Why Going Home Was The Right Thing To Do: March 2020

In years to come, March 2020 will become synonymous with Coronavirus or Covid-19 quite like 1066 is with the battle of Hastings.

It’s March 2020 and the world has changed. All of our lives have been put on hold. For us, starting a new life as long-term travellers has also had to be put on hold and that’s why going home was the right thing to do for us. 

Rewind to July 2019 when the future had arrived, our new lives was starting and toilet rolls weren’t dominating conversations. We embarked on our travels to Thailand and Malaysia before heading down under to start a working holiday visa in Melbourne. 

I’ve written this post to document this time in history and so I can look back on it.

Aussie Rules

From August 2019 to March 2020, we lived, and fell in love, with Melbourne. We met the best people, adjusted and became part of Melbourne culture and found inspiration in the city around us. This was brutally cut short by losing our jobs, all of our favourite places closed and our friends scrambling for flights home.

We made the right decision to book flights as an insurance and luckily we did as flights either quickly sold out from Australia to the UK, went bankrupt or went to a ridiculous amount (like, £10k a flight).

I bought a flight from Melbourne – Sydney – London with BA for £600. More on the flight below…

I feel like the pandemic sort of creeped up on us. I remember early January when we had a tour group from China booked into the restaurant I worked in and we couldn’t believe they’d been turned away at Australian border.

I had customers saying the same joke of ‘I’ll have a corona but not the virus’ and it just didn’t seem as serious as it was about to become.

In My Feels

Some of my emotions being on the other side of the world without a clue about my future were: fear, anxiety, impending doom, stomach aches, mouth ulcers, headaches, fatigue, drained, scared and money worries. I quickly realised that the important things matter and we knew that booking our flight was the best decision we’d made.

I cried a lot leaving Melbourne. I am still sad and the traveller in me is no where near finished with this World… just not right now.

Why Going Home Was The Right Thing to Do

Leaving our lives in Melbourne was sad, difficult and we are still struggling with how our travel lives have abruptly ended and we’re back home. But this pandemic has dominated the world.

Going home was the best thing to do in this situation. We’d lost our jobs and the hospitality industry was not going to reopen anytime soon. The country was on lock down, we had no rights or entitlements as non-citizens and most of our friends were leaving too.

The FCO advised all Brits abroad to return home and our insurance provider would not cover medical costs if we ignored this advice.

At least at home we were safe and with our families.

Melbourne > Barry: The Journey Home

We bought a one-way flight for £600 with British Airways from Melbourne to London. This included a stopover in Sydney for 2.5 hours and a ‘stop’ in Singapore for 2 hours.

One hour after we booked and paid for the flights, Singapore announced that it was not letting any non-citizen to enter Singapore EVEN to just transit. Great.

I don’t know who was looking over us but we just happened to book the one route that stops only in Singapore for a refuel and passengers don’t leave the plane so isn’t classed as transiting. Lucky or what!

So, we sadly left our housemates in Apartment 18 and got a 30 minute Uber to Melbourne Airport. I looked back at the city and knew I’d return, just no idea when.

Melbourne Airport (the domestic terminal) was so quiet and there were far more staff than customers. A Qantas staff member helped us check our bags in and specifically said ‘your bags will meet you in London’.

As we’re about to board our flight from Melbourne to Sydney, it flags our tickets as ‘unable to board’. The lady explained to us that the baggage tag ‘Sydney-London’ hadn’t been put on our luggage and so our bags were going to be released in Sydney. When we had just 2.5 hours, it wasn’t the best news.

After a 1 hour flight from Melbourne to Sydney, we legged it off the plane, waited and grabbed our bags, paid $7 (unnecessarily) for a train from domestic to international, got turned away at one entrance and queued at another entrance to check in. We checked in our bags and made our way to the gate and made it in time. Phew, it’s tiring just typing this!

Then we had an 7 hour flight from Sydney to Singapore, refuel stop in Singapore for 2 hours, then 14 hour flight from Singapore to London.

The BA16 flight was long as we were in the same seats for 23 hours but I think better than a transit. Due to the pandemic, BA flights weren’t offering normal food service so we had 3 meals of a roll, kit-kat, biscuit and water. We had beverages offered through flight too. Some people were complaining (always one) but I was thankful to the staff for keeping going in this uncertain time and doing their best!

Touching down in London, the captain spoke to us over the speaker and asked us to clap for his crew. It was quite emotional as their jobs were uncertain as was the new times we were facing as a world.

