of the events of the year, maybe give you some inspiration for your own adventures as I scroll back over my camera roll looking at all of the happy, and sad, memories.
The gloom and cold of January was offset with mostly life as normal but I did start January with one of my favourite projects, courtesy of 2023's Christmas: Build your own guitar! I've always been interested in these kits and in 2023 Rox picked one up for me as a gift, a beautiful-looking Thomann Telecaster kit. I went out, grabbed a bunch of different paints and broke out all of my tools. I never did do a write-up on this, I had intended to write this up but it just never came to be, but it was a fun experience! Hours and hours spent prepping the wood, then sanding each painting pass, a failure with some wood stain and then eventually throwing it all together into what I think is a beautiful final product. Every time I pick that guitar up I am reminded of the work I put into it, plus, it is nice to have a guitar I'm not too worried about tinkering with.
Things stayed productive in the early months of the year, as the Jeep's radiator gave up with a small leak - I've written up various problems with the Jeep in the past, and all of the trials and tribulations that came with those jobs, but a radiator job is generally an easy one and on the Jeep it was even easier. The huge engine bay with massive voids between the components means it was a doddle - the only challenge came in the form of getting the system bled, but with the right tools that all came together and meant the Jeep was adventure-ready for another year (SPOILER: it wasn't...). Otherwise, the garden was starting to come into bloom and the cobwebs of a cold winter would be shaken off by our first major trip of the year...
Naples! A lot of complex things came together in the early part of the year and led to me almost throwing this holiday together at the last minute, but I'm seriously glad I did. I won't completely retread the details of the trip because I wrote all about that in our travel diary, but on this trip, I got to experience some of the greatest food of my life, see some incredible places and experience a healthy dose of culture shock as we tried to navigate the bustle of Naples sprawl as two people from a relatively quiet UK city. Pompeii will be a lifelong memory for me, an unquestionable wonder and every bit as incredible as I had hoped, but we also got some nice surprises, like Castel Sant'Elmo atop the city, an incredible visit in its own right! Naples was brilliant, I could see it not being everyone's cup of tea, but I adored the trip. What I didn't adore was Charles De Gaulle Airport! This is the trip we took with Lufthansa during their strikes in the early part of the year, and our return trip turned from a 50-minute layover in Munich to a 4-hour stop in Paris - what an absolute nightmare that was, I don't think I've ever felt more burnt out by the end of a day, but it was worth it to experience Italy (plus, the payout from Lufthansa afterwards certainly took off the sting).
DIY returned in the spring, as I got sick of looking at the messy "boot" area of the jeep (that being where the back seats used to be). I had fun with this project, last year I had purchased a mitre saw to help with the laminate flooring and I used it here to build a lockable boot tidy that reuses the old back seat mounts - completely over-engineered, this thing is strong enough to stand on and I even went out of my way to try to carpet it the same as the jeep, I think it turned out great! Just in time for our May holiday to go back to one of our favourite places: Barmouth!
Our journey was a smooth one, right up until the mountain pass after Dinas Mawddwy, where the jeep began making a strange whining noise and then, about 20 yards from my destination, the clutch went pop. I am grateful for this: If your car is going to die, ideally it will do it within spitting distance of the start or end of my journey. I am happy to say Welsh mechanics are lazy and useless, after having spoken to practically all of them within a 20-mile distance of Barmouth and hearing that none of them, not even the "4x4 specialists", could do a Jeep clutch: Bollocks to the lot of you, as me and my Dad changed that clutch in my driveway. I had it carted back by the AA to my house and left it there to sort out when I got back. Shame really, because I would have been happy to pay quite a lot to get a clutch changed, and it turns out, as with most things on the Jeep, it was very cheap to get a clutch kit and a surprisingly straightforward job. I am lucky, as someone who works from home and has access to other cars I don't desperately need to have my car up and running again, so instead I stuck it down the side of my house and we worked for a few weeks, each Saturday afternoon, to get the gearbox dropped, taking our time and doing it right. This was another job that was a testament to having the right tools for the job, having an impact gun and a scissor gearbox lift made life so much easier! Plus, the beauty of the jeep shone through once again: there aren't many cars you can change a clutch on without jacking it up or taking the wheels off. Unfortunately, about 1 month after finishing the Jeep's clutch, Rox's Fiesta's clutch started to go, I had had enough of crawling under cars for a lifetime, so we just paid to have that one fixed...
