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terratin

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Wow, 50km multies sounds fab! Which ones are they? I want to start working on the four Stelling van Amsterdam multies, on bike most likely. Just need to plan a bit on how to get to a starting point by train and back to a random station at an arbitrary end point. (e.g. gc8nB1R)

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16 hours ago, Unit473L said:

Nice! One of the advantages of living in Europe.

 

Here in Australia it's a bit harder to get to other countries since there aren't any you can just drive to. It's pretty much flights to get anywhere, or get on a cruise. Unless you buy your own boat, but I don't think I can justify spending that kind of money for Geocaching.

 

Or maybe... :D 

Things are not going to improve anytime soon. International flights are banned except for essential business. All incoming passengers are subject to two weeks quarantine, therefore no tourists in or out. Even QANTAS (our supposed "National Carrier") has ceased international flying. All cruise ships are banned indefinitely and have been sent back to their home ports. I was hoping to pick up a few new countries in April until the brown stuff hit the fan and countries got serious and started shutting down. We have closed several state borders so I can't even fly from my side of the country to the other, which I had planned to do. I was hoping to do another trip to New Zealand later this year but that's on hold unless a flight bubble happens which doesn't look like happening as a state to the south has had a COVID19 spike which has spread to my state and the Kiwis wont want any part of that. It looks like I'm grounded and captive in my own state for some time yet. With a COVID19 strike rate of 4 deaths/million population its best that I stay where I am.

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1 hour ago, colleda said:

Things are not going to improve anytime soon. International flights are banned except for essential business. All incoming passengers are subject to two weeks quarantine, therefore no tourists in or out. Even QANTAS (our supposed "National Carrier") has ceased international flying. All cruise ships are banned indefinitely and have been sent back to their home ports. I was hoping to pick up a few new countries in April until the brown stuff hit the fan and countries got serious and started shutting down. We have closed several state borders so I can't even fly from my side of the country to the other, which I had planned to do. I was hoping to do another trip to New Zealand later this year but that's on hold unless a flight bubble happens which doesn't look like happening as a state to the south has had a COVID19 spike which has spread to my state and the Kiwis wont want any part of that. It looks like I'm grounded and captive in my own state for some time yet. With a COVID19 strike rate of 4 deaths/million population its best that I stay where I am.

I got in a couple of cruises just before the virus arrived in Australia. I got PNG as a new country. (I am wondering if that will be my last new country, at least for several years.) My last cruise arrived back on 2nd March. Fortunately we were virus free, but ships after that date often weren't.

I was expecting to be in the Gold Coast for an event in April and then drive north to the Gulf after that. All that was cancelled when I was stuck at home.

 

We should have gone for eradication, as NZ did. Go hard early. Even so, we managed to eradicate it from every state and territory except Victoria and NSW. Very poor management in Victoria of the quarantine hotels led to the present surge in cases. I live in the ACT and we managed to eradicate it even without having stay at home orders. It was only a strong suggestion, but most people did stay at home. They did the right thing. Maybe that's because the ACT has the highest education level in Australia. Success or not is often sadly dictated by the lowest common denominator; the biggest morons.

The expects are now talking about going for eradication rather than flattening the curve only, as without eradication, the upsurges in cases will happen again and again. Unfortunately the Victorian and NSW politicians are not talking about eradication.

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2 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Even so, we managed to eradicate it from every state and territory except Victoria and NSW.

 

NSW did have it eradicated as we went for about six weeks with the only new cases being people returning from overseas in quarantine hotels. The present surge in south-western Sydney appears to have come from a freight worker who travelled up from Victoria. It remains to be seen whether it can be snuffed out before it spreads too far or if we'll end up back in lockdown, but it's pretty much scuttled my travel plans for the foreseeable future. Before this all started, I'd been thinking of a trip down south to do the Great Ocean Road and nabbing my first caches in the ACT and Victoria, and maybe another winter escape up to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, but for now I'm not even game to venture far into Sydney so trips up to Newcastle will be my limit for a while.

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We are also on the NSW coast, but South of Sydney.   We rarely leave the house these days, except for shopping and medical appointments.    We Skype the family.  All volunteer groups have cancelled meetings and I'm playing bridge online. I've only found 3 caches in the last few months.

 

Definitely not the time to go to anything resembling a city.

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8 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

[...]

