There are positives to everything, just sometimes it takes a little while to find them. When the Covid-19 pandemic, I was distraught to find all my speaking and conference gigs being cancelled. With a handful of phone calls and emails, I lost thousands of dollars and was freaking out about how to pay my mortgage. (And I know I’m not alone in that, all around the world.)
Enter: The Grounded Travel Writers series
But luckily, I work with some fabulous people and Margaret from the City of Joondalup Libraries, where I’ve often spoken about blogging, podcasting and travel topics over the past few years, was open to hearing some new ideas, and I suggested to her that I could record a series of “talks” to be viewed online, since we couldn’t present events in person as we usually do.
I’m so pleased that Margaret took me up on that idea and as a result, I recorded four interviews which we called the Grounded Travel Writer series – I chatted with four incredible travel writers who are usually impossible to pin down, because they’re always spread somewhere magical across the globe, but thanks to the pandemic, were stuck at home and ready to talk to me!
So, a huge thanks to the Joondalup Libraries Adult Problem for commissioning these interviews, and they were too much fun to not share more widely, so here they are!
Catherine Marshall – Gorillas and Groundings
A real highlight of this pandemic has been finding multi-award-winning travel writer Catherine Marshall at home and ready to chat, as she is otherwise usually in some far-flung corner of the world. Proving that even pandemic-clouds have gloriously silver linings, I have had all kinds of chats with Catherine in the past couple of months and this one was a highlight, hearing about some of her travel experiences stretching from the Congo to Chicago, and her ideas for future travels too.
Tracey Croke – Adventures in Kyrgyzstan
I’d met Tracey briefly through the Australian Society of Travel Writers but it wasn’t until we started co-hosting Zoom chats for the society every Friday evening during lockdown that I started to hear more of her incredible travel stories – including some of these from Kyrgyzstan (a country whose name I need to spell very slowly every time I type it!).
Kim Yuhl – Florence Sunsets
I’ve had the utter pleasure of working together with Kim for a few years now through a business group and have loved following her nomadic life around the world with her equally adventurous husband Way. They had to suddenly leave Malaysia and head back home to the United States when the pandemic hit, and it was so lovely to talk to her there.
Caro Ryan – Pinch-Me Moments at Ureparara, Vanuatu
Caro is another friend from the Australian Society of Travel Writers who always astounds me with her adventurous nature and energy, and it was so much fun to chat with her about some of her travels for this series.
A huge thanks to these fabulous travel writers for their stories, and again to City of Joondalup Libraries for getting the Grounded Travel Writers out of their living rooms and onto the web – hopefully it’s not long before they are out travelling again and adding to their repertoire of fantastic stories.
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