I started this website simply to enable friends and family to follow my journey. At first, I really did not have the slightest clue how to go about building a site. However, with a little effort I learned the basics and it has evolved from there.
The framework was in well before I started to travel; almost every page was complete, and I had even made a few practise pages using old stories. Once on the road, I originally attempted to keep the site up to date purely by using internet cafes. This proved difficult and costly, and so I got myself fixed up with a laptop. I did resent the weight and the worry, but the ability to write and edit images offline whenever I wanted was big compensation.
I settled into a routine, and journal updates were usually published roughly every two weeks. It was easy to gather stories and images - but time consuming to put them into a readable journal. I was also limited by how often I could actually get online, either (ideally) using the laptop or plugging a memory stick into a netcafe machine. China proved a challenge in this respect - the country-wide firewall (The Great Firewall of China) happens to block out TheWanderYears, thus I updated the pages blind. That explains any messy bits.
How far to go? Well, I ruled the site, not the other way around. The need to gather material was not a worry for me - I am nosey and it drives me to do and ask more. When I was behind with journals, I didn't let it bother me too much as I was under no obligation to anyone over this. However, I had by this stage become very proud of the site, so I tried to keep up to date as much as possible, otherwise it was an awful lot of work to catch up.
Whether you are a long term follower, or a new arrival to TheWanderYears - I hope you enjoy looking around. Most of the interesting content is to be found in the journal archives - there you can read every entry from the very first to the last. For a selection of easy on the eye images, click on WanderYears EXTRA wherever you see it. |
