About Me: Caroline Hurry

My first travel memory is flying off, aged 4, to visit my grandparents in Rhodesia. Later, piling into my dad’s low-slung station wagon to drive to our holiday cottage in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was so wild that snakes slithered in if you left the door open, and monkeys living in our garden would break in and steal our fruit the moment we went out.

As a journalist I chose to focus on travel in the early 90s. I went freelance in 2000 and started my travel blog travelwrite some 10 years later. Travel writing doesn’t make much money, but I get invited on some fantastic trips around the world. I’ve been to about 44 countries, some of my favourites being Botswana, Cyprus, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Vietnam, Spain, Slovakia, Germany, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and the United States.

Caroline Hurry and husband Peter in Moon Valley, Chile

How do I decide what to write about?

That depends where I am invited to or the kind of impression a place has on me.

Caroline Hurry in Cassis

Advice to would-be travel bloggers: 

Caroline Hurry in a small plane

If you want to be one of the chosen, choose yourself. Do what you love, even if you’re not getting paid, and see where it leads you. Don’t wait for someone else to give you permission. Jump in. Take whatever steps you need to get yourself on the road. Travelwrite.co.za provides space for other writers seeking a home for their travel related pieces or just somewhere to vent without being beholden to advertisers.  Social media enables each of us to blog, report, and reach out to readers.

Mishaps during your vacations:

I once lost my passport in China, which a hotel cleaner found in the dustbin!  Last year, I dropped my passport on a train in Switzerland. Fortunately a kind person came running after me and handed it back. I rely heavily on my “travel angel” who works overtime!

Funny things that happened to you while traveling:

My future husband materialised next to me on a flight from Copenhagen to Johannesburg. Liberal servings of wine kept the conversational machinery oiled all night and by the time we touched down, we felt like soul mates. Within three weeks we were married –  to each other – and remain so 18 years later!

Caroline and husband in Copenhagen

Another time, I met a young woman called Angel on a plane flying out from Bulgaria and after chatting, it emerged she lived next door to my parents in Gozo, a small islands off Malta. What are the odds?

What turns you off of traveling?

Airports and flying have become rather unpeasant. I hate all the undressing and patting down required before you are allowed on the plane. Also airline seats seem to have got smaller and the less you pay for a ticket, the worse your seat. I invariably find myself in the middle seat wedged between the constant sniffer and a sweating salad dodger! I wish airlines would at least provide footrests in economy class as my feet tend to swell so much I can barely get my shoes back on!

Favourite country:

Botswana, but Chile comes a close second. It’s so narrow that from the plane you can watch the sun light up the Pacific on one side as night drapes the Andes on the other.

Caroline Hurry

Please feel free to say hi to me on Facebook at or twitter at https://twitter.com/Travelwrite1

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