The COVID-19 Challenges for Overlanders are Not All Over

The whole world was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s resultant lock-downs and sudden changes to the way we live. Overland travellers were severely challenged by this situation. In April, we sent word out that we would like to share the stories of affected overlanders on our blog. We received a great response, and produced two posts full of stories about lock-downs and being stranded.

Over the past 4 months, things have changed. We began to wonder where these story-tellers were now. So, we contacted them and invited them to tell us – and you – about their current whereabouts, how things have changed over time, personal effects of the pandemic, and their ideas about future travel.

The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic are not over for everyone. Here are there stories. They each contain a link directly to their original story so that you can reacquaint yourselves with them.

You’ll also find our own personal story of the intervening months at the end of this article.

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We can’t move so we settle down

Tours in Expeditions is a French-Polish couple with 2 toddlers, who were travelling by horseback through Argentina when the lock-down hit. They were caught in Barreal in San Juan province.

We’re currently locked up in a hotel room in Mendoza, Argentina, doing obligatory 14-day quarantine. Things haven’t changed much in this part of the world since April…

We thought this whole lock-down might be coming slowly to an end when, in July, they opened internal tourism in San Juan province (where we were at the time) and people could travel just within the province.

We got excited, shoed horses, and prepared to hit the road again. In two weeks, we moved to the northern part of San Juan province and weren’t able to continue because the border with La Rioja was closed. San Juan had very few cases of COVID-19, and thus they allowed people to move around, but other provinces in Argentina are still under strict quarantine.

As we got tired of waiting and won’t be able to continue our horseback journey this year anymore, we came up with an idea to buy some land in Argentina and start working on our own place. We’ve got some business idea and will settle down in the area of Potrerillos, Mendoza.

We took our chance and decided to cross the province border. By the way, it was a bit like crossing borders between Balkan countries, with many trucks queuing for 20km and a long waiting time. Because there are no specific rules regarding us foreigners stuck in the country, we couldn’t obtain any permission to enter Mendoza. But we managed to talk our way through and they’ve let us in. We said we’re going to buy terrain here, we had found a good offer and have to hurry up to see it.

But now, we’re under the mandatory quarantine for 14 days, stuck in one room with our two little children and a dog. For outdoor people like us, it’s a hell of an experience. We were really looking forward to flights being resumed from Argentina in September, so we could go back to Europe and our kids can see their grandparents. But nothing is sure and we expect that Argentina will remain locked for many more months.

About our 4-legged companions – we left them on a farm in the North of San Juan and we’ll only be able to go back and get them when this whole lock-down in Argentina is finished. God knows when that’s gonna happen!

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Alveto Expedition is on the move again

You’ll be pleased to know that Aldo & Vera are no longer stuck at Walmart in the USA .

We received some coverage by the local news about our situation and as a consequence, a lot of people offered a place to stay during the lock-down and the time of uncertainty. We were hosted by a couple from Italy and Colombia that had extra space, we made friends for life.

Overall we felt lucky to be able to have a comfortable day to day life and not to suffer as many others unfortunately around the world. We took advantage of the spare time to open a Youtube channel.

A lawyer offered to help us pro-Bono and took care of the extension of our U.S. Visas. However, we never got our extension granted. After the US customs stating they would extend our visas for free due to COVID-19, they later said that it’s not their fault that we cannot leave the country and we must now pay the 600 US dollars fee. Like we wanted to be tourists in the States with all the public facilities and parks closed…

By the time we got the response, it was mid-June and we had already made plans on leaving the country.

South Africa was not an option anymore and we decided to ship our car to Italy. In a matter of 3 weeks we booked the shipments and, although it was still very difficult to fly back to Europe, we managed by taking 6 planes and over 4 days to fly to Moldova, Vera’s Home country.

We did 14 days quarantine and shortly afterwards we returned to Italy where, after further 14 days quarantine, we could finally reunite with our beloved Totò, our vehicle. We will shortly leave for a “made in Italy” overlanding tour, where by sharing photos and videos on our social media, we aim to support small business and local tourism. As a consequence of the hit received to the economy of Aldo’s home country, we are aiming to encourage other co-nationals to do the same and support local travel.

We hope to be able to travel in the near future as we plan in Autumn to leave Italy and head down to ex-Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, trying to make it to the Middle East by early 2021 and ultimately into Africa…COVID-19 permitting…

Alveto Expedition is on Instagram

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The end of Traveling Beast’s story? – not quite

Life goes on in Canada for Joanie , and Beauty has finally made it to the USA. But when will they be together again?

