I recently returned from walking 1 week of the Via Francigena, an historic pilgrimage route that begins in the medieval city of Canterbury in south-east England, to Rome, the Eternal City. The section I chose to walk, with 10kg on my back, was from the Olympic capital of Lausanne on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, to [...]
Sunday 6th April. 2am, North Haugh, St Andrews. I am herding a cohort of half asleep, half excited 3rd and 5th year students onto a dimly blue-lit coach headed for Edinburgh Airport and a dawn flight bound for Faro, Portugal. Thereafter, an onwards journey into Andalusia, southern Spain, alongside a couple of considerably more seasoned [...]
It's been an exciting first year in my PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of St Andrews, with many challenges - big and small - to be overcome, but I'm proud to say that I've recently passed the first hurdle and am ready to continue in my research journey unraveling the unknowns of explosive [...]
I hope I can be forgiven for this delayed update, but the first 3 months of my PhD have been a busy and exciting whirlwind! There have been undoubtedly intense lab days and more methodical office-based ones, but what I did not expect was just how much I would enjoy being back in academia, and [...]
The PhD begins... in Iceland. Earlier this year, I took-up an offer to study for a PhD in Earth Sciences at the University of St Andrews, starting in September. Indeed, I recently moved back to this beautiful town ready to begin this new chapter. However, it was last month that the research began as I [...]
This is quite a different post from the previous few, but I have some big and important news that marks the beginning of a new chapter: the PhD Adventure Files! Join me here as I begin to chart out my PhD journey into unknown yet incredibly exciting territory... The Big News Well, well. It's been [...]
Following on from Spring in Spain Part 1: Palma de Mallorca, in this post, I'm sharing some of the magic and beauty of Barcelona, and how boarding school friend and colleague Lara and I escaped to the regality of the Catalonian capital for some fun on a small budget over the spring break. From regarding [...]
School holidays, an April escape to Spain with my friend and colleague, Lara. In Part 1, we explore Palma de Mallorca, and I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to this truly beautiful country. From tranquil palm beaches to inspiring art nouveau, Palma is the Iberian Peninsula in miniature, and spring was certainly the [...]
A collection my favourite moments from seven special months in St Andrews & the Scottish Highlands. And, as it turns out, I'll soon be returning there... Summer in Scotland, home in St Andrews, brought so much colour and joy in 2023 - a chance to restore and refresh before embarking on my next adventure (my [...]
The Isle of Barra, a Gaelic rock in the Outer Hebrides and childhood home of my grandmother. If you thought Scotland was wild, Barra is wilder - with stormy seas, chaotic weather conditions and little connection to the outside world. With recent Gaelic ancestry originating from there, I knew this was the year I had [...]
Testament to what happens when life becomes so happy and joyful, please enjoy the next few entries representing my heart's escape back to the wild landscapes of Scotland while my school career presently returns me to England. June 2023: Summer is in full swing here in Scotland, meaning almost endless hours of daylight and plenty [...]
Two months ago, I moved to St Andrews, home of golf and Scotland's oldest university, and life has changed irreversibly in that time. Initially, I thought this would be just a holiday stay with my uncle here; two weeks, then back to life in Portsmouth. But very quickly I fell in love with the town, [...]
I've just finished reading Sir Ranulph Fiennes' new book, Climb Your Mountain, and it is a beautiful tribute to how tackling physical mountains can assist with the even-bigger internal climbs we face. Climb Your Mountain is all about weathering the storms of everyday life, from a man who has braved the most perilous conditions Planet [...]
Friday, 21st October marked the bicentenary of the 1822 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and was the inspiration for an interdisciplinary conference I attended at St. Anne’s College in Oxford. From Volcanology to Art to Literature – prose and poetry across the Grand Tour era – Vesuvius experts met from across the world to share illuminating [...]
If you’re thinking of applying to study Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, then this post is for you. With so many components to the application process to consider, and little guidance ‘out there’ for Earth Sciences, applying can seem daunting, mystical even. But here, I dispel some of those mysteries with experiential guidance [...]
Adventure Becca 