THE MONTHLY #6: When the world turned upside down
Each month, we jot down a personal wrap of our travels, life updates, and general happenings in the life of The Common Wanderer
Well, heck… Where do we even begin with this update?!
As you’ve probably already realised, our latest update is coming to you a little late… and since our last monthly update in November, things have definitely got more than a little bit weird around the world!
To recap the last four months, we finished off last year with brilliant Christmas celebrations with friends in Budapest, then took a trip to the UK to ring in 2020 with our friends Along Dusty Roads
It was wonderfully festive, and the break we needed before throwing ourselves into a busy year of work and adventure. We entered the year with lots of optimism, our highest traffic and earnings ever, a new award, and lots of new business plans underway (more on these below!).
But, like for everyone else, what started as a year full of promise and excitement both personally and professionally quickly went balls-up without warning when the current COVID-19 pandemic ground the world to a halt.
Like many of you, we’ve seen our business impacted severely, and definitely aren’t immune to the anxiety and uncertainty that most people share.
To read more about this, along with the highlights, lowlights, and everything in between of our last few months, read on!
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WE WON TRAVMEDIA BLOGGER OF THE YEAR
As we sat at our gate in a disconcertingly quiet Heathrow Airport, readying ourselves for the 24-hour flight from London back home to Melbourne, we found out that we’d been announced as the TravMedia Blogger of the Year for 2020…!
The TravMedia Awards recognise the ‘finest journalistic, influencer, and PR achievements across the travel sector’, and were announced at the IMM Travel Conference on 10 March.
In our industry, awards like this are kind of the ’travel Oscars’ - a huge recognition of what we do - and we still can’t quite believe that we actually won! Needless to say, we’re also very sad not to have been able to be there to collect it on the night and celebrate with many of our friends who were there too.
This little corner of the internet is our baby, and we really do pour our heart and soul into each day - so this is a huge thank you to every single one of you who reads our articles, follows our adventures, leaves us comments, messages, emails, carrier pigeons, etc.
We are only able to do what we do because of you guys, and we’re so very grateful for your endless support!
ps. special shoutout to our friend Macca from An Adventurous World for picking up our award for us!
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JANUARY WAS OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL MONTH, EVER!
It seems like an eternity ago now, particularly in this weird Covid-19 world, but January ended as our most successful month ever.
Our business saw a huge increase across all major metrics, including website traffic (172% increase year on year) and revenue (130% increase year on year). It was so exciting to see our little internet baby really take off, and had us extremely excited for the year ahead.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and maybe we should’ve celebrated a little more at the time, given how quickly everything changed!
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F**K CORONAVIRUS…
This is an extremely scary and weird time to be alive, so if you’re reading this, we hope you’re doing so from home, self-isolating and complying with the strict protocols set out by your government. Anything else is frankly stupid, especially if we want this virus to shrivel up and die already.
We also hope that you and your loved ones are in a healthy condition and this terrible outbreak has not impacted you negatively. If any of our readers or followers have been affected, our hearts go out to you and we’re sending all our love your way.
For us personally, both ourselves and our families are healthy and well, which we’re forever grateful for.
From a business perspective, obviously the travel industry has been pretty much decimated by the current pandemic. We don’t want to dwell on it too much, but like most people (in most industries!) globally, we’ve been severely impacted financially.
We’ve seen our planned jobs dry up, and the income we earn through this website reduced by over 90%. It’s scary, but we’ve fortunately got enough capital to last us a while, and we’re just hoping that things start to improve soon.
We’re using this self isolation time in Australia to focus on projects we’ve not been able to get to for quite some time, as well as pushing through a lot of content (we’ve got at least 5 posts ready to go!).
We’re also chatting to our friends and colleagues in the industry to work out ways in which we collectively can help the tourism industry recover. Oh, and we’re getting to spend a little more time with our family than planned.
We’ve got no idea when, or if, we’ll be allowed to travel back to Budapest, but until then, we’re staying positive.
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WE’RE FINALLY SELLING PRINTS AND LIGHTROOM PRESETS
One benefit to our self-isolation has been finishing projects we’ve been talking about and working on for some time, and that’s creating prints and presets for sale.