It’s ironic how I themed my journey as a post-apocalyptic adventure with a banner on my blog since 2018 saying “The world has ended”. This was in reference to me making my way to Ushuaia, also known as “the end of the world”, but considering I reached that destination in early 2020, it really felt like I had reached the end of the world!

In my last story, I had given the keys to a shipping agent and flown back home on the next flight. Unfortunately, the port closed for five weeks after that and my shipping date got delayed. Even worse is that I was sent a bill for that extra month of parking! Annoying, but at this point, I’m getting used to losing a lot of money due to the coronavirus situation.

On June 5th, Beauty safely arrived in Florida, USA, where Joe and Josée from Joe and Josee’s Journey took care of her because I am still stuck in Canada due to the closed borders. I have looked at many ways to get her back here, but with the travel restrictions still in place in many parts of the US and Canada, it was just not a good idea.

Canada keeps pushing back the opening of the border and, at this point, I’m wondering if it will open before next year. In the meantime, things are very quiet for me. I am working from home for a German video game company.

Since I only go out when necessary, I am saving quite a lot of money and have not only already paid back the money I lost in this mess, but even started saving for future trips! Where are those trips going to take me? I had some ideas before, but now, I don’t really know. I guess it will be a surprise for you as much as it is for me!

Joanie posts regularly on Facebook and Instagram

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Will we continue our South America trip?

Jenny & Gus may have had to abandon their adventure of a lifetime abruptly, but they certainly haven’t given it up.

We are now back at home in Scotland and back in our old jobs, having ended our sabbaticals early.
Life is almost back to ‘normal’ apart from the continued lock-downs and ongoing impact of COVID-19 of course.

Our van arrived back a month after we did from Argentina, all intact, though with a few things stolen en-route. It’s now parked in our drive waiting for the next adventure. We’ve been able to catch up with family and friends a bit sooner than expected and reclaim our pet cat from the neighbours.

The last few weeks of our travels were very stressful, but we did have help from some very kind strangers. It made us regret not having learned more of the local language; our very basic Spanish had been enough for the first few months, but not much good for negotiating police roadblocks etc. We really appreciated the support from friends, family and complete strangers via the various Facebook and WhatsApp groups – our smartphones were invaluable!

This year we hope to do some more exploring nearer to home, and hopefully next year we can venture over the channel to see some more of Europe. We’d like to finish our trip around South America, but I think it will have to be in shorter trips, perhaps hiring a van or backpacking, rather than shipping our own van back out.

We haven’t lost our urge to travel.

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Coming home was a good decision

Sidonie & Sylvain cut their journey short and went home . They have found it to be a very happy decision.

We are now in the south of France and are about to pick up our van that has arrived in Le Havre (we shipped it from Malaysia – quite a big expense for our budget!)

In April, we were under lock-down in France, staying at Sylvain’s parents first and then at mine, where we have an actual place to stay. In the end, we were not that sad to be back, mainly to be able to see our friends and family again – and enjoy the good food, but given the situation, we had to be very careful.

In June, life went more or less back to normal, so we started to travel again at home. We backpacked in June, July and August: we went hiking in the Cévennes and the Pyrénées, helped friends to build their house, and spent time with our relatives.

We had a hard time deciding what to do when we found ourselves stuck in Malaysia. Then we decided to go back home and we are happy that we did. We were very shocked by the way things were dealt with and some reactions in some countries towards tourists and felt safer at home, for the first time in my life.

For us, it was a strange situation because we were still on holidays and “forced” to do nothing, to stop all of a sudden, while there was so much happening and so many people in harsh situations and we couldn’t do much. I personally felt really powerless and frustrated.

We took time to reflect on our trip and have decided to stay at home, for now, look for a job and settle down for a bit. We’ve known for a while that we both want to find a job or activity that will make sense to us and find a good balance in our life. However, we know that there will be other trips in the future, probably with kids next time!

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A positive attitude to life during COVID-19

Like so many overlanders, Ben’s trip of a lifetime was halted – but just 3 weeks in! He still has no plans but hopes to continue someday.

Four months have passed since I first wrote about the impact of Covid-19 on my travel plans. Now that we’re coming to the end of August, many things have changed, but some have not.

