Half a world away during the pandemic
It’s April Fool’s Day and it certainly feels as if the world is playing a cruel joke on all of us.
The COVID-19 pandemic has people staying home, families grieving losses, patients trying to recover, many people out of work and a laundry list of other stressful issues. Misery loves company, so this past weekend Mother Nature decided to also unleash powerful storms across Southwestern Pennsylvania that added flooded basements, downed trees and power outages to the deluge of stressors.
If only this all were an April Fool’s joke.
I have to admit the first half of March – when this wretched virus was first starting to make its spread across the United States – is a bit of a blur for me because I was halfway around the world.
Traveling to Australia has been a lifelong dream for me and we started planning a trip there almost one year ago. I had never planned a trip that far ahead before and I guess that’ll teach me not to do it again.
It all started with an ad for cheap airfare through Fiji and on to Australia that got me thinking I could really make this trip happen. So we planned and plotted and schemed and I eventually worked out an itinerary that was one for the ages.
We got to spend two days in Fiji on a layover, explore the extraordinary city of Sydney, climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge and dive the Great Barrier Reef.
It was fantastic.
Travel is my No. 1 passion and those who know me will tell you I love planning these trips and packing them full of places to see and things to do. This was probably the most ambitious itinerary of any trip I’d planned. Surprisingly, they usually go off without a hitch – or without any substantial hitches.
Well, this time we ran into a heck of a hitch.
We bought travel insurance in June in case one of us fell ill or had some other horrible life event happen before the trip. Our travel fell at the very beginning of this outbreak when most cases were still in China, so even though we were worried we still felt comfortable going. Our travel insurer stated, “fear of COVID-19 is not a valid reason for canceling.”
We had spent a tidy sum of money and were excited, so off we went armed with masks, wipes and hand sanitizer.
Everything was tremendous, but concern grew on our final days and came to a head when the U.S. State Department issued a warning to come home immediately. We found earlier flights home and spent our final day at a Sydney zoo watching koalas and kangaroos.
It was glorious.
I’ll write about our trip in an upcoming travel piece, but I’m glad we are home safe and healthy. I hope all of you reading this stay well.
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.