Once upon a time, I bought a donkey and set off around the coast of Wales on a journey that I thought would take three months and be a sweet little tale of bonding with an animal, and turned out to be a whole lot more than that.

The donkey and I travelled right around Wales, from my home town of Aberystwyth and back to Aberystwyth, clockwise. We waked as close to the coast and border as we could, on the nicest paths and roads that we could manage. Sometimes we had to go on A-roads, but most of the time we could find something better – small backroads, beautiful bridleways, all sorts of ‘other routes with public access’, as they are known these days. We stayed in all sorts of wonderful places – there is a list here.

If you delve through this website you will find blogs on the arduous preparation process of finding the donkey, trying not to kill the donkey, going on the walk, and eventually running a fantastically successful crowdfunding campaign and using the loot to write a book and make a film.

Since then I’ve had two children (pets, eh? Gateway drug to more responsibility), neglected this blog, done a bunch of writing about bringing up wild babies and trying to find myself in all the mayhem. My partner, co-parent and filmmaker Rhys has taken on more Chico adventures, walking him across Wales to begin training with some amazing mules, and then bringing him to Bardsey Island where we were living as wardens last summer.

There are sure to be more adventures in the future – Chico’s staying part of the family, and the family are slowly getting more portable. Do sign up to the newsletter below to hear of new adventures and other very, very occasional updates.