We should have gone for eradication, as NZ did. Go hard early. Even so, we managed to eradicate it from every state and territory except Victoria and NSW. Very poor management in Victoria of the quarantine hotels led to the present surge in cases. I live in the ACT and we managed to eradicate it even without having stay at home orders. It was only a strong suggestion, but most people did stay at home. They did the right thing. Maybe that's because the ACT has the highest education level in Australia. Success or not is often sadly dictated by the lowest common denominator; the biggest morons.

The expects are now talking about going for eradication rather than flattening the curve only, as without eradication, the upsurges in cases will happen again and again. Unfortunately the Victorian and NSW politicians are not talking about eradication.

 

Yeah, same here. When the government announced what might be possible with regards to traveling back in June I panic-rebooked my summer vacation that was supposed to go to Montenegro. It's not an EU/Schengen country and traveling outside of EU/Schengen is likely a big NO this year. Plus a that time Montenegro didn't want us in due to the poor handling of the crisis here anyway. At least I'm not out of pocket. But besides this all, yeah: things could have been handled a lot better here.

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On 7/15/2020 at 1:35 PM, Goldenwattle said:

We should have gone for eradication, as NZ did. Go hard early.

 

Yes it is pretty good here in NZ, in that domestically things are more or less back to normal.  I've already had a few trips around the country.  I think we might be losing interest in a trans-tasman bubble for the short term (sorry Aussie) but some hopes for a bubble to extend to some pacific islands... would be nice to go sit on a beach in Fiji or Rarotonga (not that any of the islands would be new countries for me)

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1 minute ago, funkymunkyzone said:

 

 I think we might be losing interest in a trans-tasman bubble for the short term (sorry Aussie) 

 

I would think it is NZ should be more sorry about that - its the Aussie tourist dollars they want after all..... We're hoping to drop some of our dollars there in December.... hoping!

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10 minutes ago, lee737 said:

 

I would think it is NZ should be more sorry about that - its the Aussie tourist dollars they want after all..... We're hoping to drop some of our dollars there in December.... hoping!

 

You're right, although I expect there'd be some $ going in both directions.  However, I was more thinking sorry from the humanitarian side of things.

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1 hour ago, terratin said:

Helgoland is done. I guess one has to be content with less exotic destinations this year, still: what a fantastic trip!

 

115750312_10158582117180816_6220758365158736459_o.thumb.jpg.9b808aa62bf4f4e3accde287df92ab1c.jpg110568205_10158582116825816_4402688409141758973_o.thumb.jpg.869fcc3d0dc128de8f3bf22a7ef14b4c.jpg109722201_10158582118460816_1456881482655874647_o.thumb.jpg.5ab24d3ba07fecd56d134d7681df3ce0.jpg109935433_10158582118150816_8888458120831461122_o.thumb.jpg.0b91e2e03157e28ef7b0840569377291.jpg

 

I've never heard of Helgoland.  That makes it pretty exotic in my book.  

 

There is a pretty fair chance that I may never visit another country again in my lifetime.

 

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2 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

There is a pretty fair chance that I may never visit another country again in my lifetime.

 

Gill and I were talking about that the other day. We have been lucky enough to have been to almost all the places on our bucket list already, and there is a lot of Australia (even NSW) we haven't yet seen.  I doubt we will do any significant international travel ever again.  We do have two cruises booked, one to NZ over Christmas this year (about 30% chance of happening) and the other to the UK and Norway in October 2021.  I did give that one about 75%, but I am revising it downward and am doubting that it will even happen.  The NZ one is down from 50% since the AUS/NZ bubble doesn't look like happening.

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When we were in the Canadian Maritimes in 2012, Newfoundland, we considered a fairly expensive trip to St Pierre y Miquelon.  It was listed as being part of France!  But, before we got there, it was moved from being France to being Canada.  So, we said "No way!"  So, I have only two countries with finds.

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22 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

Gill and I were talking about that the other day. We have been lucky enough to have been to almost all the places on our bucket list already, and there is a lot of Australia (even NSW) we haven't yet seen.  I doubt we will do any significant international travel ever again.  We do have two cruises booked, one to NZ over Christmas this year (about 30% chance of happening) and the other to the UK and Norway in October 2021.  I did give that one about 75%, but I am revising it downward and am doubting that it will even happen.  The NZ one is down from 50% since the AUS/NZ bubble doesn't look like happening.

 

I've never been on a cruise either and the chance of that happening is pretty low too.  As much I enjoyed new countries there are a bunch that I've been to several times and would love to revisit.  I've never been to Portugal (where my great great grandfather was born) or Croatia (where my wifes family is from) and the closest to Oceania I've been to is Malaysia so my bucket list is still long.  

