Back to reality
21 Mac 2020, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C
After breakfast we went to say goodbye to the nice Dutch couple who were travelling in their campervan. We spoke for a good hour about Australia, their travels, our travels and corona. Then it was time to leave Karijini National Park and make our way south.
After some hours of driving we arrived in the mining town of Newman. After a short visit to the tourist information center ("I'm afraid there isn't much to do here or on the way to Perth" is an exciting conversation starter) we caught up with the news and people after having been without reception for a couple of days. The past 48 hours had felt like a much needed break from all the sadness and worries.
Now however, it was time to face reality again. And reality currently doesn't make us (probably actually no one) happy. For us it is clear that sooner or later our world trip will stop. Lots of questions are popping up in our heads. For how long do we need to pause it? 6 months? 1 year? Is it even feasible to start a worldtrip part 2? How do we fill the time in between? How do we get an income? Does it make sense to apply for a job we would like to have? Or is that impossible and we should just try to find work in areas that are currently looking for people? Parcel delivery, supermarkets etc? Where do we live? All these things just seem so different from how we imagined this year to go. Despite it sounding overdramatic, for us it feels like our dream is falling apart and that left us sad, hopeless and slightly panicking.
Eventually we went to the local camping, which like the one back in Tom Price was also mainly miner accommodation, with the difference that this one still accepted tourists as long as we declared ourselves healthy. Not knowing how long we'd still stay in Australia, hence also not knowing if we had enough clean clothes, we anyways made use of the free washing machine.
Around sunset, we drove up to the Radio Hill as we were told it had a nice view over the town and surroundings. While driving there we noticed lightning in the clouds. No thunder however, and it didn't rain either. The views were pretty great. Back at the campsite all cockatoos had collectively decided the tree above our van would be their stay for the night. At first their loudness was a bit annoying but when they all started sleeping it became cute instead.Baca lagi
Hi, Wilhelm here, it seems you have some tough decisions to make. From how I see it you should be able to always find at any given moment a country in which the virus either has not yet arrived or has already passed. South Africa or India might still be travelable for a week or so. Then maybe the situation will be quite relaxed in Singapore, they seem to got rid of the virus. Another option would be to indeed stay somewhere until it passed in the respective country. If you go now into a highly infected country you get also out fairly quickly again. I guess in Italy it will be over in less than a month and you might be among the first to see Venice again. What I am saying: Try to stay positive! It might also open possibilities.
Pengembara Hi Wilhelm! Great to hear from you, and thank you for the positivity. However, you're wrong 😉 South Africa just announced a 3 week lock down starting on Thursday. Parts of India are already in lockdown, plus it's the last place you want to get stuck in or get quarantined. Singapore is doing pretty well but since the 16th of March Germans haven't been allowed to enter it anymore, which was extended yesterday to include all foreigners. The simple truth is that travelling anywhere right now is risky and in a way irresponsible.
Hi Susanne and Machiel; yes, Singapore is also closed now for all short-term visitors (from anywhere in the world) and all official travels and overseas leave applications may not be approved until 30 June 2020 or until further notice. I also planned to visit Europe in May which is not possible anymore. But this of course cannot even be compared to your situation; so I would just like to join Wilhelm in wishing you optimism and positivity in whatever decisions you take in the face of this challenge. Thanks for sharing all the pictures and your journey with us!!! Looking forward to see more, if not soon then hopefully in not too distant future, again! Jakub