Going the Whole Hogg with Kim and Del

Kim and Del Hogg have spent the last 19 years on the road, visiting almost every corner of the globe. From Mount Everest to the beaches of New Zealand, they've seen it all. These two are never in one place for long, be it jetting off to explore a new country or setting sail on the Bessie Ellen. They have been sharing their travels on social media for a long time now, and in doing so they've made us all terribly jealous of their amazing experiences along the way. We sat down to chat with Kim and Del about their adventures, their favourite spots, where they always end up going back to, and their new lives as Tiny Home owners in the very north of Scotland. 

I (Kim) have had a passion for travel since my late teens, and Del and I have been travelling and working abroad together ever since we met in 2007. For a long time our photos, videos, and travelogue emails were just for ourselves, friends, and family. Then, in 2015 we moved to South Korea, where we taught English for 3 years, saving up for another extended backpacking trip. During this time we both started sharing photos on Instagram as a creative outlet, and engaging with other travellers and photographers on the platform. I’d always been a Lonely Planet guidebook devotee, but while researching our travel plans I started coming across various online travel blogs which were really helpful, provided a different perspective, and threw up new ideas. 

It got me thinking about what advice or information we could share to help and inspire other travellers, drawing on our own travel experiences, and my background organising round the world trips and backpacking adventures for thousands of people while working for STA Travel. And so, those blogs were really the initial inspiration for Going The Whole Hogg, sparking the idea to start our own travel website and social media channels in the hope that we could turn our love of travel into a sustainable way of life while creating valuable resources and inspirational content for others.

Over the years people often asked us if we planned to ‘settle down’ and if so where, and while I didn’t have any idea of when I might want a more permanent base, my gut feeling was always that it would be in Scotland. In the end, the catalyst for putting down roots was my mum’s diagnosis with PLS Motor Neurone Disease in 2022, the rarest and slowest progressing form of MND. The urge to travel and live abroad for months or years at a time disappeared, wanting to stay closer to home for the time being instead. I’d had an interest in tiny houses for years, drawn to the clever design, flexibility, and simplicity of small home living, so it was a given that if we were to swap our nomadic lifestyle for a more permanent base then only a Tiny would do! 

Figuring out how to make that happen in Scotland was tricky, where, unlike places like New Zealand, there isn’t much of a tiny house movement. Thankfully we found the wonderful small team at Echo Living to design and build our home, and after searching all over the north of Scotland for somewhere to site it, we found the perfect wee plot in northeast Caithness. It’s a great base for setting off on Highland and Island adventures, and we live in a rural environment but have the benefit of shops, a cinema, library, and other services just a short drive away.

Kim - It’s been brilliant. I still go to sleep and wake up with a smile on my face in appreciation of the beautiful space around us. The internal dimensions of our house (10.5 m long x 2.6 m wide x 2-3 m high) sound pretty small on paper, but it’s never felt too small for us because it’s thoughtfully designed to be both practical and beautiful. Everything has its place, and we each have our own separate spaces to work. Big windows bring in loads of natural light, make the physical space feel expansive, and keep us connected to the outdoors. I guess I’m most surprised at how much tiny house living has made me re-assess every other house I step into, often noticing how much unnecessary or poorly designed space there is. My brain just automatically starts re-designing spaces from a micro-home mindset, which never happened in the past. 

Del - I’ve hugely enjoyed it and really love the simplicity of small space living. There have been a few occasions when I’ve felt stuff start to accumulate and been happily forced to deal with it – something that’s easy to let slide when you have more space to store things out of sight. Like Kim, I also appreciate the connection to the outdoors that comes with our own tiny house design. What surprised me when walking through our half-built home in the workshop and continues to surprise me today, is how spacious it actually feels. Those seemingly small physical dimensions belie the actual feeling you get when inside – a clear nod to the clever overall design and choice to maximise window space.

I think the biggest lesson has been that living with less, while travelling or at home, is not only physically freeing, but mentally freeing too. We haven’t always had a minimal approach to house decor, but over the last decade or so we’ve come to realise that living in small, uncluttered spaces has a positive impact on us both mentally. Our minds feel freer, calmer, and more focused. We both find it quite stressful being in busy, messy, cluttered environments now, and struggle to really relax or concentrate. While travelling, living with less is a necessity because there’s only so much you can carry, and the knock-on effect of downsizing your possessions to fit in a 60 - 70 litre backpack is realising just how little you actually need. If you have the space, in your house or backpack, the tendency is to fill it, and it becomes all too easy to accumulate more and more ‘stuff’ that, really, you just don’t need. And in our experience, that ‘stuff’ just becomes both a physical and subconscious burden.

The Outer Hebrides. I took my first trip there in 2007 to visit a friend in Uist, and Del and I have been back together or with friends umpteen times since, either cycling the Heb Way, or on sailing, camping, or campervan trips. The very act of getting on a ferry and arriving at an island is a physical escape, but that expansive watery separation from the mainland is an immediate mental escape too. When I think of my happy place, it’s watching the sky erupt in sunset colours at 11pm on the beach at Vatersay, Hosta, or Luskentyre, to a soundtrack of oystercatchers, before retreating to our tent to be lulled to sleep by the waves. And the wildlife! Uist is the only place we’ve seen owls in the wild, and we’ve spotted a basking shark, eagles, puffins, gannets, and other seabirds galore.  

