Who Is Chantelle Flores Of 51 Countries & Counting?
Always looking to provide travellers with top trending, influential information and allowing you to ‘stay connected’ before and while you travel Wise Traveller profiles up and coming travel blogger Chantelle Flores, who is behind 51 Countries & Counting. Our profile series allows you to get to know the person behind some of the most popular and influential travel blogs.
About Chantelle
Chantelle Flores is a professional photographer and corporate marketer from South Africa. She is the blogger behind 51 Countries and Counting, which features destination guides and travel resources. Chantelle loves exploring new countries with her camera in hand. She runs her own company, Kzara Visual Concepts.
Let’s Get To Know Chantelle
We asked Chantelle a few questions about her life as a traveller.
What is your favourite destination and why?
Iceland! I get so excited just thinking about it. I mean who wouldn’t? It’s a country that is 80% uninhibited and home to 300,000 people living amongst surreal landscapes, breathtaking waterfalls, snow caped glaciers. The northern lights make a presence often here too.
What was your worst or scariest travel experience?
Fortunately I have not had many scary travel experiences, but I have experienced getting deadly ill on two occasions. On a flight to the US I contracted a flesh-eating bacteria called MRSA infection in my right thigh. Within a couple of days I found myself bedridden, unable to walk with extreme swelling. This sort of bacteria can live up to 12 weeks on airport seats, so it’s highly likely that you can pick it up if your immune system is weak. After two early morning ER visits, the antibiotics had no effect and I went into cardiac arrest. With no time to spare I was operated on in the emergency room without anesthetic. It took me nearly 8 weeks to fully recover.
What was is your most memorable, inspiring or life changing travel moment?
Definitely seeing the Northern Lights for the first time. After having lost my father a few years ago, I decided that in celebration of his upcoming birthday I would explore Iceland in the hope of seeing the Northern Lights. I had heard that the whole experience was surreal and some believe that it can draw you closer to your lost loved one. I arrived a few days prior to his birthday, but low lying cloud cover had prevented me from experiencing the Northern Lights. I wasn’t too bothered by this as Iceland had so much more to offer, but I did have my heart set on seeing it on his actual birthday. If this happened, I would believe in my heart that he was there with me. And it happened – just this way! When the clock struck 12 pm on January 24 the clouds opened up and rays of green and pink danced through the sky. It was one of those few moments that took my breath away, and not even a photograph can sum up this surreal experience.
What, if any, is the one thing you would never travel without?
My camera! I am a photographer after all.
What advice you would give someone wanting to become a travel blogger?
Patience, patience, patience. A single blog post can take a long time to put together - I am still trying to get a blog done in less than six to eight hours. Once you have sorted through your images, edited them all up, uploaded them, researched your article topic, and write your post your whole day is gone. It’s time consuming, and can get very frustrating at times, especially if you are anything like me who gets writer’s block often. I create images when I am feeling good and write when I am feeling down. It’s not something that comes naturally to me. It’s important to read other bloggers posts to spark your creativity and get your creative juices flowing. You will also not make any money from your blog in the first two or so years. It takes time building a following, and getting people interested in your posts. So before you think about starting blogging understand that you are in it for the passion, and if, well, you make money from it in the long run then great!
Wise Traveller Summary
Chantelle's website is a nice balance of articles, advice and her beautiful photo's. Her writing style is easy and inviting with an authenticy of someone with a true passion to see the world as it is not as one expects. Follow Chantelle’s photography on Instagram or read more on Facebook.