My dad picked us up from Heathrow London and 3 hours later, I was home on Barry Island.

Impact On the UK

The streets really are something out of an apocalypse film.

Everyone in the UK is in lockdown. Everything is shut except for supermarkets/shops selling food and pharmacies. Hospitals are overrun with Covid-19 patients. There aren’t enough ventilators. If someone is admitted to hospital NOBODY can visit them. 

Staying at home is mandatory for saving lives and protecting the NHS. This ‘flattens the curve’ and stops the spread of the virus. Stay at home. It has overtaken the news and the globe. The Queen gave a speech to the nation and commonwealth on April 5th 2020. This is only the 5th time she has ever done this. The speech was moving and highlighted ‘we will meet again’.

You are only allowed out for:

• 1 hour of exercise per day but it has to be in your area (you cannot drive somewhere for exercise). 
• Medical emergencies 
• Supermarket for essential food items
• Essential work where you cannot work from home
• If you care for somebody 

Nobody is allowed to visit friends or family. You cannot see anyone who does not live in your household. If you see them at the supermarket or exercising you must stay 2 metres apart. 

Essential work includes NHS, care work, support work, social services (where cannot work from home), front line staff such as waste management and supermarket work. Key workers are the backbone of this virus and what is going to get us through. 

Older people and those with underlying health conditions are at most risk. Such as Martine who has had a letter that she must stay in for 12 weeks, same as pregnant women and those with COPD/Asthma, etc. 

We’ve all been made to slow down and reevaluate what is important to us and made us miss the small things. I can’t hug my nan who lives down the road from me. I can’t see my friends or family who I haven’t seen for 9 months.

• Toilet rolls went extinct from shelves from panic buying. 
• There are rainbow paintings in windows from kids.
• Clapping is the norm at 8pm on Thursday nights to appreciate the key workers.
• Everything from schools to cemeteries have closed except places that sell food/cleaning products.
• At supermarkets there are 2 hour queues, one-way systems and stickers to separate you from others.
• Olympics, Wimbledon, Glastonbury, Glastonbarry, Euros, Premier League, Marathons have all either cancelled or been postponed to 2021.
• Weddings and funerals are either cancelled or limited to under 10 people.
• New hospitals are set up including in the Principality Stadium.

Social distancing is automatic now. When you are walking on the same path as someone else, you automatically walk away from one another. 

Key workers have never been praised so much for the brilliant work they are doing to stop this virus and keep the nation going. Celebrities are not important, nobody cares about those type of things anymore just the vital parts of life. 

Barry Island is empty even on the sunniest days (which is good because it means people are listening and staying home). But as I’m allowed to walk around the island, I can appreciate the beauty and calmness of it all. I do miss the fairground music though!

Most of us are privileged and lucky that we have homes that in we can stay. But those poor people whose homes aren’t great are the ones we need to remember too (domestic abuse, neglect, etc). There are deaths everyday and it’s such a sad and unnerving time for everyone. But we’re in this together, staying at home is saving lives.

Things have been cancelled for the first time since WWII, how crazy is that! We’re living through a History lesson and hopefully the majority of us make it through this hard time and live to tell the future generations about it! 

My Lockdown Entertainment

During the lockdown, I’ve stuck to the rules and kept myself entertained in the house and quite frankly, I’ve loved it!

Writing for my blog and guest posts for future opportunities.

Watching: Tiger King, The Vampire Diaries, BBC Documentaries, Gavin & Stacey, Friends, Rick Stein Weekends Away, Films old and new.

Listening to: Friends With Friends Podcast, The World Nomads Travel Podcast.

Reading: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste NG, IT by Stephen King, Us by David Nicholls, Harry Potter Pottermore Collection Facts.

Doing: Playing Boy Girl Fruit Flower, Sunbathing, Hanging out with my mum and sister, Drinking out the back, Eating, Cooking with mum, Learned how to make my mum’s gravy, Started Couch to 5k, walked around Barry Island. While on lockdown in Oz, I was living with Scott and our two Swedish housemates and we had the best time just chilling, drinking and making tik-toks!

The Future Happy Days Travels

I’m going to blog everything I haven’t yet written about on my travels. Of course, this is NOT encouraging people to travel right now (I have to disclose that), but the beauty of digital writing is that it lasts so when you’re ready to rock and roll, please come back and search the archives!

That’s March 2020 wrapped up. See you soon, World.