Hi there! My name is Caitlin and I’m a twenty-something year-old Australian girl who loves travel and animals. Welcome to my travel blog, Global Pawprints!
I started this travel blog in February 2020 because I love travel and sharing my experiences with others. On this site, you will find guides to various travel destinations from the Tasmanian wilderness to the huge cities of Shanghai and Beijing in China. Because I’m kind of obsessed with wildlife, a lot of my posts will have an animal focus. Not to worry, though; there’s plenty of animal-free content!
Below, I’ve written a little bit about myself so you can get to know me better! I’d love to get to know you guys as well so please feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch on social media (all linked at the bottom of this post or in my menu).
There must be some kind of travel bug gene
Travel has always been a big part of my life. My first overseas trip was to the UK when I was about 18 months old. Obviously I remember none of it, but I’ve heard my parents took me on an excellent tour of all the duck ponds in England. Clearly both my animal and travel obsessions started early. Every year growing up my family and I went somewhere together. We still do, actually. Most years as kids we just went to the beach but sometimes we went overseas or elsewhere in Australia. It’s not just my immediate family that’s obsessed with travel: a lot of my aunts and uncles and cousins travel a lot as well! Clearly there’s a gene that dictates whether you’re into travel or not and we all have it.
My first solo trip
A big turning point for me was in university; I decided I wanted to go on a six-month exchange. My Mum wasn’t super keen on the idea because I would be alone on the other side of the world for SIX WHOLE MONTHS! So to test me, we booked a three day trip to Sydney where I stayed in a hostel and had to go around and play tourist on my own. I hated the idea and was absolutely terrified. (Why I thought I’d be able to survive six months alone was beyond me…) I think Mum was hoping I’d hate it and give up on the whole exchange thing but much to our surprise, I absolutely loved it! I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted without having to worry about whether anyone else would want to go to the zoo or have sushi for dinner. It was fantastic.
Since then, I’ve enjoyed travelling solo not only on my exchange, but to other places like Africa and around Australia! I still travel a lot with my family or with friends, so you’ll get a bit of a mix of content on here. I’ve travelled to 17 countries (18 if you include New Caledonia) in 5 continents so far and there’s so much more I still want to see!
My life doesn’t actually revolve around travel…
Some days I want to just buy a one-way ticket somewhere cool. But then I remember my animal friends and think “hmmm, better not”.
Unlike the vast majority of travel bloggers, I’m not on a world trip, or planning a world trip… I don’t even have a trip BOOKED anywhere at the moment! My point is I’m not a full-time traveller and I don’t see myself becoming one any time soon. While that’s partially because I got sick of sitting in a bus after only a month of travelling through Africa, it’s mostly because I have a serious passion for working with wildlife!
Remember how I said I love sharing my experiences with others? Usually that means talking their ear off about animals…
I started volunteering at my local wildlife sanctuary while I was still at university. At the time, I hoped I would find an animal species that I cared enough about to spend a whole year researching for my honours (spoiler alert: I did). I never imagined I’d also find my dream job.
The longer I spent volunteering, the more I realised I could see myself looking after animals every day. Which is pretty exciting because I’ve never known what I wanted to do with my life. Seriously, in grade 6 when we graduated primary school we all had to make a poster about what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I had no idea so I just said I wanted to travel the world (which, I mean, is not wrong)!
After four years of volunteering and study, I managed to finally land my dream job as a zookeeper! So at the end of 2020, I packed up my car and drove to Sydney. Over the last couple of years, I have had the privilege of working with a great variety of Australian native wildlife, from kangaroos and koalas to quolls and crocodiles. I’m a reptile keeper now, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the furry natives.
The logo for Global Pawprints is a pair of wombat footprints, which I chose because wombats were one of my favourite animals. But ironically, since working with them, I don’t love them so much anymore! They can be absolutely feral! So that one kind of came back to bite me (literally – I have a scar on my leg to prove it!).
My blogging journey so far
As I mentioned above, I created Global Pawprints at the beginning of 2020. And as you all know, not too long after we were plunged into lockdown and literally every other aspect of my life was put on hold for a solid two months! All of my volunteer shifts were cancelled, the school I worked at was closed, and I had nothing else to do but write about my past adventures. Having this blog really kept me sane during that time.
However, since beginning my zookeeping journey I have begun struggling to keep up with this blog. What began as a casual job very quickly became full time (which is great, because I love what I do!), and I have honestly been struggling to motivate myself to come on here and write. I barely posted anything in 2021 or 2022, despite going on lots of cool local adventures!
My goals for 2023 and beyond
So that brings us to 2023. This year, I had to make the decision whether to keep this blog, or essentially throw it away. But I have decided to give it one more crack. Some of my posts (especially my Kruger National Park guide) seem to be getting decent traffic so it’s inspiring to me knowing I’m able to help you guys! I’m going to start the year by editing my old posts to make them more reader-friendly and hopefully more helpful to you guys! I have had the opportunity to return to many of the Australian destinations I’ve posted about, so I’ll be able to provide the most up-to-date information. After that, I will keep adding to my catalogue of location guides and share some of my more recent adventures.
I think I’ll ditch the old guides to blogging (I’ll keep them up for anyone who wants to read, but won’t write any more). However, I’m thinking I might venture into writing more about zookeeping and wildlife volunteering if that’s something people are interested in. I’d also like to get back into sending newsletters to my subscribers to keep you all updated.
Thanks for checking out my blog!
I’d just like to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU for checking out my blog! I really appreciate it, especially if you have read this far. If you’d like to follow my adventures, I’ll link my social media below. I don’t have an Instagram associated with this blog anymore, as it brought me too much stress (you can read about that here). But I have linked my wildlife photography account below if that’s something you’re interested in! You can also subscribe to my monthly newsletter! All you have to do is enter your name and email in the box below. As a subscriber, you will also have access to my free resource library. You can find a heap of helpful downloads there, such as planners and packing lists.
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