Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Blogging from A to Z 2026 - Reflections

I am pleased to report that I completed the 2026 challenge on time. 
My challenge was Island Hopping


As I travel the world I take many photos that pique my interest. During the year April 2025 to March 2026 our travels included visits to many islands large and small. My theme for 2026 Island Hopping will give precedence to Islands visited in the past year but for those difficult letters like X and Z I will dig into my photo archives for content.

If you scroll down the page you will find a list of links to my 26 posts in the 2026 challenge. 

I enjoyed the opportunity the Challenge gave me to reminisce on our travels and relate some of the Happy, Hairy and Humorous moments we experienced. 

Preparing posts and reading and commenting on others' posts makes for a hectic and  nerve-wracking April schedule. I found it useful to have had about 2/3 of my posts scheduled prior to the beginning of April. This gave me more time to concentrate on the remainder of my posts and to read and comment on others' posts. 

As I like to encourage fellow Australian bloggers I tried to read and comment on each of these posts most days. I'm sorry if I missed other Australian blogs. Each of these Aussies has previously participated in the Challenge; after several challenges I count them as friends. 

I particularly commend Linda from Argonautsite who took us on a very personal journey. The episodic nature of her posts left us with a cliffhanger each day. I hope that, by sharing her story, she gained some emotional support from fellow bloggers.


As a family historian I enjoy reading genealogy blogs. I was pleased to see Kristin from https://findingeliza.com/ in the challenge again this year.

The other blogs I read from over the seas were on a mixture of topics of interest - art, books, history and travel. I learnt from each of these:

https://thisandthatablog.blogspot.com/

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/

https://waffle-with-wendy.blogspot.com/
http://kajmeister.com/

https://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/


I gave up on a couple of blogs from people whose thoughts did not resonate. There was also one blogger who ditched the challenge very early.  I found it more difficult to access and navigate the blogs using the Substack platform so I did not follow some there that I may have otherwise visited on Blogger, Wordpress or other friendly platforms. 


As my prime purpose in participating was to record and preserve some of my adventures through my photographs it was a very successful venture. If my purpose had been to have others read and comment on my posts it would have been a disappointment. As a person who thrives on positive reinforcement I was thrilled to receive comments on my posts. I tried to respond to them all and apologise if I missed any. 


I have taken part in several challenges over the years and will probably participate next year if I am not travelling. I already have a couple of ideas for a theme - one was suggested by a fellow participant. 


Finally I thank those volunteers who curate the challenge. I am saddened to see that participation rates have declined over the years so I commend all those bloggers who supported this challenge. 


My Challenge Posts

10 comments:

  1. Congratulations on finishing the a 2 z on time. I didn't realize you had visited most of these in the last year. Impressive.

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    1. We plan on visiting quite a few in the next 12 months. Age is catching up on us.

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  2. I like your purpose in participating. As bloggers, we are sometimes too focus on getting comments.

    Even with decline in participants, there are still plenty of people. I think as long as the a-z team people keep up the challenge, I'll probably keeping it.

    Congrats on finishing the challenge.

    Have a lovely day.

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    1. Thanks Lissa, I think that chasing comments puts too much pressure on one.

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  3. Congratulations on completing the challenge. It was interesting to see all the amazing islands you've visited.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, I'm hoping the posts give some an idea of what can be seen on places they may never visit.

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  4. Well done on finishing. You have been to some amazing places and I found the posts that I read really interesting and your photos were great. Like you, I don't do the challenge to get more traffic to my blog. I blog because I enjoy it and enjoy keeping up with a few regular followers.

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    1. Pleased I found you via the challenge. You gave me an opporunity to reflect on one of my passions

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  5. Congratulations on completing another challenge. Thank you for sharing your marvellous photos.

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