After weeks of hard work and planning, we’re super excited to say that they’re both now live on the site!
Our collection of prints are now for sale through Darkroom, who print, frame (if you want), and post prints globally.
We’ve got some of our favourite photos ever for sale, so if you’re after a self-isolation pick me up, a present for a loved one, or even just some damn cool artwork to adorn your walls, purchase one and support our small business. We’ll love you forever.
We’ve had hundreds of requests over the last few years for us to sell our own Lightroom presets. This is something we’ve been reluctant to do as we value our unique style, but we’re now actually super excited to see what amazing things our our talented community can create using them.
We’re really happy with the two preset packs available now, and we feel they’re far more unique than what is currently on the market.
So if you’re looking to improve your photography, your editing style, or you’re just looking to make your travel photos pop, check out our new presets here, and follow our new presets Instagram page here
SHOP OUR NEW LIGHTROOM PRESETS
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WE STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME (FOR THE TIME BEING)
It’s been over a year since we’ve been back home to Australia, so we had huge plans for our return this March - catching up with family and friends (including Mark being best man at a friends wedding), wedding planning, camping trips, and exploring our city of Melbourne once again (which basically means eating all the dumplings in Chinatown!).
Alas, the pandemic put an end to those plans pretty quickly — not long after we arrived, borders around the world began to rapidly close, including Hungary where we live, so we’re obviously now stuck here for much longer than anticipated.
Since arriving, we’ve been isolating with our immediate family and keeping a very low profile. Flying internationally during the pandemic has meant that we were extra cautious when seeing family and friends (when we still could!), especially parents and grandparents.
At this time, we’ve been home for over three weeks, yet we’ve still not been able to see Mark’s Dad, nor Mim’s Grandma.
It really does suck, but their health and wellbeing is far more important, and FaceTime and phone calls have softened the blow.
Sadly, given the current closed borders, pandemic, and some somewhat worrying political turns in Hungary, it’s also meant that we have no idea when, or if, we might be able to get back to our flat in Budapest.
So, while we wait for the borders to finally open, we’re enjoying the best of Australia from self isolation - extra family time, beautiful autumn weather, and some delicious fresh produce.
Photo by our super talented friend, Jess - @fernandstonephotography
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SOMETHING GOOD TO READ
Below are a few essential reads we’ve come across during our time in self-isolation.
SIX ISLANDS WE WISH WE WERE SELF-ISOLATING ON
If only we’d known that three months of self-isolation were in store, perhaps we would have hot-footed it to one of these quiet enclaves instead (jokes… but maybe seriously?!).
PAUL THEROUX RECALLS A FEAR-FILLED LOCKDOWN
In 1966, the writer was in Uganda at a time of curfew and violence. It shaped his thinking about travel writing’s imperative to bear witness. An important read in the current climate.
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SOMETHING GOOD TO WATCH
We met Kyle Vollaers on our 2019 trip to Bali, and he’s one of the most talent travel videographers out there.
This video, filmed on his recent journey to Sri Lanka, takes us back to one of our favourite countries in the world, showcasing the breadth of landscapes, people and experiences this wonderful country has to offer.
In this self isolation period, take five minutes out of your day to watch this film… you won’t regret it!
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TRAVEL BETTER WITH THESE ESSENTIAL POSTS
AIRBNB GUIDE | Our essential guide to getting the best out of Airbnb
TRAVEL INSURANCE | Don’t leave home without travel insurance (seriously, don’t!). Click here to get the best deals with World Nomads, our trusted travel insurance provider
PHOTOGRAPHY | Love our photography? Wondering what gear we use to get all of our photos around the world?
Click here to view our detailed photography gear guide, as well as our top travel photography tips!
RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL | Responsible travel is important. REALLY IMPORTANT.
Learn our top responsible travel tips to help you, your family and friends travel more consciously around the globe
ECO FRIENDLY PACKING ESSENTIALS | Don’t leave home without our favourite eco-friendly travel essentials
We want our monthly updates to be a mix of our life, thoughts and musings.
If you’ve got anything you’d like to hear our opinion on, or want to know more about, let us know in the comments!