Kim - Ohh, now that’s a big question! There are so many. One is the country of Georgia. We spent two years there, arriving a week before the borders closed due to COVID – borders that didn’t fully re-open for 18 months. I have pretty varied interests when it comes to travel, and somehow this relatively small country delivers on almost all of them. Georgian food and wine is seriously good, and we both fell in love with local amber wine and natural wine produced in traditional qvevri (clay amphora buried in the ground). Tbilisi, where we spent extended periods, is a vibrant and captivating city with a jumble of old and new architecture that seems to sum up the sense of tradition and modernity that can be felt there. The geography of the land is incredibly varied, ranging from the snowy high peaks of the Greater Caucasus mountains in the north, to the high altitude volcanic plateau of Javakheti in the south; and the fertile plains of Kakheti, and badlands, mud volcanoes and savannah of Vashlovani in the east, to the subtropical forests and black sand beaches of the Black Sea coast in the west. 

We explored all over the country, hiking hundreds of kilometres through the Caucasus Mountains, including many sections of the newly developed Transcaucasian Trail, and spent weeks off-roading in a couple of different rented 4x4 campervans, seeking out everything from centuries-old cave towns to Soviet-era mosaics and bus stops. Hospitality is ingrained in the culture and we had countless memorable homestay and guesthouse experiences, typified by delicious feasts, warm, passionate hosts, and more often than not spectacular mountain views. We’ll be back, for sure. 

Del - Oman keeps pulling us back, three trips and counting. The first was a two-week trip as part of our honeymoon, travelling around in a little 4x4 and staying in hotels, guesthouses and homestays. The two trips since have been altogether bigger: month-long adventures in more capable off-road vehicles, wild camping the whole way. Between the three, we've clocked up over 10,000 miles and crossed the country from top to bottom.

To us, it feels like Oman has it all. Imposing mountains, expansive deserts, long sandy beaches, palm-filled wadis, and dramatic coastlines make Oman’s landscape surprisingly varied. Add an unrivaled network of well-maintained dirt roads and unblemished highways, and you've got one of the best road-trip countries anywhere, one you can happily lose yourself in time and again. We’ve camped in some truly incredible spots here, often with curious goats or passing camels for company. Omanis are friendly and open, their culture of hospitality making you feel instantly welcome. It’s a country that’s modern and easy to travel around, yet still traditional at heart, offering a clear contrast to the ultra-modern cityscapes of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Oman is never far from our thoughts, the perfect place to escape the Scottish winter.

Yeah, she is a truly unique and special piece of history, and one of the last of her kind still sailing today. Bessie Ellen is a traditional wooden West Country trading ketch, built in Plymouth in 1904. She was a cargo trading vessel until the 1970s, working first around southwest Britain and later in Denmark. She was bought in 2000 by experienced seafarer and absolute grafter Nikki Alford, who spent a couple of years restoring her and transforming the former cargo hold into a saloon with bunks for 12 guests. Nikki has been running charter trips in the UK and beyond ever since. We were invited aboard for one such sailing holiday in 2023 and fell in love with the boat, the experience, and Bracken, the ship’s dog and chief dolphin sniffer. 2024 marked Bessie Ellen’s 120th anniversary, and to celebrate Nikki embarked on a circumnavigation of the UK, split into 13 legs. She was keen to document the voyage in some way, and we answered a call out on social media to join her once again to capture one of the legs, or indeed all of them if she fancied. Nikki phoned us straight away and a plan was hatched for us to join as camera crew and document a year in the life of the ship. We spent a week on a firefighting, sea survival and first aid course that everyone working at sea must do, then headed to historic Gloucester Docks to join Nikki and the crew as they finished up the winter refit, rigged the ship, and readied to set sail. 

We had practically zero sailing experience, so it was daunting but also incredibly exciting, and it turned out to be one of the most unique periods of our lives, and an amazing experience in so many ways. From a creative perspective, we explored different ways of filmmaking and storytelling, inspired by the subjects around us, from beautiful Bessie Ellen herself to the places we sailed and the people involved with keeping traditional sailing alive, be it Nikki, the crew, shipwrights, paying guests who keep returning year after year, or just anyone who engaged with her. On a personal level, we challenged ourselves, learnt new skills, and loved being in a wee community, sharing the space on board with up to 17 other people (ages ranging from 18 to 80-something) and sparking new friendships and conversations about all sorts. 

Our appreciation for just how special Bessie Ellen really is grew more and more as the months went on and we gained a deeper understanding of just how challenging it is to keep an old wooden boat sailing, with near constant maintenance, time and money required, and the skill, passion and dedication of someone like Nikki. We have an immense amount of footage from that year, and working through it all and editing the full series is an ongoing project, but there’s already 20+ mini-films on our YouTube channel, with plenty more to come. 

