Nettie and Dave aka the climbing backpackers stumbled onto our feed a little while ago and we’ve been hooked ever since. Blending shoestring backpacking with extreme sport it’s easy to see why. Now onboard as iquique ambassadors and recently back from a trip lasting over a year, living off $10 a day and climbing the plethora of cliffs in Asia, we thought we’d catch up with them to see how it all went and what’s next for the adventurous duo.
iqu: Firstly, what ignited the wild idea of backpack climbing through Asia for over a year?
Nettie & Dave: We always wanted to go on a big trip but we were both self employed and running our own businesses… On New Year’s Day 2023, we landed in Thailand for a 3 week climbing trip and on day one, Dave managed to fully rupture his Achilles tendon!
This led to him having to sell his business as he was the only one who could run it. After so many years stuck with responsibility’s this felt like the perfect catalyst for a great idea and the rest is history!
iqu: How hard was it living off $10 a day in Asia?
Nettie & Dave: This varied from place to place, overall it was pretty hard. We really gave up our usual comforts and slept on peoples floors, ate the cheapest food, walked for miles with heavy bags to avoid paying for transport… yeah it was hard!
iqu: What was your one favourite day when on the road?
Nettie & Dave: There are too many to mention but we do have one very memorable day in India. We received a message on Instagram (when we still had under 2000 followers) from a guy who wanted to climb with us, we of course said “sure!” And took him bouldering.
After climbing we went out for food and made friends with another traveller at the restaurant, then all 4 of us headed to a jump spot on a famous lake. The guy we’d met for climbing proceeded to jump into the water, completely forgetting that he cannot swim… so we had to drag him out of the water… it was hilarious and sketchy. The day ended with us walking up Matanga hill for sunset- just look it up and you’ll understand why it was memorable!
iqu: Finally, what’s next for you both?
Nettie & Dave: Our page has opened up some epic opportunities for us, we’ve had some invites to quite a few climbing spots and plan to spend September until Christmas in Europe (Greece and Turkey) and then we aren’t sure… there are a few options! In general we want to volunteer and do bits and pieces to earn money, then spend our time living cheaply and climbing rocks.
Round up: Well, if there’s ever a conversation to inspire you to pack a few essentials into a bag and head out to pursue your passion, this brief chat with Nettie and Dave is just that. Unwavering commitment to something they love, which organically creates a lifestyle centred on underconsumption, is something we can wholeheartedly get behind. They’re kitted out with iquique threads and will be trotting through Europe in just a couple of weeks. We wish them all the best and can’t wait to continue working with them.