But all that was to come, we were still in Wales and looking to make lemonade with life's lemons. We went with our best option to still get around without breaking the bank: trains! I wrote all about our week using the trains to get around and its perks (and flaws), but the holiday was genuinely salvaged by the trains (and good weather). We managed to cobble together stops at various towns along the coast, and found plenty to do - I actually had a great time on this holiday, it forced me to visit places I maybe would have only driven through otherwise, as well as revisit old favourites and spend more time exploring them. The best visits from this trip have to be the gorgeous Borth-y-Gest coastal walk from Porthmadog and hiking up and over Barmouth to visit the Welsh flag, but each visit to a different town had brilliant memories, such as Harlech's beautiful beach and a rainy day in Tywyn enjoying the food. Plus, this was the holiday of the Northern Lights, so we got to spend one incredible evening enjoying the glow over the sea!
Back home and back to normal life. While simultaneously working on the Jeep's clutch each weekend I also did battle with more DIY projects, including my most hated job: plumbing. Nothing with plumbing ever seems to go right, you can buy brand new items, clean everything up properly, tighten everything down and water still finds a way to ruin your day. Bathroom sinks were the bane of my existence this year, but halfway through getting the Jeep sorted and sick of sitting under sinks, it was time to embark on another adventure...
Prague! The Czech Republic called in late June for a sunny city break full of beer and incredible history down every street and alleyway. We flew out of this one from Birmingham Airport, which you might remember was having an absolute nightmare in terms of getting people through due to work going on - turns out there is a neat trick to this, if your flight is one of the first of the day, you get to skip the entire queue! We had a blast, saw all of the things you expect to see around Prague and enjoyed just about every type of beer there was to enjoy - a great holiday all around. For me, the best part of this trip was climbing over Prague to see the castle, but we did so much walking and there were some absolute gems like the Vyšehrad fortress to the south. Every street in Prague had something you could write about, and it is certainly a city worthy of anyone's time.
Holidays behind us and heading into the depths of summer, life went back to normal for the most part. I learnt a little something about fledglings one day as I walked back from the gym on a sunny summer's morning, with a tiny little bird just chilling in the centre of the path. I wasn't sure what to do, but with dogwalkers approaching I carefully picked it up using my hat and brought it home - talking to various bird rescue sanctuaries they said it is normal for birds of just-out-of-the-nest age to be not particularly good at self-preservation and are often still cared for by the mother outside of the nest, I returned the little one to roughly the same place, only this time in the undergrowth nearby and hopefully, somewhere its mother would find it.
It was not all happy memories around this time, as my parent's dog Bella, although for the years I lived in their house she was as much my dog as theirs, passed away after a long and happy life filled with adventures of her own. I don't like to focus on the negative too much, but Bella's passing was like losing a best friend and a member of the family rolled into one. She will always have a special place in my heart, being the first dog in my life, and thankfully as time goes by we can all start to look back fondly on our memories of her - the grumpiest but most loving Border Terrier ever.
By mid-September, we were ready to visit Wales all over again, this time on a fresh clutch ready to adventure. I don't think I've ever been more nervous about a drive than that one, an exact mirror of the route that killed it the first time, and the first real test of mine and my dad's workmanship. It all went off without a hitch, and we were back in business bounding all over Eryri to see some amazing things. You'd think we would have long run out of places to visit, but each time we come back I find more and more amazing things to see. From the beauty of Penrhyn Castle, to more simple things like catching Barmouth at a really low tide and being able to walk all of the way out to the point. One of the biggest surprises was our visit to Pili Palas Nature World and its simply phenomenal butterfly room - I was never expecting to have such incredible creatures flying just over your head. I rounded the week out with my first solo climb of a mountain, for various reasons a planned trip up Cadair Idris ended with only me making it to the top, but it was still an incredible experience, even if it was a mountain I was already very familiar with! This Wales trip was another great one and marked the move towards the end of the year.