Kim - There are many, some of the ‘Type 2 Fun’ sort (usually involving rough weather), and others that just bring a big smile to my face, like one particular day I think of as just perfect. We woke up anchored off Rum, an island Del and I spent a wonderful few days camping and bothying on a few years ago, and set sail for Canna, where we’d never been. It was a hot, sunny day in May, and we had a few hours to explore ashore, so we set off on an impromptu loop hike along the dramatic clifftops on the northern side of the island, with views for days. We then set the sails and drifted in light wind across the Little Minch towards Uist. Skye’s jagged Cuillin ridge was perfectly outlined against the blue sky, a rare sight as it’s usually enshrouded in clouds. We spotted a minke whale, dolphins appeared at the bow, and we devoured lunch, freshly baked cake, and dinner on deck in the sunshine, dropping anchor at a remote and truly beautiful spot by the uninhabited island of Ronay at golden hour, then immediately dinghying ashore for a hike up the nearest hill. It was a perfect combination of revisiting familiar spots but seen from a different perspective, and the buzz of exploring somewhere new. 

Del - One that’s firmly fixed in my mind is our first passage and night sail experience. Over the course of two and a half days, we travelled up the grey and blustery Irish Sea from Pembroke Dock in southwest Wales to Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. It was our first time being in a watch system, 6 hours on, 6 hours off, trying to get the body used to an alien sleep/wake pattern and drinking too many cups of tea while getting to know fellow watch mates. It was the first time sailing Bessie Ellen in the dark, learning to feel the pressure of the waves on the rudder, trying to spot the distant lights of cargo ships and being mystified at the floating Chinese pagoda that turned out to be a cruise ship festooned with fairy lights, and staring in amazement at the phosphorescence just below the surface as inky black waves sloshed against the old wooden hull. And for me, it was the first time helming the boat into our anchorage as I followed Nikki’s shouted instructions, steering through a narrow channel before coming head on into needles of rain as the storm we’d been running from finally caught us up – an experience both nerve wracking and exhilarating, but one I’ve since grown comfortable with.

Kim - I’d never heard of the Isles of Scilly until stepping aboard Bessie Ellen and I loved spending a few glorious late summer days here. We anchored off a different island each night, and spent hours wandering trails ashore, throwing sticks and rocks for Bracken, having a swim, nipping into the pub, and exploring historic sites like a 2000 year old burial chamber and ancient Iron Age village. I was reminded of both The Hebrides and Jeju island in Korea (which we spent a month circumnavigating on the Olle Trail), all mixed in with a unique Scilly vibe of course. 

Del - Perhaps my most memorable spots were Arran and the Kintyre peninsula. We’d been to both before, but visiting them from the water was a special experience. After coming up the Irish Sea, we spent a few days sailing round the island and across the Kilbrannan Sound, heading ashore at some brilliant spots along the way. For me, it was also the perfect excuse to get some proper running in. I spent a couple of hours exploring the hills and glens around Lochranza before rejoining Kim and the others at the pub, tackled part of the Kintyre Way while everyone else wandered the leafy grounds of Torrisdale Castle Estate, and ran to the top of Holy Island and back – all with Bessie's cosy saloon, and the second-to-none food waiting there, very much on my mind.

Our sailing experiences on Bessie Ellen, and subsequently on other boats in the Venture Sail fleet (such as Blue Clipper, Flying Dutchman and Chronos) stemmed from their marketing team’s interest in our St Kilda film on our YouTube channel. Having never sailed before, or been aware that it was even possible to join tall ships like these for a holiday, this pivot in our adventures over the last few years was 100% unexpected. Our most recent trip to Nepal to trek the Langtang Valley, Gosainkunda, and Everest Three Passes routes also came about thanks to social media. A Nepali trekking agency saw our content from a previous 6 week Nepal trekking trip and reached out to collaborate. They were a very young company at the time so we weren’t sure how the experience would go, but Sandip, the founder, is super passionate, hard-working and has a more modern approach to marketing and customer service than we’ve experienced with Nepali trekking agencies in the past. It turned out to be an incredible month spent trekking at high altitude through the Himalaya, reaching our highest point yet at over 5600 metres – looking across the valley to Mt Everest. Most days during that trip I’d have a little moment when I’d stop and think, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we’re here and that this all started with a message from a stranger in our Instagram DMs’.

A trip to Antarctica is definitely up there with ultimate bucket list wishes and has been for many years, and sailing there on a traditional boat would make that even more special. And we haven’t been anywhere in South America, despite Kim having been talking about going since before we even met (and that was 19 years ago!). So, when the time comes for us to head off for a year or two again, it’ll hopefully be to do lots of hiking, road tripping, and backpacking around South America (and fingers crossed sailing to Antarctica too!). 

A huge thank you to Kim and Del for taking the time to chat with us about their incredible travels. If we're ever in need of some travel advice, we know where to go! Keep up to date with the pair's adventures on their Instagram or YouTube, and take a deep dive into their recommendations or plan a trip yourself over on their website.