You may remember that towards the end of last year, we were asking for your votes.
The reason?
We desperately wanted to make the shortlist for the 2018 UK Blog Awards.
And you went above and beyond to show your support for what we do here and to help us reach the final eight of the UK travel blogs category. We said it before and so we we'll say it again - thank you.
Because of your support, we hosed ourselves down after three weeks of camping adventures in Africa and donned the smartest clothes either of us has donned in the last four years (note to self - try to get invited to more fancy things in the next four years) to attend the awards ceremony in a swanky part of London.
This was literally the first time either of us has been up for any sort of accolade, and so it felt bewilderingly bizarre. Almost as bizarre as Emily wearing heels and Andrew in a tux on the tube.
Of course, we hoped to win (we really hoped to win) but there was also a free bar, so whatever the result we'd end the evening feeling like winners.
We held each other's hand tightly, more out of nerves than anticipation, when the moment came to announce the 'Best UK Travel Blog'.
"And the winner is.....Along Dusty Roads"!
A room full of ten thousand people spontaneously erupted, lifting us on their collective shoulders and dancing us towards the stage. The Queen popped by to shake our hands, a flashmob singing 'Celebrate' appeared from nowhere....
Ok, that didn't happen. But the part about us being named the Best UK Travel Blog, that definitely did happen.
And we are still grinning like idiots.
If you've been reading from the start (hi mum!) when we first told people about Along Dusty Roads from our sweatbox of a room in northern Guatemala, then you'll know that we've always been about trying to help people to travel more and to travel better. The blog has evolved since that day four years ago, but those two core principles remain at the heart of everything we do - and they always will.
As will trying to make things look pretty (which is why we still can't make the financially sensible leap to have ads on the website).
But what does any of this mean? Well hopefully Canon will give us that camera Emily really wants and Haribo will deliver Andrew's dream of a lifetime supply of Tangfastics or some airline will give us unlimited flights for a year (cough cough).
But, most importantly it has given us three things we didn't have before.
1. A horrible hangover this morning.
2. The right to call ourselves 'award-winning', which is nice.
3. A boost in confidence to pursue some of the projects and creative things we want to do both on Along Dusty Roads and as Along Dusty Roads.
So, from a blurry-eyed Andrew & Emily, twelve hours after traipsing around in our gladrags drinking prosecco straight from the bottle on the streets of London, thank you again for your support on our journey as travel bloggers.
Thank you for taking in an interest in our travels and for letting our articles help you to have a better adventure, book a place to stay, put some new places on your bucket list or find your own dusty road.
We have some interesting trips over the next six months and then, if all goes to plan, we're heading back to South America at the end of the year to write a bit more about it, visit places we didn't make it to last time and make some new travel memories (and hopefully meet some of you in a random hostel).
We're now off to drink some much-need tea and sit in the London sunshine.