When I first wrote about my story, I was in Puerto Natales, Chile waiting for COVID restrictions to ease so that I could resume my Pan American trip of a lifetime. That has not happened. Chile is still very much locked down both by COVID and the deep snow of winter.

I stayed in Chile until mid-June when my VISA expired and forced me to make a decision. Either return home to live with family and friends, or extend my VISA hoping restrictions will ease while dealing with the oncoming winter. It was a decision that took a long time to make and involved a lot of flipping back and forth, but as the weather progressively got colder and the COVID situation showed no signs of improving my decision became clear, it was time to go home.

In some ways, it felt like I was giving up on my dream and running away, but it made the most sense. Returning to the USA would give me the chance to recoup the money I had spent while locked down, live in warm weather, and see my family.

I had made the most of my time in Chile by building a bed platform for my 4Runner, getting car repair work done, practising my Spanish with our hosts, and rock climbing with friends. I was fortunate to be locked down in spectacular scenery watching snow creep lower down the beautiful Torres del Paine mountains.

With many reservations, I left Chile and my new-found family at the Puma House Hostel. I still own my 4Runner and have left it in the care of the hostel owners. Thank goodness for the friends I made! I hope to resume my trip when restrictions ease, but I do not know when that will be.

I’m a very active person, so arriving in the States with nothing to do was an uncomfortable position to be in. However, following two weeks of self-isolation, I got busy. No single opportunity has presented itself. Instead, I’ve cobbled together several different things to keep myself fulfilled. Since coming back I’ve gone rock climbing with friends to set new routes in beautiful granite outcrops; I’ve taken lessons with my mom’s horse to learn cross country jumping; and most importantly, I’ve been helping my sister and her family remodel their 100-year-old farmhouse.

This time away from my travel plans has given me the chance to help out my sisters’ family in a big way and to spend more time with my one-year-old nephew. It is not the trip I had anticipated but I know of no other situation where I would be able to spend so much time with her and her family.

I still hope to continue my trip, maybe by December, but there are no plans just hopes.

Living with my family has been great for keeping expenses negligible and even earning a little to help offset the cost of flights to get back to Chile, but I’m very aware my time in limbo is limited. If COVID restrictions aren’t eased by the spring of 2021, I’ll need a new plan and will probably return to my previous career as an engineer.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many lessons but the most important thing I have learned is how important family and friends are. No matter the situation, physical possessions can be replaced but family and friends are the ones who step in and help out when needed.

Ben’s Blog

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Still stranded by the beach in Brazil

Dan is relatively happy in his beach-side Brazilian lock-down, but he would really prefer to be able to send his bike and himself home.

I am renting a small apartment at Pousada Dona Ema in Praia do Estaleiro Brazil, between Balneário Camboriú and Itapema, right at the beach.

I left Joinville and moved into more affordable lodging in a much smaller coastal village. Aside from that, not much changed. The owner of the Pousada, Ema, treats me like a son and brings me meals each day. She and her husband Antônio are my new family (for now).

I’ve tried hard to isolate myself, only leaving the compound once a week or so to ride into Itapema for groceries. A few times I’ve taken day rides around the coastal towns nearby. I fight boredom. I drink. I eat. I go for walks. I watch Netflix on my tablet. I sleep in. I get up to watch sunrises. No rules any more.

Who knows what the future holds? I’m still trying to find an affordable option for shipping my motorcycle back to the United States from Brazil. So far no luck. You can find updates to this dilemma on my Facebook page .

An alternative solution would be that the borders to Argentina or Uruguay open. Both countries have lots of shipping options in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

The idea of being able to cross land borders all the way home seems more unlikely as each month slips by and my remaining funds diminish further. Maybe travel will open up once there are accepted vaccines available.

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A Kiwi and a Pom choose between 3 homes

Dennis & Jen were locked down in Guatemala and had to decide whether to stay or return to NZ or the UK.

How life for the ‘Overlander’ has changed in these last four months.

While under lock-down in Guatemala we tried to envision how this world-wide phenomenon of Covid-19 was going to affect our objective to drive around the world.

In the end, taking advantage of a time of indecision by the government in Guatemala, we decided to make a dash for the port of Veracruz in Mexico. This was after considering all the options, including leaving the vehicle in either Guatemala or Mexico and returning from New Zealand in better times, to continue our journey.

