Satellite
Show on map
  • Day 661

    Maroochydore

    March 15, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    After packing our camper we headed north towards Maroochydore - we visited a Flight Centre on our way and felt the first real sign of nervousness -, the Australian Government had just imposed a 14 day isolation on all entrants to the country and Morocco had closed all airports without notice. News from around the world was not good.
    We decided on the way north to explore our options for leaving early but knew that our UK agent was closed due to the time difference. Luckily Jamie was able to contact the local EVA Airlines office via his trade links - on the face of it here was a flight out the following evening which we could get on. We decided that the best thing to do would be to come home early, although options to extend our visa and enroll in the Medicare system were open to us too.
    On arrival at the campsite we explained our situation, with our expectation that we would leave the following day to return to the UK instead of staying for the intended six nights. The very friendly staff urged to us to stay in Australia where it was safer and it was quite a compelling argument.
    That evening Jamie received the news that EVA Airlines were stopping all flights to Australia after tomorrows flight and the next available connecting flight from Teipei to London would be three days later in the week, if it flew at all.
    We slept on it and Jamie contacted our agents in the Winchester Flight Centre that evening to see what other options were available to us.
    We returned to Eatons Hill the following morning laden with food and prepared for an exit the following night which would at least give us a couple of more evenings with them all.
    We left Brizzie on Wednesday evening, our hearts full of sadness, after saying our goodbyes to our lovely family there.
    Read more