The TRUTH About Being a Travel Blogger: Honest IG Captions + a Podcast Interview
Hey hey!
WELL. Are travel influencers/creators even a thing anymore - given the state of the world?
Unconfirmed.
BUT many of us continue to love to travel and learn and share our experiences through digital media. I have continued to chat travel reflections, current stranded-abroad stories and (hopefully) encouraging and helpful content around how to take care of oneself and each other currently.
Some of these stories caught the attention of Ralph Samba who recently started the Hustle Behind the Glory podcast, a space to share and celebrate encouraging African stories - of which he thought mine was on.
Turns out I talk a looooot when it comes to the things I love and value, so we had to cut our convo into two episodes which you can listen to here.
But thinking back and considering the name of the podcast, I was reminded about a blog post I published a couple of years ago - honest instagram captions.
Read it here: Honest Instagram captions from 2017
It has been a while and although I’ve seen growth and progress in my work life in the past few years, I don’t always think to tell the details of what goes on behind the scenes and make sure I paint an accurate picture of this life. It’s not always people’s business, but there are things I feel can be encouraging to anyone who sees my work and has doubts about themselves, assumptions about me or my work/life and more.
So here are 4 of your most liked posts from my Instagram and a little bit of what you didn’t see. Enjoy!
Conquering Giants
What you don’t see:
This was a tough hike.
Also a tough end to my trip in general because I didn’t have the time (and especially the money) to explore Mauritius on my own the way I would have liked after the campaign I was there for ended.
So I really just made the most of it, went up this mountain and had a lovely peaceful morning to myself with the last few Rupees that my mum had Western Union-ed me, focusing on what I had to be grateful for - the sponsored trip the week before, my friend who hosted me the week after and the beautiful last day in Mauritius.
National Pride feat. Legs
What you don’t see:
This is one of my favourite photos in spite of the less-than-sharp quality because of the flag on the boat and Captain Issa’s first mate at the top left. Also, who doesn’t love legs?
So I’ve posted it quite a few times since 2017, usually with a specific Kenya-related reason like this Jamhuri day thought to get people to buy local and read my blog post on gifts for travelers.
I think people tend to miss that people post old photos and tag the place- it doesn’t mean we’re there right that second. It’s on you for not reading the caption LOL
Up and Ahead
What you don’t see:
I took this early in the morning before breakfast at my B&B, chasing down two buses and hiking up Le Morne.
Sponsored travel is amazing but there’s an added pressure of making content not only that you like but that will drive eyeballs and sales to the brand that’s flown you out, accommodated and fed you for a week.
So the pressure is on to take and capture as much content as possible - so you have more rather than less and there’s backup in case something doesn’t come out right.
Relaxation at the Nile
What you don’t see:
A few budgeting (or lack of it) missteps. I remeber telling a friend it was so nice for a change to actually have money to do stuff (I got a massage) and for emergencies (my free place to crash in Kampala fell through a few days after this and I was able to comfortably pay for a hostel).
Majority of my travels over the past few years, that wiggle room just did not exist.
I don’t often talk about exactly how broke I am because well, high-key embarrassing but it’s also quite risky and I don’t always want to encourage people to throw caution to the wind as much as I have in my youth LOL
This is not at all to say that social media is all a lie, etc - I’m not that person and will never drop on other content creators for presenting their online selves the way they want to. But I’ll always be here to remind you that you’re not seeing anyone’s full picture online.