The unknown length and impact of the virus on all countries made us decide to ship Poki, our Land Rover Defender, back to the UK, where we also have a house. Overstaying Temporary Vehicle Import Permits was the deciding factor. We had heard of some horror stories of vehicles being impounded for exceeding import periods in Central America.

We are delighted to report that Poki arrived back in the UK via a Roll-on/Roll-off vehicle carrier, without damage or loss of contents. Several friends we had met en-route through the Americas had received serious damage and theft from their vehicles while being shipped.

Recently, we took the opportunity to drive through parts of France for a couple of weeks to rekindle the joy of touring. As a result of policy change in the UK while we were away we are now back in Quarantine for two more weeks.

In October we are booked to fly back to New Zealand where we will summer over and return to the UK in April 2021. If a vaccine has been found and there is social stability in South America, we will ship directly to Cartagena in Columbia to continue our quest.

Personally, I feel that the financial cost to governments from loss of productivity and deprivation to populations, will not be felt for the next six months or more, making Overland travel potentially hazardous.

Visit the Kiwi and a Pom

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Campofant are now more settled in Portugal

Robby and Stefan settled in Portugal during the lock-down by renting a property.

It’s crazy to see what we were talking about in April this year. Now it’s September and so many things have changed since then. But let’s see, what happened in the last months.

During our time on the rented property, we found a kitten in our garden. We kept her and a few weeks later we went to an animal shelter to get a little friend for her, so now we have two cats called Esra and Diva.

Now I’m writing these lines at our own property in Portugal. Sounds crazy? It also is for us. In May we were thinking about what to do next. Travelling, as though nothing had happened, was no option for us. So we decided to buy a place, where we are allowed to stay and wait until everything gets back to normal.

But let’s get back to the property. We were looking for a big piece of land with almost no neighbours, lots of nature and a great view. After seeing six different options we found exactly what we were looking for. The decision to buy this piece of land with its nearly 20,000 m² was made a few minutes after we arrived there.

And now, a few months later, it’s ours and we already settled. So the next months we will concentrate on living here and wait to see what’s going on in the world. At the moment it makes no sense for us to plan anything, so we will see what happens by next spring and decide if we will travel again or just stay at “home”.

We’re absolutely pleased with the decision we’ve made and regret nothing. It really feels like home, so it’s perfect for these difficult times and makes us quite happy.

Campofant posts current updates on Instagram

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Making the best of continuous lock-down

Marco is still in Argentina , which is still under lock-down, but his life is full of useful activity.

Since the beginning of the quarantine here in Argentina, I have always been in the surroundings of Cordoba.

For the first couple of months, I was guest of a friend in Saldán, but when it was evident that this lock-down situation wasn’t going to be a short-term measure, I moved to a rented room where I have been for the past three months now.

I have been on furlough from my online job since the 1st of April; my employer cut 10% of personnel. I saved my job by reducing my work to 1/3 of what was before. I consider myself fortunate and privileged considering how bad the economy has suffered the effects of the pandemic.

Being stuck in a foreign country, impossibilities to make any plan, and dealing with the work matter abruptly increased my stress. It affected my everyday routine, sleep cycle and added a fair amount of anxiety that I never experienced before.

Apart from servicing my motorcycle a few times for different longstanding issues, I also started taking care of myself for a distraction from the effects of the lockdown. I began doing things that I wasn’t able to do while in constant motion during travel time.

I have fixed a big tattoo that needed recolouring, a process that took a few weeks of doing and healing. I had a small surgery on both my hands to fix a “trigger finger” condition I have been carrying for 15 years, a consequence of many years of bicycle and motorcycle riding. And I am now taking chiropractic sessions to adjust my back and my walk, also affected by the riding and by my job.

Every day, I am now working on a few programming projects of my own that could supposedly become a source of income in the future. This, with all the above, makes me feel I am making the best of my time.

I perceive this as a sabbatical time from the past 6 years of travels: riding, exploring and working online. Now I can work on things that will make the next phase of my travelling different and fresh.

I stay positive, although the thought of a future where we are all afraid of mutual contagion and reduced human contacts and interaction is scary.

I am afraid that if I went back to my family now, I could pick up the virus on my journey home and infect my parents or my grandmother. I prefer to stay put and wait that the risk is reduced.

Before going back home, I would also like to be able to visit a few highlights of South America that I was leaving for last, before moving to another continent. I want to visit Salta and its surroundings in north-west Argentina, spend some days in the Atacama desert in Chile and finally see Machupicchu in Peru.

