Having worked for South African Tourism before I chose to become a freelance travel writer, I spent a lot of time putting together campaigns and trips for other writers and bloggers to enjoy. Sending people on experiences is incredibly rewarding, especially after seeing the sorts of stories they come back with and their own personal thoughts on a place.

This last week was a little different for me though. My blog has grown at an incredible pace over the last year and I’m so happy to be sharing my own personal travel stories with a small community of readers and fellow writers. All your positive comments and general love have been encouraging and are truthfully what I thrive on as a blogger (that is totally a hint to get you all to comment more often on posts). What this all means, is that I was selected as one of those lucky few to go on my own #MeetSouthAfrica journey in March, and it was pretty awesome to be on the other side!

I’ve got a few stories that I’m going to be sharing over the next couple of weeks, as well as a bunch of pictures to put up on Instagram and Facebook, but for now, here’s my very brief round-up of the trip around the country. From Jozi (my heart), through to Bloemfontein, Clarens, the Drakensburg and then to Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, we covered a lot of distance and found quite a few fascinating stories and people as a blogger team. You can always follow the #MeetSouthAfrica hashtag on social media, it’s gaining lots of traction and there is so much great stuff being shared with it!

All of these photos were posted on my Instagram account during the trip, make sure to follow me (@Kate_Els) to catch any of the others that will get posted in the coming weeks!

My #MeetSouthAfrica trip was courtesy of South African Tourism. As with all my posts, editorial control remains with me.