It is wonderful to welcome Piyumi Kapugeekiyana, the latest entrant in our April competition. Enjoy her travel story Bearing Witness and her photos here.

We are being spoilt with some fabulous stories from new entrants. The latest in our April competition is from Stephanie Dagg. Read her entry Bushwalking in Sydney here.

Stephanie Dagg

I'm an English expat living in France, having moved here with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. I now consider myself a European rather than 'belonging' to any particular country. The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times. The current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos (alpaca-llama crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very determined alpaca male), sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies and Chinese quail. Before we came to France all we had was a dog and two chickens, so it's been a steep learning curve.

I'm married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs (third culture kids) who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful.    

I'm a traditionally-published author of many children's books, and am now self-published too. When not writing and editing, the rest of the time I'm running carp fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal's poop.
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For our latest entry in the April competition, it gives me great pleasure to feature Gabrielle Chastenet de Géry with her story Making Allah Happy. You can read it here.

It is fantastic to be able to welcome another fresh face to our travel writing contests. Thank you Bonnie Jean Warren for getting involved and sharing your story from rural Myanmar with us. You can read Bonnie's entry ​The Ladies of the Lake here.

A warm welcome to another newcomer to our travel writing contests, Rasa Puzinaite.
Read her heart-warming story Meeting the man behind my nightmares here.

It is a real pleasure to welcome back Patricia Steele with her first entry in this year's 4th Annual Travel Stories Competition. Read her fabulous story NAVAJO SALLY and KOKOPELLI here.

PATRICIA STEELE 
 
Patricia says, I'm a west coast girl that moved to the east coast and back again.  Twice.   My imagination has always been etched in music, color and rose-colored glasses.  I've had crazy characters and stories banging and fluttering around in my head, dying to get out, since I was old enough to hold a pen.  I'm a fan of historical fiction filled with adventure and romance.  And I’m addicted to genealogy! My sense of humor runs a little rampant at times, I'm no stranger to laughter, and I love a good anticipation scene.  I am proud to state that The Girl Immigrant, the first novel in my Spanish Pearls Series, is now translated into Spanish and Italian.  

She is an administrator for the Hawaiian Spaniards Facebook site, a member of the Arizona Genealogical Society and a volunteer for the Find-A-Grave organization.  Taking a break from genealogy research, she returned to her first love in writing: FICTION, with a touch of romance between the pages. 

In between writing, research and flower pots, she enjoys wine, traveling and her family. To read more about Patricia, please check her author’s page at
​ www.patriciabbsteele.com
patricia@patriciabbsteele.com
www.facebook.com/patriciabbsteele.com

The third entry in our April competition is another marvelous travel story from Ronald Mackay. This story is from around 1961 when he was hitch-hiking in Spain and is titled Fair Exchange is No Robbery. You can read it here.

Hi! I’m Ron Mackay and when, at barely 18 and just finished school, I went walkabout for a couple of years. I worked at different jobs in Scotland, England, France, Spain, Morocco and the Canary Islands (part of Spain but los Canarios see themselves as distinct!). After I completed university in 1967, I worked in Romania and Bulgaria and throughout Eastern Europe as well as in the UK, Singapore and Mexico until I found my true calling in the evaluation of agricultural R&D projects. Then I really started to travel and see the world!

Fortunately, my wife and I settled down (somewhat) in 2012 after we built a house on Rice Lake in Ontario. Acting as the general contractor on that job was one of the most interesting years of my life. I’d be sorry if I’d contracted the job out and missed all the fun!

A warm welcome back to Syd Blackwell, with his second entry this year. I am sure you will be captivated by his latest story A Beach Walk in Phuket. You can read it here.

SYD BLACKWELL
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I was born in a little ski town that used to be a gold mining town in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia.  I also lived on the coast, on Vancouver Island, in the north, and even in northern Alberta for a decade.   I visited every province and territory in Canada, and more than 40 other countries.  I was an educator, an innkeeper, and an assisted living facilitator.  My life was rich with experiences before I left Canada less than two months before my 61st birthday.

A warm welcome to Louise Groom, our first entrant in the April competition and another newcomer to our travel writing contests. Enjoy her story Carry on walking here.

Many thanks to the 22 authors and writers who entered their travel stories in the first part of our 4th Annual Travel Stories Competition.

Each and every entry was brilliant and they covered such a wide spectrum of travel writing. Thank you all so much for getting involved.

As you can imagine, the selection of a winning story was extremely difficult, but ……..
 
MANY CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR MARCH WINNER
Lindsay de Feliz and her story Consequences
Your $50 prize is on its way Lindsay
 
If you missed our March entries, catch up with them here.
 
The overall competition runs until July 31st 2018, so there are still another 4 opportunities to enter your 500-1000 word travel stories in the April, May, June and July competitions. You can find out more here.
 
I really look forward to reading about your travel experiences.