I do not know when and how this will be possible because, on this side of the world, each country is dealing with the lock-down very differently. It’s impossible to estimate which borders will be possible to cross when, and under what conditions.

I believe a lot will depend on when a vaccine will be out for the public and its price. My educated guess would be that some countries will force you to have had a vaccine jab for Covid-19 and carry a certificate to show, as it is now in Brazil with the yellow fever vaccine. In some other countries, you might be forced to a self-quarantine for a few days before being able to move freely in their territory.

But I am sure that borders all over the world will open within the next 6-8 months because the economies depend on free circulation and very few countries are self-sufficient.

I am not saying this is the right thing to do. I don’t think that there is “wrong” or “right” when dealing with this emergency.

Marco blogs here

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Seeing the most when movement is limited

Julie and Marcus found a safe haven and made friends with the locals whilst waiting in Whitehorse in the Yukon, Canada.

After a few weeks stuck in the car park of the Visitor Information Centre in Whitehorse, a local CBC News reporter noticed us (well, it’s kind of hard to miss our Cuthbert in a small community like Whitehorse) and came to do a feature interview for TV and radio.

Once this had been broadcast, we became mini-celebrities around town! Everyone knew our story and who we were. A string of visitors came to our door over the following few days, bringing home-baked cakes and gifts to make us welcome. We are so grateful for the kindness of the people of the Yukon, and particularly Whitehorse.

A large chunk of moose-meat was the most unusual and challenging gift, but after a bit of Googling ‘how to cook moose meat’, we prepared a fine beer marinade resulting in a delicious and tender moose-roast! Good job we have an oven in Cuthbert!

By the end of May, the Yukon Government started to ease the restrictions on internal travel around the Territory, so we could get out of Whitehorse to see the vast Yukon. We headed to the Klondike (where we failed to get rich panning for gold) and would ideally have liked to drive all the way north to the Arctic Ocean to complete our Antarctic-to-Arctic route of The Americas.

However, the access to the Arctic Ocean is in North West Territories, which had not (and still hasn’t) opened up. So we drove as far north as we could within the Yukon and reached the Arctic Circle line. So we never made it to the Ocean, but technically we did reach ‘the Arctic’. We’ll settle for that!

Finally, in early July, the Yukon formed a ‘COVID-Bubble’ with its southern neighbour, British Columbia and opened the internal border. By then we had been in the Yukon for four months, so we took the opportunity to head south into British Columbia and Alberta where internal Canadian tourism seems to be increasing on a daily basis.

We consider ourselves very lucky to be here in Canada for the pandemic. It has been handled well and numbers mercifully low compared to other parts of the world. But how long we can stay here is uncertain.

Our initial six-month visa is almost at an end. The US border is still closed, and the prospects of it opening anytime soon are slim, so we can’t drive out of Canada. We can’t ship our truck out of Canada due to the on-going internal border closure by New Brunswick – one of the Provinces we have to transit to reach Halifax (the only port we can ship out of to get back to the UK or Europe).

We have applied for our visa extension and fingers crossed, hope for news soon that we can stay here and contribute to the tourism economy for a few more months.

Catch the latest Canadian landscapes on our blog .

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Our expedition mobile became a stationery home

David & Francine are extremely lucky to have a friend in Zambia .

* Where you are now
We are in exactly the same place; although we have visited a couple of National Parks in the meantime (Kafue and South Luangwa).

* How your situation has changed since April.
It has not changed. Enjoying life in Zambia.

* The personal effect of your experiences during the pandemic.
Other than being marooned in Zambia, the pandemic has had little impact.

* Your ideas about what form travel might take in your personal future.
We are waiting for the borders to open. And we will wait….unless we have to return to the UK for family reasons.

There is not much else to share – life is on hold. We are leading a fairly domestic life here. We have made a good set of friends – social life is great.

Our blog , is quiet of late, except details of our trips to the National Parks.

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We should be happy to travel. Instead, we spontaneously break out in tears of desperation. Why?

Regular readers might be a little confused by our internet presence in recent weeks. On the one hand, we have added only a few new posts to our blog, on the other hand, we have published many beautiful travel photos on Instagram – but with gaps in between.

So what is really happening at dare2go.com?

