Belka & Us

Belka & Us: A Nomadic Couple's Adventures with a Pomskollie

Lauren and Jon, fuelled by a shared love of adventure, traded their corporate lives for a nomadic lifestyle. They embarked on a journey across Europe with their Pomskollie, Belka, volunteering on farms and exploring hidden gems.

A Shared Love of Adventure

Having been friends at college, we went our separate ways until we reunited when our friendship group were all turning 30 and we celebrated a big group holiday at the New Forest. From here, we rekindled our friendship and eventually became a couple, drawn together by our joint dream of visiting Cuba.

We’d both grown up with pets: dogs, cats, rats, geckos, stick insects…even livestock on a family farm. However, as adults, work and busy lives got in the way of having pets…until lockdown. Like many people, we found our lives completely changed during the pandemic and we finally started looking for a dog together. We’d wanted to adopt a rescue dog, but we were rejected due to living in a city (despite having a garden and living by a park and the beach). Eventually, we found a family whose pomsky (mum) and collie (dad) had a litter of fabulous pomskollie puppies. We fell in love with them straight away and have never looked back! Belka’s mum is named Laika after the first dog in space, so we looked up other notable space dogs. Belka was the second dog in space (along with Strelka), so we liked the idea of keeping up the family tradition! Belka’s character suits his name; he is intrepid, smart, wilful, and knows his own mind (but he is also keen to please us). He’s definitely torn between a well-behaved working collie brain and a naughty, cheeky husky soul.

A New Chapter: Nomadic Travel Writers and Teachers

We’d always travelled; it’s the foundation of our relationship. We’d always loved road trips, including Cuba, Italy and the Baltics. I (Lauren) had been fortunate to work in Ecuador teaching on a student expedition where Jon had joined me for a trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands. These were incredible experiences but always squeezed in around work. However, in 2022 we were ready to embark on a new adventure. Jon left his (high-pressure) corporate role and I (Lauren) left my job at a theatre, where I had been leading the community and education programme. We were both eager to pursue a life of greater freedom and adventure. We wanted to do something that would enable us to be creative and keep travelling. We embarked on an open-ended road trip around Europe in May 2022 with only a few fixed dates and locations: our wedding in May in Copenhagen (an elopement); a friend’s wedding in Prague in June; a family get-together in Italy in September and a family birthday in Spain in October. Between these, we found volunteering opportunities with different sustainable goals: organic farming in Belgium, agrotourism in Montenegro and a viper reserve/campsite in Serbia. We started writing as a way of capturing our experiences and eventually created a website to share this with others who may be looking to plan their adventurous career break. I (Lauren) have a long career in teaching and now tutor online to financially support our travels.

Passionate Storytellers with a Focus on Adventure

Our passion is adventurous, off-the-beaten-track travel…usually with a dog! We are always learning lessons from our trips and hope to share these with others who may be in a similar situation. Our writing is a combination of passion-driven descriptions of our favourite places and experiences alongside practical hints and tips. We usually write articles based on the kind of research we wish had been more easily available to us when we were first planning our big leap of faith. Travel lovers in their 30s and 40s, child-free, dog owners, looking for adventure.

In addition to this, we both have our areas of expertise: Jon loves coffee, cinema and wild road trips. I (Lauren) am always drawn to folklore, legends and the history of our locations. We both love rollercoasters, dog-friendly travel and being in nature.

Together, we also produce audio guides for UK destinations we know well for a global audio guide website called Around.

Balancing Nomadic Life with Writing and Teaching

It’s always a challenge. We have a hectic calendar, constantly on the move (usually house and dog sitting) so we have responsibilities that can be time-consuming. We use the dog care schedule to shape our day and then fit in with them! We are fortunate to be able to work flexibly but this does mean that there’s no real ‘off’ time (even though it may seem as though we’re always on holiday). We check in with each other daily about what commitments we have each day (ie tutoring sessions, writing deadlines, meetings etc) then help each other out by taking charge of cooking dog walks etc. We schedule lots of small rewards and breaks like a coffee in the sunshine to keep motivated. There are days that are highly productive and others less so. Although I’m sure that it’s similar to a traditional office job where distractions and energy levels fluctuate daily.

