The C-Word (not THAT one)

Raise your hand if you’re sick to death of reading about it. Hearing about it. Every. Dadgum. Day.

I’ve been addicted to this Coronavirus Dashboard but’ve managed to reduce my hand-wringing and checking it to just once a week- usually Sunday… not sure what that says about my Sundays. Data collection day. (Seriously tho, have a look at this, it’s fascinating.)

How are you faring; how are you getting through? Are you the person you thought you’d be in such a situation?

We were meant to fly out on Thursday for Darwin en route to our friends’ wedding in the spectacular Kimberley. Venturing into the sparsely populated desert, the ‘proper outback’ – it’s been on my bucket list for an eternity. It may as well be the moon it’s so raw and foreign and different than any place else in the world. That whole area is a landscape of scarlet ochre, giant saltwater crocodiles and colorful eccentrics straight out of a movie. There was to be a river cruise. Day drinking. Glamping in darkest night. And love joined officially.

I hate it for them. Can you imagine the disappointment? What about you? Have you had to cancel any major trips or outings? I’d love to know if you are canceling totally or simply rescheduling. (The wedding, by the way, is just postponed to 2021.) There’ve been horror stories of trips not being refunded, of companies going belly-up and leaving consumers holding the [empty] bag. Policies vary by country, certainly between the US and Australia, and it certainly appears that the law favors the consumer much more in the States. Woe be unto the traveler down under who foolishly foregoes trip insurance. Lesson learned.

In the meantime, there are things you can do. Travel hasn’t sung her swan song, but it’s changing in ways that we don’t even know about yet, and there will be things required of us. Airlines are making it mandatory for customers and staff to wear masks (it’s only a matter of time before this becomes industry standard… at least for the short term.) ‘Travel Bubbles‘ are being seriously discussed amongst governments to save tourism where it’s safe to do so, and ‘immunity passports’ are not off the table, ill advised though they may be according to the WHO. Perhaps there will be vaccinations required? While nothing new, (most African travelers receive vaccinations for things like Hepatitis A, Memingitis and Typhoid for example) requiring it for Covid-19 could be controversial – See what the world’s number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic has to say about that.

When you can travel again, where will you go? Will you focus on local destinations or are you ready to go further afield?