We are both going through emotional ups-and-downs. Some days we are really happy to be on the road, seeing new things. Then we are forced to face the situation we’re in, and it doesn’t look as gorgeous as our Instagram posts.

Many might know that (for many years, long before Corona) we had planned to return to Australia in September or October 2020. We’ll be eligible for the age pension and can only apply in our home country. Last year, we had already scouted in Greece for places to store Bertita safely whilst we are away.

Since we were forced to leave Greece to comply with Schengen rules and our Greek visa extension, Albania was the logical choice and we had a clear route in mind. We wanted to circle Greece and first see more of Albania, a country we had rushed through in November.

When we left Greece in early July, we were in fairly high spirits and really enjoyed sight-seeing in Gjirokaster, our first stop in Albania. Gjirokaster is a World Heritage-listed town, well worth a visit. But the visitors were mostly missing! When we explored their castle, the largest in the Balkans, we were on our own for most of the time.

For later, we planned to visit North Macedonia, maybe parts of Serbia, and finally Bulgaria – before returning to Greece to fly “home” from there. Bulgaria is a country we’re really keen to explore; a dedicated guidebook for it takes up precious room in our storage.

This route made logical sense because, for the entire summer of 2020, Greece has only had a single land-border open: the main highway route from Sofia, Bulgaria into Greece.

But this is 2020 and Covid-19 hasn’t gone away yet! Only a few days after our arrival in Albania, one piece of confusing news followed another.

On the 10th of July, we learnt that the Australian government had announced stricter caps on arriving passenger numbers. Initially, we weren’t certain if or how this might affect us, but they have since been extended to October 24th. More on this below.

On the 14th of July, the EU removed Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia from the list of countries deemed safe to travel. This was due to rising Corona cases. Basically, this means the end of free travel between these countries and EU member states. Bulgaria and Greece, our final destinations, are both in the EU.

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Luckily for us, Australian citizens are still on a separate “Green List” of a handful of Non-EU-Countries. For some time though, this wasn’t reflected in Bulgaria’s entry requirements shown online, which put us into a real spin; this has now been updated. But we will need a valid PCR-test in order to enter. Greece is now requiring this too, for people coming from Bulgaria.

So right now, we’re hoping that not much else changes between now and then! At the end of September, we will try to get a valid PCR-test in the last town in Macedonia, cross a short 40 kilometre bit of road through Bulgaria (no sightseeing), and enter Greece on the same day with the same test. Fingers crossed!

We are NOT booked to fly to Australia on the 23rd of October

[Update 08.09.2020: we have already received a cancellation!]

Let me get back to our planned flight to Australia. On the 28th of August, we bit the bullet and booked a flight with Cathay Pacific from Frankfurt to Adelaide. On the 8th of September we received our cancellation for the flights to Australia! Why from Frankfurt, not Greece? We had to book a feeder flight with Lufthansa separately because otherwise quoted prices went through the roof.

Now we hope that between now and then Greece will not change their entry rules. Fingers and toes crossed!

But we are not the only ones having anxiety about getting on a flight. By far not! We have joined dedicated Facebook groups to stay better informed. In these, we find hundreds of heartbreaking stories from Australians trying to get home. Some have been bumped off consecutive flights since late March.

People have lost their expat jobs, run out of money or special medication, lost their housing, and lost heaps of money in fruitless upgrades to business class. The following two articles provide more information; these stories go beyond the scope of our post!

A collection of stories about Australians stranded around the world
Airlines estimate that over 100,000 Australians are affected by travel caps

It’s the exposure to these experiences of Australians overseas, which wrenches our hearts and suddenly makes us cry. Especially since we are living in a very similar state of uncertainty and really have to get back this year. We can’t believe the obviously heartless unwillingness and incompetence of our governments (both Federal and State), that seem to completely ignore the human impact of their decisions.

To put it bluntly: if we don’t get home by the end of the year we soon will not have money left to carry on and will be stranded; we had always budgeted towards this date. If we have to pay inflated business class prices, we’ll arrive in Australia with maxed out credit cards, and are also expected to pay an additional AUD4,000 for mandatory hotel quarantine.

But until it comes to this worst-case scenario, we are better off than many other stranded Australians!

We have our mobile home to live in [#homeiswhereyouparkit] and, from time to time, we see amazing new places or meet wonderful local people (but hardly any travellers this year). All we wish is that we’re able to have these experiences without heavy hearts and other worries – the way we used to travel before COVID-19!

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