Our favourite people who are 100% f**k it

Last October, 20-year old Barney Rule decided to go for a walk to clear his head after a big night out in Edinburgh. A month later he found himself in the south of France. He’d always wanted to walk to Spain, so he figured why stop now? His plan when he reaches his final destination is to come back as far as Paris and write about what he’s learnt, so keep an eye out for a book about blister management hitting the shelves some time in 2021.

Having had his carefully planned proposal ruined by an obscure travel restriction problem that you probably won’t have heard of, one man found an innovative plan B, swapping Iceland, the romantic destination of sweeping dark landscapes for Iceland the supermarket. He shares the award for least intrinsically romantic proposal venue with one of our own team, who popped the question outside a chip shop in one Bristol’s less fancy areas. He argues that it was where they had their first kiss, but we’re not sure if that makes it better or worse.

More impulsive geography here, from a couple who moved to the Hebrides without ever having visited. Buffy Cracknell and Alex Mumford of Westbury-on-Trym saw an advert placed by the Isle of Rum, looking for new residents to bolster its thirty-strong population. Having had a year of city life in Bristol, they were after a bit more countryside in their lives and now they have plenty, with snowy slopes and the sea the only sights from their remote island home.

Find out more about their adventures here

In 1968 a couple of friends were wondering about a road trip for the summer. Passing a garage they stopped in on a whim to ask about the price of some of the old buses. A couple of weeks later they were setting off in a giant double decker bus, with the seats ripped out, mattresses installed and seven or eight friends recruited to share the journey with them. Their route was a mad ramble through Belgium, Germany and all the way down to Istanbul, with a rotating cast of inhabitants they picked up along the way. Not bad for a crazy idea.

Photo credit: 1968 CRD253 GROUP | Read the full story by Francesca Williams on the BBC.

Will and Penny, owners of Brook House Woods, had always longed for something a bit wilder in their lives. One day Penny came home to find Will beaming triumphantly and announcing that he’d discovered what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. They were going to live in the woods, build cabins and run workshops. Amazingly, he was right. Through a few chance meetings they went from a city flat to a Herefordshire caravan in a few months, giving up the urban life completely. They’ve never looked back and their brilliant escapes have flourished in the freedom the forest gives them to relax and create.