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Yeah, I'm for now staying nearby as well. I have two 1-2 day earthcache trips planned, one to Texel, one of the Dutch waddensea islands, and one to the Eifel region in Germany, just over the border. Both should be fab. Just waiting for good weather for the first, and... not sure about the second yet.

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Well done on your trip though, @on4bam. Yeah, planning is a bit difficult at the moment, and for some reason the Dutch government seems to think it's all not such a big issue. I wish things were a bit stricter here. I usually bring a big lunch, lots of water and then order in a burger or sushi on the way home, or have some leftovers in the fridge. Trains are fortunately very quiet at the moment.

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On 7/22/2020 at 11:29 AM, on4bam said:

Namibia for September this year is officially postponed to 2021 without any cost.

 

Namibia sounds wonderful.  A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a partner from South Africa we've worked with for a long time about a proposal he has submitted to an organization that supports research in 11 central and eastern African countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. I've been written in as the technical lead for the proposal.  If it happens, it could lead to some travel to one or more of those countries.  I've already found caches in three of them and the rest (except for Uganda) would present quite a challenge just to find one.   There's only one cache in Eritrea, placed in 2005.  It's on an island in the red sea.  There is only one found it log and it's questionable (the user logged in Egypt on the same day).  

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58 minutes ago, on4bam said:

 

All was carefully planned and booked just weeks before all this COVID-19 stuff started. Ethiopia (our transfer airport) and Namibia did well for a long time but 3-4 weeks ago numbers started to explode. All accommodations let us postpone to next year at 2020 rates. Car rental gave a voucher to be used next year or, if not used by then, a refund. Ethiopian keeps our tickets open until Dec 31, 2021. So no big deal. 

 

Bole airport is easy to deal with.  I don't know about Belgian citizens but U.S. can get a visa upon arrival for $25.  I've been to Addis three times.  Do you just have a short layover or are you staying a day or two in Addis?

 

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On 7/24/2020 at 3:06 AM, on4bam said:

EU passports are good for easy access to most countries. There's (or better, there was) no time to go outside. Total travel time (and price) were the main reason to chose Ethiopian.

Even without being clairvoyant it may well be that travel to Namibia may not be possible next year.

 

If you get the opportunity to have a layover in Addis some time in the future, I recommend it.  Good food.  Beautiful people.  I've flown on Ethiopian air several times and thought it was better than most.

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Small travels. I'll likely to go the island of Texel tomorrow for a few EarthCaches and hopefully slightly less high temperatures than inland. Downside: it will still be hot, and as I don't have a car it will mean cycling. About 70km I guess. At least this will give me two new municipalities for my collection. Small steps this year.

Edited by terratin
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Small steps this year, indeed. We were due for Bosnia, Montenegro and Canada (border hop) + 9 US states (4 week RV camping trip)  this year, but we got none of that.

Even Guernsey was off limits.

Instead we got a bunch of new Swiss Cantons and German Landkreise. Which is nice of course.

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We finally made our break from Thailand after 5 months and flew to Serbia. We had a 5 hour stopover in Abu Dhabi but they are not issuing visas at this time so no opportunity to snag a cache or two. Today we found our first two caches here in Serbia however and if luck holds up we will be able to join a few of the surrounding countries in the near future. 

 

Something that took us by surprise that I thought might be worth mentioning... Serbia had no pre-requirements to come here but our airline did. Had to get a covid-19 test to fly with them (Expedia doesn't mention this at all) and as a result had to rebook everything when we got an email the day of the flight. Fortunately everyone worked with us (airline, hotel, etc...) to do so but they certainly didn't have to. Two covid-19 tests in Bangkok cost us over $500 cad (13000 baht) so just a bit of a heads up for people if they are as scatterbrained as we were/are. ?

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45 minutes ago, on4bam said:

 

Wow.. I looked it up, seems in Belgium Covid-19 (PCR) tests cost €46 (max.) and it's 100% paid by health insurance if it's a mandatory test. If voluntary (not by doctor's request) it's at the patient's expense. A test for travel is probably voluntary.

We're not prepared to sit shoulder to shoulder in a confined metal tube yet (although air is very clean and filtered and it seems no infection has been traced to air travel yet).

 

 

There just was this bit of news:
"

All passengers who were on a flight from Zante in Greece to Cardiff in Wales have been asked to self-isolate after some on board tested positive for Covid-19.

Public Health Wales (PHW) said seven people on Tui flight 6215 on Tuesday have now tested positive for the virus."

