It is a real pleasure to welcome back Elizabeth Moore with her second entry in this year's competition. Elizabeth's previous entry A Mountie, Mists and Wine was a real treat. I am sure you will enjoy her latest entry A Key by any other Name just as much. 

Elizabeth Moore

Elizabeth has lived in Australia all her life. She is happily married, a mother of two, grandmother of five and devoted assistant to one very bossy tortoiseshell cat named Lucy. Her working career began as a speech pathologist and later morphed into the totally unrelated field of retail management in a university science centre and planetarium.
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Travel has always been a focus and yes – there has always been a bucket list. This was brought into stark relief when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and following treatment, a travel timetable began to take shape. Guam was first, followed quickly by European and North American adventures. Illness nudged another long-held interest to the fore and Elizabeth began chronicling her trips with extensive photography, promising herself she would also write about her exploits. 

It is great to be able to feature Jill Dobbe's first entry in this year's travel story competition. Jill was our May winner last year with RIDING AROUND IN RICKSHAWS...REALLY? ​ Please follow the link to catch up with her story from last year before enjoying her latest entry FREE TIBET.   

Jill Dobbe
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Jill is an international educator and published author who writes about her experiences living and working in schools and countries around the world. She presently lives in her seventh country, Honduras, with her husband, Dan, and her Yorkie-Poo, Mickey. While working as an elementary principal, Jill also writes, reads, takes photos of the beautiful people and countries of Latin America, and muddles her way through the Spanish language. Jill loves her life as an international educator, and most days, feels like she is living her dream.

It is a great honour to be able to feature this entry from Heather Hackett, well-known author of Restless: Memoir of an Incurable Traveller, one of my favourite travel memoirs. Heather's story So, We Bought This Car In Tokyo is extracted from a chapter of her upcoming memoir about living in Japan.

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Heather Hackett

Heather is not just an author. She is also a poet, a traveller, a photographer, a musician, a free spirit, an adventurer, a thrill seeker, a gym junkie, a cycling nut, a wife and a mother. She wears all these hats with confidence and style and brings her entire self to everything she does.

She has cycled across entire countries, camped under freeways, trekked the Himalaya with a baby on her back, lived in a bamboo hut on a Thai beach, worked as a cleaner in a motel, taught English to the Japanese, and been executive assistant to a Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. There’s nothing she can’t do or won’t try – at least twice. If she doesn’t know, she makes it her mission to find out. 

She has searched for meaning in our often insignificant and trivial lives across three continents, mostly in Asia, and found various forms of spiritual fulfilment, some very powerful and life-changing. She has experienced some awesome highs and some wretched lows, known scarcity and prosperity in not so equal measures, and learned how precious life really is.

Her new book is a memoir of all her experiences, hilarious and pitiful, gained while dragging herself (and her two young kids) up and down the Himalaya, through the monsoons of Asia and along the bike paths of Europe.

Heather currently lives in Newcastle, Australia with her partner, Iain, and best furry friend, Lea, where she writes, cycles and drinks far too much coffee.
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It is a privilege to welcome back last year's winner Bob Manning with his second entry in the 2017 Travel Story Competition. If you haven't read Bob's other entries yet then you can catch up with his winning story A Snapshot: La Contraviesa Mountains, Spain and last month's entry Nightmare on Biscay before reading his latest fascinating travel story The goatherd. Thanks for another great entry Bob.  

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Bob Manning

A random abstract writer and a singer/songwriter. I first moved to Granada Spain in the 1980's, I settled in a small mountain village of 200 souls as the only Ex-pat. There I spent 15 glorious years. I then continued my wanderings in Andalusia for almost thirty years, from isolated mountain villages to dynamic vibrant cities, these adventures have left me with a few tales to tell. I started writing as one of my tools to recover from personal crisis and would like to develop my skills so as to be able to dedicate more time to this process. I have written a lot of content for online travel websites and last year I entered Robert Fear's Travel Story Competition, a short story writing competition, to my surprise I won. I received a cash prize, and a much needed boost.

