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What is a Liebster Award?
In the vast sea of travel bloggers now on the Internet it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd, but with support from your fellow bloggers and awards like Liebster it gives you that little bit more exposure and helps connect you with the travel blogging community as a whole. The Liebster award was created for bloggers by other bloggers and is a fun way to recognise and promote new and up and coming blogs.
The rules of the nomination are as follows:
- Thank blogger who nominated you and display the award
- Answer the 11 questions
- Give 11 random facts about yourself
- Nominate 6 -11 other bloggers
- Create a new list of 11 questions for your nominees
- Inform your nominees
We received our award from “Andi on Adventure” and we were honoured to accept the award and would like to thank her for this opportunity. I never heard of the Liebster award until now but it is great way of promoting new blogs and learning more about the person behind the blog.
So here are the 11 questions given to us by Andi…
1.) If you won the lottery and money was no object, where would you travel?
Had this question been asked of us 2 years ago we would have said Antarctica! But as it happens we have now booked a 12 day cruise for February 2017 and working and saving hard to pay it off! If we won the lottery then that is the first thing I would pay off. Other than that we would like to see more of Southern and Eastern Africa, a road trip through Canada and the USA and buy a campervan to tour Europe. Vaughan has a dream of seeing the northern lights
2.) What is one of your favourite travel memories?
Jayne: I think it would have to be the very first time I quit my job in the late 90’s and took off on my very first big solo backpacking adventure. I left a very cold grey, wet England in January 1998 and less than 24 hours later arrived to the sunshine and swaying palm trees of Hawaii. I will never forget that very first morning strolling down the beach feeling the warm tropical air on my face and smiling at the blueness of the sky. I felt the ultimate sense of freedom and excitement of starting my big adventure and my new home of Australia that awaits.
Vaughan: The first time I went to England. Ever since studying English history at school its always been my dream to go. I finally got to go for the first time in 2002 with Jayne and I loved every minute of it and the experience was even better sharing it with Jayne who showed me the country she was born and grew up in. I just couldn’t get enough of the history, the old English pubs and the beautiful green countryside. I dragged Jayne around every church, castle and ruined abbey I came across!
3.) Do you prefer solo travel or travelling with others? Why?
Jayne: I have experienced both. My first big travel adventure was in 1998 when I left England and travelled solo for over 2 years before finally settling down in OZ. For the last 16 years I have travelled with my husband Vaughan who loves to travel as much as me. I was in my late 20’s when I travelled solo but then you’re never really alone as you’re always meeting people but you can choose to be on your own if you wish. The longest I travelled with Vaughan was 12 months and surprisingly we didn’t end up killing each other! Haven’t travelled both solo and with others I would say that in this stage of my life I definitely prefer travelling with my partner and we both enjoying meeting people along the journey. You have the excitement of sharing the adventure together and also someone to look out for you.
Vaughan: Other than family holidays I have only ever travelled with Jayne and I love sharing the experience of seeing a new place with my wife.
4.) What are 3 things you always pack in your carry on bag?
Jayne: My Bose noise cancelling headphones, a godsend on plane travel (what screaming kid?) 🙂 small toothbrush and toothpaste, spare undies (just in case the big bag doesn’t show up!)
Vaughan: My kindle for sure, I love my books
5.) What are the top 3 countries on your Bucket List?
Jayne: Japan, Tibet and Costa Rica
Vaughan: Slovenia and I would like to see more of France and Germany
6.) What inspired you to start blogging?
Jayne: I always had a blog with a website called Travbuddy, it was a great way to keep an electronic version of my diary as a reminder of my travels and to share information with others. Travbuddy is also like a facebook for travellers where you can have Travbuddy friends and I have met some great people through it. But before our 12 month trip in 2013/2014 I decided I would have a go at setting up my own website and try actual blogging, I was inspired to do this by seeing other travellers blogs. With your own website you have more control with the look and feel, reach a bigger audience and I enjoy sharing our travels as well as inspiring others. I do the writing and Vaughan does the editing, his English skills are better than mine!
