The Country Race

I really love exploring the places I visit. However, I recently felt pressure as a traveller to make sure I keep up with other travel bloggers and visit as many countries as possible and add that growing number to all my social media forums. I can see that the goal of travelling to as many countries as possible is a great way to sustain motivation and that a little friendly blogging competition also helps. But could it come at the cost of genuine exploration and experience?

I don’t want to get caught up in a race to see as many places as possible, solely to put pins on a map, even though it is fun to record travels this way (I have a map at home and another at work). Taking photos and writing about my travel experiences has cemented my desire to slow down and experience as much as I can, in one visit or many.

So, with that in mind, I counted all of the countries I’ve set foot in. Then, I started to remove some from the list: those countries I didn’t intend to visit, the ones in which I didn’t stay, the ones that were simply on the flight itinerary. It didn’t feel right to include UAE just because I’ve waited a number of times in the Dubai airport for connecting flights. I didn’t want to keep India on the list because a technical issue grounded my flight in Mumbai (then Bombay) for fifteen minutes. Honestly, at first, I was a little disheartened by my current total. Was it the country race affecting me? I looked back on the 20 amazing countries on my list and remembered the time I took to explore each of them and how happy it made me feel to have that experience. I also realised how lucky I am to have been able to revisit many of those countries I felt deserved an even more in-depth exploration.

Now that I have taken myself out of the country race, I am concentrating on choosing travel destinations I am desperate to see and experience, not just what will create fast notches on my travel belt. I’m managing to live a travel photographer’s dream to wander aimlessly and capture natural life as it happens.

How do you record your travels? Photos, journals or pins on a map? Do you count countries or cities? Where do you keep returning? Let me know in the comments below and read future posts to see where I’m off to next.