 

though it's not certain whether people actually got infected on that plane. It's more likely those infected stayed in the same hotel or went to the same bar.

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2 hours ago, on4bam said:
2 hours ago, on4bam said:

 

Wow.. I looked it up, seems in Belgium Covid-19 (PCR) tests cost €46 (max.) and it's 100% paid by health insurance if it's a mandatory test. If voluntary (not by doctor's request) it's at the patient's expense. A test for travel is probably voluntary.

We're not prepared to sit shoulder to shoulder in a confined metal tube yet (although air is very clean and filtered and it seems no infection has been traced to air travel yet).

 

Wow.. I looked it up, seems in Belgium Covid-19 (PCR) tests cost €46 (max.) and it's 100% paid by health insurance if it's a mandatory test. If voluntary (not by doctor's request) it's at the patient's expense. A test for travel is probably voluntary.

We're not prepared to sit shoulder to shoulder in a confined metal tube yet (although air is very clean and filtered and it seems no infection has been traced to air travel yet).

 

Ouch. We thought it was quite high but still cheaper than eating the airline and hotel costs. Plus honestly we felt over 6 months in Thailand was more than enough.  Now if Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam had of reopened...

 

Fortunately the whole shoulder to shoulder thing was not an issue. In both flights there were many more rows of seats than people. In fact the first flight was a 777 with roughly 40 people. Would of needed a carrier pigeon to talk to someone else. I hear you though. I am severely immune system compromised so flying probably wasn’t the wisest action. 

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4 hours ago, on4bam said:

Planes are safe

 

Pre-COVID, the last three times I flew anywhere (two domestic flights and one to New Zealand), I came down with a heavy head cold a couple of days later. I'm pretty sure I caught one of those in the lounge waiting to board as someone sat right behind me and started coughing all over me, and the New Zealand one I might have caught from one of the other guests at the wedding I went to. Planes might be safe, but the whole process of flying anywhere usually means I'll catch something.

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@barefootjeff

Sounds like you need to just pretend that Covid never ends and plan accordingly for your flights.  Maybe just a decent idea for future travel in general.   I'd hate to do it on a long haul Pacific or Atlantic run, but I might even consider it next time I head across in 2021.  Hell of a thing to get accustomed to though, wouldn't it be? 

 

Last trip we made outbound in a flying tin can was 3/15/20.  Put on our N95 masks as we arrived a the airport drop off.  Wore them except for brief eating/drinking onboard.  Sanitized the crap out of our seating spaces when we boarded.  Kept the N95s on until we were clear of the airport.  Back then, there were no cases in the area of our destination, so we were free to live easy for 10 days.  Then the whole process over again on the way home.  They claim the current HEPA filters on aircraft with constant circulation is a good thing to have blowing in your face .. move those bugs down the road somewhere else.  Didn't take some of the airlines long to stuff the center seats again, though, did it?  We were traveling as family, so were not impacted by the center seat issue.  Made it back home on one of the last flights by our airline from that location.  There was so little traffic by then that they just dropped the route about a week later.

Edited by ecanderson
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18 hours ago, on4bam said:

 

Yes, it"s a lot more probable they got infected elsewhere. Planes are safe... and yet... not for us. Having seen the difference in the Netherlands compared to Belgium when going out to dinner and also what measures other countries take, we still limit ourselves. It's not worth it, there's always next year.

 

 

I'm currently in Croatia. I felt safe on the flight, which also just was half full and all people spread out as far away from each others as possible. Very few tourists, and I would say it's quieter than at home, by a lot! But I evaluate when I go somewhere whether it's fine, or too many people and time to go elsewhere. Though mostly my interests are not really in mass-tourist happenings or parties.

Edited by terratin
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We finally gave up the fight and came back to Canada after just over 2 years of living abroad. We finished our 14 day mandatory quarantine a couple days ago and today picked up our first ever caches in Ontario (sorry, I know this is supposed to be country collecting). We will crossover into Quebec in the next couple days and gather that province as well. From there  we shall see  if a housesitting opportunity works out for us. If not, we will  likely winter in Prince Edward Island (another new province for us) and then hopefully stay with friends in Norfolk for a couple months. NE Canada and US are both mostly virgin territory for us so looking forward to the next few months.

 

Btw... I am curious how people choose to display their home location if they decide to move elsewhere? Either will affect your distance from home stats . I will never come close to the amount of caches I originally found in BC so I am leaning to leaving that as my home location.

