Two of our number were overseas as the pace of global infections spiralled from fast to frantic! We are VERY pleased that both have returned safely and are locked securely down at home in glorious Howick!
John Grogan and Margaret headed off to Perth Australia on Friday 13th (I know 😳) en route to a wonderful cruise and then Safari around Africa. Fortunately the company realised in time that the writing was on the wall and boarding was cancelled. After four days of "cooling their heels " in Perth the Grogans called it a day and headed home to Auckland, disappointed but wiser and most of all safe at home!
Charles and Sue left for an epic six week trip on the 10th March first to Serengeti in Tanzania, then a family wedding in Cape Town and 4 weeks in the UK, including the Orkney Islands from whence his family hailed. They enjoyed Serengeti enormously and had the time of their lives. As Serengeti was mostly off the grid the enormity of the global pandemic only hit when they got back to Arusha and Kilimanjaro Airport. Three agonising hours on the phone got their tickets changed for a straight through return to Auckland via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Singapore, but was not enough to consummate the deal with a suitable exchange of Visa details. The only other flight out, KLM, was cancelled with no notice 5 or 6 hours prior to take off, the airport was teeming with frantic travellers, but they made it to Addis where after an hour in the depth of the airline labyrinth the payment was made and they made the rest of the trip uneventfully. Flying though the eye of the storm, two major airline hubs with tens of thousands stressed travellers desperately trying to get home before the gates swung shut.