Back home and another new experience was coming my way - my parents were in the process of moving home, so we ended up fish-sitting! Using one of the bin-like pools that garden centres use to store and sell fish, we moved in my parent's collection of fish ready for them to bed down for the winter. Otherwise, the seasons changed, snow came and went and before we knew it, December was here, and we had one last trip in mind... Bath! Bath has been on my list forever and I am so glad I did, not just to see the Roman Baths but the city looks incredible, and I think it was well worth a visit. We also got one more National Trust stop-in before the year was up, checking out the always awesome Attingham Park, but this time in full Christmas mode - what a great way to get into the festive season!
I'm also glad to report my parents, having mourned and then since felt the vacuum left by Bella, went and got a puppy just before Christmas - so now they have a snapping turtle dressed up as a dog named Dorris! And she is just as cute as you'd expect:
So that was 2024 - Fewer little adventures, but two very big adventures to make up for it! We always conclude these by looking back at my goals, as set out in 2023 in review and then set some new ones, and it isn't starting too well...
- Again, Arrange a camping trip somewhere, ideally local, so we can test out our camping set-up and see what more we need
- Again, Ride my first 50-mile ride
- Visit, at least, 3 new cities
- Climb 1 mountain
For reference, the "Again" in each of those first two points is because we originally set those points in the 2022 in review... so it brings me no joy to admit that we once again failed on both of them. On the first point, we genuinely did try! We went out of our way to get some of the missing gear we needed and even trialled the set-up - our two-man pop-up tent was briefly erected in the middle of our living room, so maybe I could argue that we did "test" our set-up, but I think its fair to say this didn't count. On the second point, that is entirely on me, but also British weather - I have mostly been visiting the gym in place of cycling, so I didn't get out anywhere near as much as in previous years so I simply didn't manage to scrape together a 50-mile ride.
The good news starts here though, as we certainly hit our 3 new city goal, and what cities they were! Naples, Prague and Bath make a great and varied trifecta of new cities to add to the long list of cities I have already seen, and climbing 1 mountain has been checked off. Admittedly, it was a familiar mountain, Cadair Idris, but a mountain all the same. So the 2024 goals, I think it is only fair that I once again roll over the two I failed because I do want to hit them, so here it is:
- Again AGAIN, Arrange a camping trip somewhere, ideally local, so we can test out our camping set-up and see what more we need
- Again AGAIN, Ride my first 50-mile ride
- Hit a new max steps in a day (currently 60k)
- Climb to 3 new trig points (be they mountains or hills)
- Visit 1 new National Park
Wish me luck... Now onto the stats:
Top 3 most visited articles of 2024
So both Arthog Falls and Rhiwargor Waterfall remain in the top 3 from last year, but Stwlan Dam launched itself into the number 1 spot! This pushed Rhaeadr Cynfal out of the top 3, hope you all enjoyed climbing up to the battery in the mountains...
Top 3 most frequently taken quizzes of 2024
So both Historical Flags of the World and the nicknames of the United Kingdom's cities remain in the same places from last year, but the second place Name the UK cities and Towns gets swapped out for UK rivers. You've also improved! The average score of both Historical Flags and the nicknames quiz increased by 1 from last year - congratulations! As with most years, if you're enjoying being quizzed then the 2024 big quiz of the year will be right up your alley.
The most popular tool or game in 2024
Yep, it is hardly surprising that the weekly crossword remains the highest tool or game in terms of popularity! It has the advantage of being populated with new content, well, weekly!
Hope you enjoyed this retrospective, have a great 2025 and I look forward to sharing more amazing adventures with you as the year goes on.
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