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If you want to hide a cache you need to change your home location. Also, if you want to see events near you and open the map near your home location this might be necessary as well. If I remember correctly, notifications work differently.

So basically: Yeah, moved internationally an awful lot of times. That distances and other things change doesn't matter to me. If I worked on a 360 degrees from home challenge and moved then I just start again. Hey, I have about 1000 caches in one degree, and distance from home looks like this (see below).

Good luck after this move! On to new adventures, eh? :)

 

 

 

image.png.4c888768ce64349a696aa7c446ec19ce.png

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I had quite a few trips abroad, but it mostly involved taking a train to Germany. Well, I did add Croatia and Czechia to my list this year, and might or might not add Monaco in December. We'll see.  I certainly have nothing long-distance planned even though I keep on getting fab flight offers. Just now Amsterdam to various towns in Canada for 250 Euro in Summer. Oh well... At least on Saturday I hope to add two more Dutch municipalities to my ever-growing list.

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10 hours ago, terratin said:

might or might not add Monaco in December

 

Nice makes a convenient jumping off point for Monaco. We got a pretty cheap flight there from Frankfurt in November 2018. I imagine it's an even cheaper flight now. Once in Nice, it was an easy train ride to Monaco. We did it as a day trip, as even in COVID times I expect it's a lot cheaper to base in Nice than to do a whole stay in Monaco.

 

As far as itty bitty countries go, we enjoyed San Marino more than Monaco. Perhaps if I had sharpened my baccarat game before our visit...but they probably frown on bringing a five year old into the casino.

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10 hours ago, hzoi said:

 

Nice makes a convenient jumping off point for Monaco. We got a pretty cheap flight there from Frankfurt in November 2018. I imagine it's an even cheaper flight now. Once in Nice, it was an easy train ride to Monaco. We did it as a day trip, as even in COVID times I expect it's a lot cheaper to base in Nice than to do a whole stay in Monaco.

 

As far as itty bitty countries go, we enjoyed San Marino more than Monaco. Perhaps if I had sharpened my baccarat game before our visit...but they probably frown on bringing a five year old into the casino.

 

Yep, I got a 40 Euro return flight. Which I can cancel if needed. To be honest, I don't care much about Monaco, but there's an interesting Roman quarry about 300m above town. I will probably just get a cache in Monte Carlo to get it on the map, and then hike up to the quarry. And then I decide depending on conditions. A Le Corbusier villa might be worth a visit, Nice has a few interesting museums and also a bit of Roman archaeology...

 

Actually, I looked at San Marino, but it's not quite as easy to get to. Certainly involves lots of train travel. I might keep it for some as of yet undefined vacation in Italy some time in the future.

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On 10/14/2020 at 10:10 PM, terratin said:

I had quite a few trips abroad, but it mostly involved taking a train to Germany. Well, I did add Croatia and Czechia to my list this year, and might or might not add Monaco in December. We'll see.  I certainly have nothing long-distance planned even though I keep on getting fab flight offers. Just now Amsterdam to various towns in Canada for 250 Euro in Summer. Oh well... At least on Saturday I hope to add two more Dutch municipalities to my ever-growing list.

I wouldn't consider travelling anywhere at present, unless it was for an important reason, such as medical. Europe is having a surge in Covid. Fine to talk about future trips in years to come, but to talk about a trip this year appears to be living in an alternative universe, where there is no Covid.

As for myself, I don't know when I will be able to travel overseas next (our borders are closed); maybe not even next year, unless the few remaining Covid caches in Australia (I think about 15 new cases today) can be eradicated and we can make a bubble with NZ and perhaps some Pacific Islands. Even some state borders are closed to cross border visits.

 

My last new country was PNG in February.

 

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, terratin said:

Actually, I looked at San Marino, but it's not quite as easy to get to. Certainly involves lots of train travel. I might keep it for some as of yet undefined vacation in Italy some time in the future.

 

We went to San Marino during our trip to Italy last Christmas, flying into Bologna and renting a car. We stayed our first couple nights in Ravenna and took a day trip to San Marino by car.

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12 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

...and we can make a bubble with NZ and perhaps some Pacific Islands.

 

 

Fingers crossed.  We just had our first non-quarantine flight go to Sydney (that's a flight where the passengers are not required to quarantine in Australia upon arrival, due to all passengers on board qualifying on certain pre-conditions).  Hopefully we can get into a position soon to have the same for flights coming back from Oz to NZ.

