Farewell 2011

As the sun sets on another year, I say farewell 2011 and take a retrospective look back on my 2011… my first whole year in the world of travel blogging!

Travel

Whilst I’ve been disappointed not to have travelled very far this year, my virtual travels have kept me interested and I hope to do more in 2012 (fingers crossed).

At least it has not all been “work, work, work” though as I was fortunate enough to manage my first trip to India (a long-held travel ambition achieved). It was everything I hoped – colourful, exciting, beautiful and eye-opening, more on this in the new year.

Retrospective Traveller

2011 has been my first full year of blogging and the blog has been coming on nicely and I’m glad that I followed other blogger’s examples and set some goals for 2011.

I met most, but haven’t posted as much as I’d hoped due to working full time again – well we have to pay for our travels don’t we…

Here are a few things I’m most proud of:

• 1000+ followers on Twitter (@retrotraveller)
  This is phenomenal and quite unexpected, and whilst I guess a lot of those are bots, I also know a lot of them are real travellers… thanks to all who’ve followed, tweeted and re-tweeted this year!
  Let’s hope I’m worth it…
• Over 25,000 views on Flickr – that’s awesome!
  Take a look at Retrospective Traveller’s photos on Flickr if you’ve not seen them.

I’ve also expanded my online presence beyond the blog too and can be found here too:

• Retrospective Traveller on Google+
• Retrospective Traveller on Flickr
• Retrospective Traveller on Facebook
• Retrospective Traveller on Twitter

Travel connections

Though I haven’t travelled much this year I have enjoyed making new connections with fellow travellers this year through some amazing blogs and twitter.

I’d like to give a shout out to a few people… there are hundreds of great blogs and travellers out there, too many to mention here and do them justice.

Here are a few that have stood out because of their great blogs, their encouraging comments, sharing my links or because they have inspired me through their own work right from the earliest days of my blog and tweeting adventures.

Thanks for your support and inspiration…

• Tend to Travel (Amer)
  Love Amer’s travel sketches…
• Bacon is Magic (Ayngelina)
  I remember one of my earliest re-tweets was Ayngelina’s website and her adventures in south America… “Bacon is indeed magic!”
• Sarah Wu
  A very talented photographer and web designer… thanks for all your comments…
• Chickybus (Lisa)
  Off the beaten path travel to some of my favourite places, and a keen interest in mannequins!
• Gypsy Scribbles (Rose)
  Thanks for sharing my posts…
• Drifting Focus (Kelsey Freeman)
  Kelsey has an impressive blog and photography portfolio, and I’m looking forward to the Mongolian Experiment in 2012
• Traveldudes (Melvin)
  Awesome collection of travel tips – thanks for sharing mine!
• Xinjiang – Far West China (Josh)
  Great blog on everything in Xinjiang – the Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China (one of my favourite parts of the world)
• Digidrift (Jason Webb)
  A fantastic photographer and experienced traveller – not your run of the mill travel blogger!
• Around the world using human power – Sarah Outen
  An amazing journey well worth following!
• Foxnomad
  How can I not follow someone who has the balls to go to northern Iraq!

It was also nice to support some interesting projects this year like Blog for Japan – Helping Tsunami Survivors and donating to Passports with Purpose. And I was nominated for the 7 Links Project by 91 Days.

There have been some guest posts too, and I’m grateful to Gypsy Scribbles, Traveldudes and Glenfiddich Explorers for sharing my posts on their blogs – thanks 😉

Some examples:

• Gypsy Scribbles
  Brighten Up Your Life – Visit Cao Dai Holy See, Vietnam
• Traveldudes
  Tips for dips in the Dead Sea
  Baalbek – One colossal reason to visit Lebanon!

So that was 2011, not a bad year at all… thanks everyone… best wishes for 2012!