A Memorable Travel Experience and Its Impact

The one we tell people the most is the time we were volunteering on a Serbian campsite that was later revealed to be located in a viper reserve. Deadly vipers. My phobia of snakes didn’t prevent us from staying the time we’d promised but it did mean that we were living in constant fear and peril. This reached its peak on our weekend when the whole group went for a hike. The plan was to hike for 2 hours up a nearby hill in the dark to be there in time to watch the sunrise, then enjoy the sunrise as we descended back to camp. What actually unfolded was a fifteen-hour ordeal where our leader eventually admitted to never having done the hike before, vipers had to be nervously stepped around and our whole group collapsed back at camp dehydrated, exhausted and shaken almost 20 hours after having set out. At least we had a natural pool by the camp that we all hurled our tired bodies into at the end of the ordeal.

This adventure was uncharacteristically reckless for us, but I was determined not to show weakness due to my snake phobia. I have reflected since that it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to object to being tricked into sleeping in a viper reserve! While we’re still keen to push our limits and have adventures, I feel that I’d be more confident in saying no when we find ourselves in genuine danger in the future.

Occasionally I picture those vipers, sunbathing on the rocks and I shudder.

Belka's Favourite Things

Whatever he can snuffle down…he loves his daily whimzee treat. He’s also known to steal carrots from the vegetable rack. Broccoli and apples…anything crunchy is a preferred snack. Oh, and mini cheddars. I made the mistake of introducing him to the joys of mini-cheddars.

Travel Mode and Exploring the Outdoors

We have an old but reliable (fingers crossed) car that we throw everything into for our travels. We usually have a hammock and tent (and inflatable kayak) in the boot so we can be fairly flexible. Since 2022, we have mainly travelled to hosts via Workaway and Trusted House sitters. We rarely fly. When we go abroad, we’ll go by ferry or train wherever possible. Although my (Lauren’s) sister lives in Japan, we did fly there to spend Christmas with her this year.

Belka loves exploring and observing the world around him. If we take a 5-minute break, he’ll go into zen mode gazing at the scene. We have to be careful though as he’s part husky and really prefers the cold; hot weather is no good for him! This was one of the reasons we worked/lived in the Isle of Skye for summer 2023. The climate was far better suited to our outdoor pursuits and the sky stayed light until almost midnight at the height of the summer so we could finish work around 5 and still go hiking in the cooler evenings.

On our European road trip in 2022, we visited 20 countries. Before that, we’d also done shorter road trips around Italy and the Baltics. As well as this we’ve seen most of Europe on shorter trips including a fantastic sleeper train, the Jazz Festival from Rotterdam to Berlin in 2019.

Outside of Europe, together we’ve travelled to Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Cuba and Japan.

We’ve visited the USA and Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Russia, Mongolia and China in the past decade.

We are now loving exploring more of the UK on housesits with Belka.

We’re always looking for purposeful, interesting ways of visiting more of the world. We’d love to visit Patagonia; that would be the dream destination. We had a trip planned for December 2020 that had to be cancelled so the goal to explore there is still in our minds.

An Unforgettable Encounter with Orcas

Our favourite memory from 2023 (and possibly ever) was the day we saw orcas in the wild. It was a work day. Jon and I had finished our breakfast and housekeeping shifts at the fabulous dog-friendly hotel where we were living and working. The head housekeeper was a local and always gave us great insider tips for places to explore during our time off. We had bonded with her over our love of wildlife and would regularly join her for dog walks around the island.

On this particular day, she had been up the night before watching two orcas who had sheltered overnight in a local bay. By morning they were on the move and, although their movements weren’t 100% predictable, she suspected they’d be heading north. So, once our shift was finished we loaded Belka and some snacks into the car and made our way to the northernmost peninsula of Skye.

Accessing the very furthest outcrop requires a sheer vertical scramble as well as dodging crashing waves and hidden gullies. We’d explored this point before and had spent hours watching seals, dolphins and seabirds…but this day felt like we had a special purpose.

We waited for hours, scanning the waves for any disturbance. Shared our flask of coffee and snuggled up for warmth as the day wore on. We kept saying, ‘Just another five minutes…’ but, of course, neither of us wanted to be the one to call off the search.

Eventually, through his binoculars, Jon saw a frothy splash. A black shape that disappeared as quickly as he saw it making him doubt what he’d seen. As we shifted excitedly, Belka picked up the energy and was straining against his harness to see what we were pointing to.

Another sudden crest revealed a huge black dorsal fin; instantly recognisable. They were still so far away but moved at speed and were soon leaping through the waves towards us. Close enough we could see their iconic monochrome markings and hear puffs of air.

They passed by right through the deep channel we were overlooking, rounded the northern point and then continued their journey circumnavigating the island.

All three of us stood breathless until there wasn’t a single splash or sign of the orcas before bursting out laughing and hugging.

We saw so many wonderful sights during our summer in Skye, but that was by far the most rewarding and magical.