Something amazing happened last Monday. Well, amazing to me. I was scrolling through my emails on the train into work when I spotted a notification. A pingback link to my site. Normally I would have waited and checked the link later, but something caught my eye. Wait…was it National Geographic Traveller linking to my site?! Of course at this point the train went through a tunnel and I had to wait several endless-seeming minutes until I had a signal again.

So it was on an ordinary, grey Monday morning commute that I checked and followed the link that led to the Nat Geo Traveller site. Saltwater had been selected for the ‘Best of the Blogs’ section on the website. In fact, a screenshot of my homepage could be seen on the rolling news slider at the top of the homepage, every 30 seconds or so!

The article they highlighted was my ‘Adventures in the Bolivian Pantanal’ piece on my trip last summer. I’d tweeted them a link a couple of months ago and forgotten about it, but there it was. To say I was thrilled is an understatement. National Geographic is an icon and Nat Geo Traveller (UK edition) is my favourite travel magazine. But even better was yet to come.

I remembered that sometimes the best of the blogs section featured in the back of the print edition and wondered if that might mean a mention in the next edition. As I’d been away over Christmas I hadn’t bought the December/January edition, but luckily I thought to check that one in the nearest newsagent. And there it was, in print!

I wish my mum had still been here to see it, I’m sure she’d have been impressed (probably before she pointed out that my name is not mentioned…well, that’s the next ambition!)