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31 minutes ago, on4bam said:

You're lucky to live on an island and the efficient handling of the pandemic. Europe is a different matter, very build up, lots of crossborder traffic...

 

 

Yep.
I have to say though that sitting in a train with two other people in the compartment to cross a border, or visiting a tourist trap such as Split or Trogir while there are just a handful of other people at most feels much safer than squeezing into a full supermarket where nobody cares about masks or keeping a distance (yes, the Dutch know everything better and don't listen to government). Plus when I go somewhere I'm always prepared to do a u-turn and go back or go somewhere else if a place turns out to be too crowded. And I've done that a few times. Helps of course if you have an interest in things that in normal times are not too crowded either of course.

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13 minutes ago, on4bam said:

 

Masks are mandatory for months here in shops. Keeping distance is also respected most of the time. BTW, it took the Dutch a long time to strengthen the Covid-19 measures. We're waiting to see what gets decided today.

Most destinations are not a problem, it's getting there safely and limitations at those destinations. Going somewhere where restaurants and bars are closed is no fun (and a sanitary problem during the day).

We might (big if) book a cottage in the SE of Belgium near the German border in November if all goes well. Self-catering most of the time and walking in the woods seems very safe B). It's also the area with the least infections (in numbers and %) and we might cross (walk) into Germany for a few caches.

It will be a very last minute booking anyway but for a Mo-Fr stay it shouldn't be a problem.

 

 

I know... I've been shaking my head in despair for months to be honest. There were times when I stopped going to the market because people just didn't care. One of the market folks asked me why I stopped coming. Explained that people just bloody ignored the rules for distancing at the market. He thought I was exaggerating. Been offended for wearing a mask months ago in a supermarket as well...

Bars and restaurants closed is no problem for me. Get nice charcuterie or cheese, fresh bread, and eat in. Well.. sanitary... ehm.. lets say if you're out in nature all day you don't expect a loo to pop up somewhere (though I've seen them on Aland).

Good luck with your trip! I'd considered SE Belgium and Luxemburg for a trip at the beginning of this year. Ho hum...

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Australia also has state borders and at one stage they were all closed and guarded to keep people from crossing. Back in April I was confined to a land locked 'island' the ACT. It's 2,358 km²; about the size of County Wexford in Ireland, but even much of the 2,358 km² was blocked off. Our states could be compared to European countries. We closed our state borders, so why are European borders still open?

Some of our borders have reopened, but not all. Even for the open ones, we might still need to apply for permission before crossing. This is how the virus is controlled. We had almost eliminated it, but then Victoria gets a second wave and the numbers surged. The Victorian border was locked down and the state went into strict lockdown. This was to stop it spreading to other states. The numbers of cases plummeted.

https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/victorian-coronavirus-covid-19-data

This is what happens if borders are closed, people can't cross them and lockdown is introduced.

image.thumb.png.40c7b9dcbf1f31945a753f4714dc097a.png

Edited by Goldenwattle
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3 hours ago, on4bam said:

 

Masks are mandatory for months here in shops. Keeping distance is also respected most of the time. BTW, it took the Dutch a long time to strengthen the Covid-19 measures. We're waiting to see what gets decided today.

Most destinations are not a problem, it's getting there safely and limitations at those destinations. Going somewhere where restaurants and bars are closed is no fun (and a sanitary problem during the day).

We might (big if) book a cottage in the SE of Belgium near the German border in November if all goes well. Self-catering most of the time and walking in the woods seems very safe B). It's also the area with the least infections (in numbers and %) and we might cross (walk) into Germany for a few caches.

It will be a very last minute booking anyway but for a Mo-Fr stay it shouldn't be a problem.

 

 

We own a house in an area that is a tourist destination that we have on AirBnB.  Last year we only had a few renters over the summer. This year then entire month of July was rented, We blocked the listing in August to get some work done, then put it back on in September.  We had a couple of bookings in September,  most of October, and all of November booked.  It's almost all people from New York City looking to get out of their house/apartments to an area that has low covid numbers.  Most of the people in the town are good about wearing masks as it's mandatory in any indoor public place.   In general, people really want to get outdoors more now and it's a really good place to do that. 

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2 hours ago, IceColdUK said:


As long as you’re prepared to drive. ?

 

Now, there's an Adventure Lab waiting to happen...

 

e2a:

The idea of which prompted me to look at Barnard Castle to see what caches there might be around there. And immediately found this log:

 

Quote

14:56 After popping into Barnard castle for lunch and a quick eye test I was able to spot this one easily

 

Edited by Blue Square Thing
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