Wow – what an honour to be nominated for the 2016 Liebster Award!!
First thought – YAY AWARD!!
Second thought – wait, what is the Liebster Award?
We quickly found out that this award was created by bloggers for bloggers and in our case, a great way to connect and network within the wanderlust community.
If you are nominated for the Award then these are the rules:
- Thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their site on your blog.
- Display the award on your blog.
- Answer their 11 questions about yourself.
- Nominate 5-10 other bloggers for the award and inform them via social media (the nominees have to have less than 3000 followers).
- Create your own set of questions for your nominees.
- Enjoy winning an award and pass this great feeling onto someone else!
A BIG BIG thanks to our traveling friends Four Dirty Feet for the nomination!!
Haven’t heard of Four Dirty Feet? They are one of our favourite travel bloggers, and not just because they are also a traveling couple from South Africa ;)!! We started following Steve and Hayley on Instagram and soon grew to love their inspiring stories of teaching in Korea and traveling the around the world together.
Here are our answers to Steve and Hayley’s questions:
1. Describe yourself in 3 words:
Jen: mermaid, arty, dreamer..
Rudi: sporty, positive, braai-king..
2. How did you come up with the name of your blog?
To be honest, we wanted a name that would immediately describe what it is that we are and trying to inspire – (a married couple that have chosen to not settle down and to rather wanderer the world).
Hence the name, The Married Wanderers.
3. What do you want to accomplish with your blog?
We want to inspire other travellers and couples to travel the world and really experience life and love! We often had friends asking us about our travels or tips on where to go in certain countries, so we thought a blog would be a great way share our experiences. We would love to find a way to make this way of life continue after our budget has run dry ;), so we hope that are blog can maybe open a few other doors for us in the future (who knows).
4. What keeps you motivated and drives you to keep writing blog posts?
Travel is our ultimate motivation so we honestly get so much excitement from reminiscing and writing about it. We also get so much joy from trying to convince other people to travel or to see what we’ve seen as travel really opens your eyes and mind to life lifechanging perspectives ! On another note, we also like to write “real” posts on some of our struggles or tough times while traveling together. We think it’s important that people know its not all cocktails and waterfalls and so they can relate and find peace in that!
5. What is the weirdest thing you have eaten while traveling and where did you eat it?
Probably this gooey raw squid on a stick from the local market at Bungalo Road – Thailand (totally thought it would have been cooked).
6. What country or experience is at the top of your travel bucket list? (i.e. if you were offered a free trip right now where or what would you choose?)
We would love to do the Inca Trail and summit Machu Picchu in Peru!!!
Otherwise we are always going to be obsessed with the ocean so searching for paradise in the French Polynesian Islands or swimming in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia would be an absolute dream!!
7. What is the most rewarding thing you have ever done?
This is a hard one!
Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary states: 1 : giving you a good feeling that you have done something valuable, important, etc. 2 : giving you money or profit.
So of course we felt that having worked hard to get a tertiary education and then buying our first house together was personally rewarding. But, that’s not the answer we want to give when asked this question.
We want to give some amazing answer about how we have helped rebuild someone’s house or how we’ve taught a group of kids a skill or how we have enabled people to travel who never would have before they met us. So ask us this in a few months, as it’s now something we are going to keep top of mind!
For now, we feel a sense of reward in the hopes that us making this travel blog will somehow inspire other people to take the leap of faith out of their normal routine to make their dreams come true! We were inspired to finally take the plunge and pack up everything and travel after hearing How Far From Home‘s story (the most inspiring travel couple we know), so hopefully we can do the same one day!
8. What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
Jen: I like to fold paper (find @oh.origami on Instagram)
Rudi: I’m extremely lucky when it comes to winning competitions but extremely unlucky when it comes to playing sport (I’ve had 7 completely un-related operations).
9. Is there anywhere in the world that you don’t want to visit?
Gosh – we don’t think so! We like to think we are open minded to experience all cultures and climates. Would probably would have to give a few “active war” destinations a miss though.
10. What are your top 3 travel gadgets that you can’t live without?
Our GoPro – so excited to have just bought the new Hero 8.
Our tiny hand fan for those really hot and humid 20 hour bus and train trips.
And, our flamingo beer holders (obviously):
11. What do you miss the most while traveling and being away from home?
We miss the people !! Our friends and family are everything to us – or we probably would never go home haha!! Especially if they all go camping or celebrate an engagement or birthday etc (we love celebrating)!
Our 5 Nominees for the 2016 Liebster Award:
Who Needs Maps – Jack and Jenn, previously from two different continents met up in the middle and have been traveling as a couple ever since! Love their instafeed and really insightful travel posts!
The Spindrifters – Charlotte and Josh are an amazing couple traveling the world!! Go check them out!
Couple a Wanderers – Camille and Niels have been traveling the world together for over a decade – how amazing!
The Passport Pair – Max and Leeann continue to inspire us to travel not only the world but also our home in Africa! Such an awesome couple!
Couple of Roamers – Edgar and Laurie are an amazing couple that sold their house and started a backpacking trip around the world!
Would have also loved to have nominated these inspriing travel bloggers: Salt in our Hair , The Wanderlovers , Goats On The Road , 360 Honeymoon and Delightful Travellers, but they have an amazing amount of followers already so they unfortunetly don’t qualify for the Liebster Award!
10 Questions for our Nominees:
- If you had to describe your blog as a niche – what niche would you fall under?
- What is the best view point you have been to?
- What is your favourite travel hack/tip?
- What is your top tip for couples who travel together?
- What or where is your next travel destination or trip?
- Who do you look up to the most in the traveling community and why?
- What is your favourite excursion you have done?
- What is your biggest concern about leaving your hometown or stable life to travel?
- What has been your most amazing animal encounter on your travels?
- What is your favourite travel dish and where can we go eat it?
We can’t wait to read your responses!!
Don’t forget to pass on this travel blog award!!