7.) What is your worst travel experience?
This would have to be when we were robbed in Chile. We were travelling on the overnight bus from Arica to San Pedro de Atacama and made a stop in the horrible town of Calama in the early hours. The thieves came on the bus and use stealth to take Vaughan’s day pack from under his seat and they even had the cheek to take one of his shoes! We lost most of our electronics including laptop, go pro, kindle, pocket camera and tablet. Thank fully they didn’t get my SLR, passports and cash which were safely with me. We lost a few photos on the pocket camera and our Galapagos videos. We were angrier at the fact we could have prevented it by moving our day packs to our laps and being fully awake. We learnt a valuable lesson, never drop your guard no matter how safe people say the country is… particularly in South America!
8.) In your opinion, which country has the best food?
Hands down Thailand! Although India comes close too.
9.) What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen?
This is a tough question as we have seen many beautiful places from the Great Barrier Reef Islands in Australia to the Himalayas of Nepal. There is no one true place that really stands out to be honest although that might change after we have seen Antarctica, Patagonia and Tahiti’s Bora Bora next year 🙂
10.) If you could live anywhere, where would you choose?
If we were financially independent then we would move to South Island New Zealand as we love mountains and hiking but we would also have to have a home on the Coast of Northern NSW or Far North Queensland so we can escape the Kiwi winter! But I have to say we do love our home city of Melbourne, a city of culture, great cafes and restaurants, there is always something on you can’t get bored here.
11.) What is your top tip for beginning bloggers?
Perseverance! Don’t give up and don’t expect a big audience within a few weeks. It can take months even a year to get known, I’m still working on it and I’ve been blogging for a while now. Keep your blog design simple don’t clutter it with too many plugins or it will slow down your site. Get the posts out there as often as possible and link your blog with social media sites. One good plugin I recommend is Google Analytics so you can track the progress of your blog.
11 random facts about us..
- Jayne emigrated to Australia from the UK in 1998 her visa cost her 200 pounds!
- Jayne met Vaughan in Melbourne 18 months after she arrived in Australia from the UK. We have now been married since 2003
- When not travelling Vaughan is busy being a cub leader and has been for over 20 years. His compass and navigation skills got us out of trouble once on a not so memorable hike in Victoria’s high country. Vaughan is also a Queen Scout.
- Vaughan never drank alcohol or ate curry until he met Jayne hmmm what does that tell you 😉 but she still can’t get him to eat peas!
- Jayne’s ever first visit to France was with the British Shropshire Judo team to compete against a local Paris team. She was 14 and managed to get herself lost in the city centre and the club sent out a search party for her! Proof she even had the wanderlust gene back then 🙂
- Vaughan’s dream is to learn to fly a plane
- We both grew up learning to ride horses and both had our own ponies as kids but both of us haven’t ridden a horse for over 20 years.
- Vaughan loves to sail and Jayne is petrified of sailing! the one activity we don’t share a love of
- Vaughan was on TV in 2015 as a contestant on “Millionair Hot Seat” unfortunately a boxing question caught him out 🙁
- Jayne went on her first backpacking trip to Switzerland when she was 26, after that she was hooked
- Back when he was a kid going into his teenage years Vaughan competed at state level in swimming.
My award nominees are:
- Kat is Travelling
- DUFFELBAGSPOUSE TRAVELS
- Hummingbird Away
- Big Turtle Small Owl
- World Wandering Kiwi
- Elizabeth and Dale Abroad
- Westwards
- Where To This Time
11 Questions for my nominees are:
- What is the best place you have experienced while travelling?
- What is the worst place you have experienced while travelling?
- What was the first place you ever travelled to?
- What is the weirdest food you have tried on your travels?
- If you were to recommend one place or experience in your home country for travellers to see/do where/what would it be?
- Where is the most scenic place you have seen so far?
- What is the worst journey you have endured and what mode of transport was it?
- Why do you travel?
- When you are not travelling what are your hobbies?
- Why did you start blogging?
- What is your next travel destination?
