Wow! What a Surprise to come back from Bali and find we’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award!! Thank you Marya from The BeauTraveler, it really means a lot and certainly brightened our day!

For those wondering what this means (don’t worry; it’s completely new to me too!) the Sunshine Blogger Award is given by bloggers, to new bloggers, who inspire creativity and positivity within the blogging community!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is a great way to recognise new bloggers and connect to others within your niche. It also means you spread the word about writers you love, with your readers! It’s a win win for all involved, so lets spread the love and a little bit of sunshine!!

So without further hesitation here are my answers to Marya’s questions, and my nominations at the end of the post!

What’s the first stamp you got on your very first passport? And why did you go there?

Passport stamps are becoming increasingly rare these days! Thanks to everything going electronic *cries* so my first stamp on my current passport is China, Guangzhou. We were only here for 16 hours as a layover but I’m glad I have the stamp for it! I had my first passport as a small child, so I’m not 100% sure if we got a stamp for our trip to Tunisia but it’s the first trip overseas that I remember!

Tell me one memorable thing that happened during that trip.

I say I remember it but it’s one of those memories where you don’t know if they’re actually your memories or if you remember it because you’ve heard the stories from family so often. I remember going on the camels through the dessert and playing with Tunisian children even though I didn’t understand them very well. Not very vivid memories, but they’re there none the less.

What is the main reason that got you into blogging?

We just really wanted to document our travels and if by documenting them lead to inspiring others to do the same, then that was great. It’s sort of grown a lot more than I was expecting, even though the ‘numbers’ aren’t as massive as other bloggers. I’m proud of our little following and appreciate every single one of them!

If there’s one thing that you’ve learned from blogging, what would that be?

Not to be embarrassed by what your passionate for. I used to really cringe at the thought of people I know reading my work, still do sometimes. As the year has gone by it’s getting easier. I still don’t advertise it as much as I probably should in my personal life but I’ll get there!

Do you have any favorite blog/blogger? What/who would that be and why?

I really love Margarita from Wildlife diaries! She’s so inspiring. Her passion for wildlife is what drives her travels and she’s close to completing her bucket list; to see all of the wild cat species in their own environment. How cool is that! We got the chance to interview her not long ago but I’ve been hooked on her blog and photos for a while.

Want to learn more about Margarita and her wild adventures? Read her interview here!!

If you could write something to the 15-year-old you, what would you write?

I’d tell her not to be so angry! Everything will work itself right, there’s no need to lash out at everyone. She should definitely save her money for the future because she’ll regret not having the money for tickets to see places!

If you could write something to you 10 years from now, what would that be?

… I’m sorry I couldn’t resist those extra donuts haha. No seriously, I’d probably tell her I’m proud of her. I’ve changed a lot in the past year for the better so if that continues I can only imagine what I’ll be like then! Less scared of things I hope! I also hope she’s teaching our kids the importance of travel and being open minded; that’s if we’re not on the road with them of course!!

What are the most essential things in your bag whenever you go traveling somewhere?

We get asked this a lot and people always laugh at my answer – Coconut Oil. You’d think I had shares in it the amount I talk about it and recommend it to others. It’s great for everything so we’ve really cut down on how many pots of things we carry. Dry skin? Insect bites? Itchy scalp? Sun burn?… Coconut oil helps!

Do you have any unique, awkward, or creepy experience when it comes to staying at a hotel or other accommodation? Where did that happen and please tell me about it.

I think our most recent airport encounter is by far the most unique… I don’t know anyone who it’s happened to.

We were super early to the airport for our flight back to Australia due to having some issues with British Airways that needed addressing (that’s gonna be a whooolle other blog post!) So once all that was dealt with we decided to check in, we were one of the first in the queue and thank go we was because our day was about to get a lot more eventful!

As they scanned our passports the woman behind the counter frowned, clicked about on the computer then passed us our passports back. ‘I’m sorry… your visas expired. You can’t travel to Australia without a visa’…. Those who know us know exactly how that went down. I immediately went into melt down mode and left Dec to try and explain to the woman how she must be wrong. We went back and forth for almost an hour and eventually they had to call Australian Immigration and Border force to try and find out what had happened. Almost 2 hours and 10001 questions later, we found out that due to a glitch in the system we were actually still registered as having never left Australia!!! Despite passing through Bali, Singapore (twice) and England!! It’s a situation British Airways staff have never come across before. We got it sorted eventually but it’s definitely got me wanting to turn up for check in super early in future! You just never know what might happen.

If you could change a thing from your current life, what would that be?

To not be Jet Lagged?

In the past month we’ve done 5 flights that are over 10 hours. 3 going back in time, 2 going forward… That takes it’s toll on your body and once now we’re back in Australia it’s safe to say we’re feeling pretty confused right now! Jet lag is something we under estimate every.single.time and it’s more than just being tired. Imagine having a numb hangover but without the fun night before! Then throw in the aches of a heavy gym sesh and the hunger you feel after a good nights sleep… only, it’s 2am and you haven’t slept yet. Yea. It’s like that.

Imagine if the time machine is finally invented, which era would you travel to and why? If you could do anything about it, what would that be and why?

Ooh! Dec says Ancient Egypt to see the Pyramids being built. He loves a good mystery so being able to solve that one would be great!! For me, I’d like to go back to the Dinosaurs and have my very own Jurassic park adventure but only if I could click myself out of there when it got too dangerous!

Thank you Marya!! Those were some great questions. So now, here are my 11 nominees. All travel bloggers, most of which have been blogging a little longer than me but don’t always get the recognition they deserve!

Apologies to those who have taken part in my Inspirational Blogger Series, some of these Q’s might be similar to those I asked you then!

1. Is there anything that still scares you when your on the road?
2. What made you want to start a blog?
3. How did you come up with your blog name?
4. What’s the best + worst thing about blogging your travels?
5. Do you have any advice for travellers looking to start up a blog?
6. What is in your blogging kit?
7. I liked this question from Marya so I’ll repeat it for you guys; What would you say in a letter to your 15 year old self?
8. How do you afford to travel, especially for those who travel full time?
9. If you could move anywhere in the world where would it be?
10. Is there anything you do on your travels or in your every day life to try to minimise your impact on the environment?
11. Do you have any irrational fears that your travels have helped you overcome? How?

So there we are. Thank you ever so much to Marya for nominating us! I can’t wait to see my nominees answers and see which 11 worth bloggers they go on to nominate!!

Coming soon on the blog; Visa Drama’s at the airport, Losing a years worth of photos and so many stories from Bali!!!