Welcome back to Mark Boyter with his first travel story in this year's competition. Last year he entered two terrific stories, Asakusa and The Monk, and Anne Murray in Jerusalem. Follow the links to read or re-read his stories. Then you can enjoy Mark's latest contribution On a Fine, Clear Day.
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It is wonderful to be able to feature a new entry from Jackie Parry. She was our April winner last year with ​Walking On Water – A Shark Encounter That Changed My Life.
If you haven't read this story yet, then click on the link above. Even if you have read it before, it is well worth reading again. Her new entry is a complete contrast but equally enjoyable. I hope you enjoy A View for Every Occasion as much as I have.
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Jackie Parry is known for grabbing life by the scruff of its neck and giving it a good shake. From sailing around the planet to trekking in the Australian bush for several months with adopted horses, she doesn’t sit still for very long. She’s written about her escapades and continues to scribble as she creates more alluring stories to share. She’s developing her travel brand into inspiring, motivational and fun merchandise and loves feeding off the adrenaline of public speaking.
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Her motto is: ‘Be an encourager, there are far too many critics in the world already.’
 
Blogs:  http://www.noelandjackiesjourneys.com/ and https://jackieparry.com/
Twitter: @NandJJourneys

A huge welcome back to Matthew Dexter. If you have followed this competition since the start, I am sure you will remember his two previous travel stories The Great Went and The Flaming Gorge Dam. You can follow the links to read them. Then sit back and enjoy his latest entry Insignificant Illegal Immigrant Living in a Third World Country.

Matthew Dexter is an American author living in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. His fiction has been published in hundreds of literary journals and dozens of anthologies. He writes abhorrent freelance pieces for exorbitant amounts of pesos to pay the bills while drinking cervezas in paradise with tourists. He is the author of the novel The Ritalin Orgy (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, 2013). His second novel is forthcoming. 

A warm welcome back to Amy Bovaird, who was our March winner with Bedouin Hospitality. If you haven't read this yet then please follow the link before enjoying Amy's latest fabulous travel story A Romantic Tale on the Sandy Side.

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Amy Bovaird taught English as a Second Language (ESL) abroad and in the United States for many years.  She lives with a dual disability—progressive vision and hearing loss due to Usher Syndrome. Amy is an accomplished public speaker on a variety of topics based on her life experiences and continues to educate and inspire others through her writing and speaking.

Amy is the author of Mobility Matters and Cane Confessions: The Lighter Side to Mobility.

She blogs about the challenges she faces as she loses more vision and hearing and manages to find humor around almost every corner.

Amazon US: www.amazon.com/dp/B01M3VZ2PW
Amazon UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M3VZ2PW
Universal link: smarturl.it/BovairdCC
Universal link for Mobility Matters: smarturl.it/BovairdMM

After Gundy Baty's moving first entry in May, MIRACLES EXIST, it is wonderful to welcome her back with her latest entry INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION - A TRAVEL STORY.

For the first time in the competition's history we are featuring a serialised travel story. Part 1 is published this month and Part 2 will be featured in July. Thank you Gundy for taking the time to share your wonderful stories with us.

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There I worked as a store manager in a high-end jewelry, gem and fossil store for 9 years.   My marriage ended in 1994.   I went back to school in 1997, and became a travel agent, but decided what I really wanted was to own a B&B.   In 2001, I found one in the mountains of British Columbia.   Two years later, I married the owner of another B&B in the same town.   In 2007, we retired to South America where we still live. 
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Susan Mellsopp is one of two contributors to have entered travel stories in each of the monthly competitions so far this year (Syd Blackwell is the other one). I am extremely grateful to both of them for their support. Susan told me recently "I am really enjoying re-living my travel adventures". 

After being last month's winner with Out of the Flames, Susan has another treat in store for us, this one entitled The Cemetery Custodian. Please follow the link and enjoy!

Susan Mellsopp is a recently retired Archivist and accessible transport researcher. She has written all her life but is now able to indulge in her passion full time.

She lives in New Zealand with her retired guide dog Chocolat and working dog Jay. Susan also loves to travel, reads voraciously, enjoys cooking and classical music.
 
An avid reader and always interested in people, this story is a highlight of my European travels. Julia is an amazing woman.