Megan Jerrard is a blogger who runs the travel website www.mappingmegan.com.

MEGAN JERRARD is an Australian Journalist who has been travelling and blogging since 2007. It all began after a gap year teaching in the UK and the rest is history as she has since mapped her way around most of the world!

In this interview she talks honestly about some of her greatest moments on the road as well as some of the funniest and most terrifying. Read on to learn what inspires her to keep going and how she is kept grounded by the support of her friends and family.

To find out more about Megan and the advice she can offer you on all things travel visit www.mappingmegan.com.

Could you tell us more about www.mappingmegan.com and what inspired you to start the website?

Mapping Megan is a travel resource which brings you the best in adventure travel from all around the globe. We’re on a mission to inspire people from around the world to get out there and travel, and we do this through inspiring stories, video, photography, travel tips and advice, all listed on our blog.

Aiming for something different, above the regular travel blog experience, the homepage of our blog is an interactive Google map where you can click on the country you want to learn more about and pull up blog posts based on location. You could spend hours on that thing zooming in and out and getting lost in some of the greatest destinations from around the world!

I’ve been blogging as long as I’ve been travelling, though when I began my journey abroad in 2007 the blog was a means for everyone back home to keep up with my adventures. It was in journal style and chronicled my day to day life while I was travelling overseas. As such some of the posts were a ridiculous 2,000 words long!

By the time I realised that people were blogging for a living and as a way to prolong their travels it was 2012, and the idea that I could take what I had been doing as a hobby for the last five years and monetise that into a career rocked my world. It was by chance that I was seated next to Gary Arndt (www.everything-everywhere.com) on a flight home to Australia from the US, and after hearing that he blogged for a living, I figured why couldn’t I do that too! I bought my own domain, set up social media accounts, started promoting my work and focused on turning my blog into a business. I now live a location independent lifestyle and can work remotely from anywhere in the world.

Megan pictured on the Faroe Islands.

As well as sharing your own experiences with the world how does the website help other travellers or those thinking of heading out on an adventure?

What once was a chronicle of my days abroad now solely hosts articles which are aimed at helping people travel – sure, we write about our adventures and our trips and showcase our photography too, though with every article I write, I think about what kind of information people need in order to replicate the same experience for themselves.

My biggest mission with the blog is to inspire others to discover the world and let travel change their lives in the same way it’s completely changed my own. So from that perspective I’m focused on writing articles which inspire and provide practical tips for how people can get out there and travel too. Want to make money by starting a blog? Perhaps you have no idea of the different ways to travel the world for free? Looking for ideas of what to do in Iceland outdoors? We have all of that and more!

Megan and her partner pictured at Africa’s highest point.

When did you start travelling and at what age were you sure it was something you wanted to do?

I first started travelling in 2007 when I embarked on a 12-month Gap Year to the UK. I worked as a boarding school assistant in West Sussex, England, and through this job had 17 weeks break to discover and explore the whole of Europe. This really sparked my passion for travel, and I couldn’t wait to explore and experience the rest of the world.

I fell in love with the adventure, excitement and the escape from monotony. I realised seeing the world in living colour far surpassed settling for watching it on a television screen or reading about it in a book. This trip made me realise that I wanted to actually feel, taste and experience the world instead of settling for the version I was reading in books.

Megan relaxes next to a seal on the Galápagos Islands.

What are some of the countries you have visited and what have some of the highlights been?

I have travelled fairly extensively around Europe, hit up a lot of North and South America, and been to a few random countries throughout Africa and the Middle East. I still haven’t really touched on Asia at all so really looking forward to exploring now that we’re back based in Australia.

In terms of highlights Mike and I are suckers for adventure, so whether it’s summitting Mt Kilimanjaro (which is where we actually met), blitzing down the tallest sand dunes in the world on a board, or taking a mountain bike down the most dangerous road in the world (Bolivia), we’ve been fortunate to have racked up some pretty amazing travel highlights over the years.

My first big travel adventure was skydiving over the Swiss Alps – I made sure I paid for it the day before so I couldn’t chicken out – and the adrenalin from that jump was so intense that I’ve been an adventure junkie ever since. Other travel highlights include snorkelling with giant sea turtles and sea lions in the Galapagos, bungee jumping in Costa Rica, white water rafting in Iceland, rappelling down a 17-story building in the city center of La Paz, Bolivia – it’s been a pretty wild ride! Hopefully we’re not done quite yet!

A turtle picture in the sea off the Galápagos Islands.

What’s been you most scariest time away from home?

Thankfully I’ve been fairly lucky to date. Never been mugged, arrested or harassed abroad. I have however had my fair share of delays, cancellations and missed flights; I was once stuck in the Helsinki airport for 20 hours while our plane underwent emergency repairs.

The door fell off – yes, fell off it’s hinges, after we had boarded, so we de-boarded, and got to sit in the terminal for 20 hours with the only food available being a little cafe stand. I ate a lot of cheesecake that day.

And some of the funniest times?

Kissing a Giraffe while in Africa… well actually she kissed me! We visited the Giraffe Sanctuary while in Kenya, and part of the experience was being able to feed the Giraffes. Pellets were provided and the normal way to go about feeding them was to let them eat from your hand.

I on the other hand thought it would be fantastically funny to place a pellet in-between my teeth, not realizing that a giraffe’s tongue is about as big as my face itself! (Slight exaggeration but that’s what it felt like!) I was wiping saliva off my face for what felt like a week!

Also, flying from Milan to Prague I wore 5kg of clothes onto the plane to avoid paying excess baggage fees. And I have the kind of friends who would prefer to video the process and post it to YouTube rather than help to unpack! Needless to say, me dressing myself in everything from pyjamas to towels in the middle of the Italian airport provided entertainment for the whole terminal – and I couldn’t stop laughing myself!

Megan pictured on a glacier hiking trip in Alaska.

Do you have family and friends who support you in what you do and how have you encouraged others to pursue their own dreams?

I’m very lucky to have a supportive base of family and friends. They may not always understand my constant need to travel the globe, but they’re always supportive. It was my dad who really pushed me at 18 to apply for a position in a UK school and make a gap year happen, and I’m so eternally grateful to him for that. Honestly without his constant encouragement and enthusiasm I probably wouldn’t have had the motivation to make it happen.

Knowing first-hand how much it means to have a supportive and encouraging group of people around you, I’m now aiming to bring that to others through my blog for those who may not be so lucky in having their immediate friends and family as their source of encouragement. It’s very difficult to break free of a mould and venture out of your comfort zone when you’re surrounded by negative energy, so if I can reach just one person and provide them with the support and encouragement which was given to me, then I’m happy with all I have achieved.

If you could sum up your philosophy on life in no more than 15 words what would it be?

The only thing you’ll ever regret in life are the chances you didn’t take.

Passionate about photography: Megan takes a photo of a Joshua tree.