Covid-19; give me a break!

Without doubt, 2020 was an annus horribilis, not just for us, but for the entire world. Though I am far from being a conspiracy theorist, some things about this pandemic — and the responses to it — just don't add up for me. For example, the word 'cases', as it used, puzzles me. 'There were 5500 new cases reported in the USA today. OK, fair enough. But how many were actually ill? How many were admitted to hospital, or ICU? How many were put on respirators? How many were totally asymptomatic? Lets just say these numbers help sell newspapers and advertising. Or just call me cynical.

Here in Australia we have been ... fortunate. Fortunate by dint of our geographical isolation, both internally and externally. Compared to say the UK or the USA, life here has been remarkably 'normal', except there is no international travel and some internal border restrictions.

 We were on a cruise (quelle surprise) when the full impact of CV-19 surfaced. Our cruise was with Silversea on Silver Spirit, departing Singapore and finishing 15 days later in Ho Chi Minh City. However, as the pandemic spread, so countries began closing their ports. Time after time, we were turned away, even from ports that were not on our original itinerary. We jokingly referred to it as 'The Voyage of the Damned'. (One friend, however, hearing of our six-star luxury onboard, promptly renamed it 'The Voyage of the Overly Indulged'.) For 10 days we wandered without touching land, with no contact with anyone not on the ship. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our temperature was taken every day; the crew twice a day. Cleaning and sterilising, already exemplary, were ramped up. There were no recorded cases of illness on board.

Finally, the Australian government agreed we could land in Darwin, which was fine for us but didn't make the British guests — the majority — too happy. We were met by coaches and taken to the airport, onto the plane and a direct flight to Perth. The authorities told us that as we had had no contact with land for the 10 days previous, we were only required to self-isolate at home for an additional four days. We did it longer than that, because we could not have forgiven ourselves had we actually infected anyone. Just as divorce seemed to be the only logical option, we were set free!

As soon as our intrastate travel restrictions were lifted, I planned and booked a celebratory 'road trip' — from Perth to Kununurra in our far north, and back, of course. I think that trip helped save what little hair and sanity I have left. It was raining and grey when we left Perth, but four hours later we were in sunshine and it stayed that way for the next three weeks. In fact, the next rain we saw was as we pulled into our driveway at home at the end of our trip.

Western Australia is indeed a remarkable state, with such a variance in landscape and flora and fauna. It is, after all, about 3.5 times the size of Texas, at about some 2.5 000 000 square kilometres!

Just over 9000 km in three weeks and loved every minute of it. Wildflower season was rapidly approaching when we got back, so there was another excuse to hit the road again.

Go to Hell, CV-19!

More next time.