We ended up doing 5 nights during our road trip and 2 more in Melbourne where we met another friend. The road trip was fun and very quiet. We didn't see a lot of people, supermarkets were pretty full, except for pasta and toiletpaper. To be fair though, we passed mostly small towns and no big cities. Our accomodations were mostly away from the towns or hidden. We stayed in a huge 'cabin in the woods' once with kangaroos next door, slept in an old Melbourne train and I had my first air bnb experience!
As far as sightseeing went, we saw a lot on our first full day! I had planned most of it, mostly at the start. There was 'less' to see at the end and more so more time to take it easy! We saw all we needed to see, had a few great beach walks and fantastic weather!!! One of the most memorable moments was when we went to the Kenneth River area and drove up the road to look for wild koalas, it was so fun to do!! Another moment I won't forget was that we watched a Christmas movie (The Grinch - animated version) in that cabin in the woods with 30 degrees outside and Corona exploding everywhere.
Speaking of Corona, we hardly noticed anything whilst on the Great Ocean Road. We had such a relaxing time. But we watched the news every day, read up on the situation in Holland, were texted and called by friends and family from back home and my family in Oz and our friend in Melbourne. We could hardly believe all of this was going on and the only Corona we dealt with was the bottles of Corona we drank each day. I did however started contacting my manager in coming back early and looking into flights. Indonesia was a no go and so was Thailand, and with talk of borders closing within Australia, I had no where to go, so I might as well go back home, work and finish my trip another time. I said I would book something once back in Melbourne.
And then shit hit the fence very quickly...we came back to Melbourne and stayed at a hostel outside the city centre. There was news about the virus every single day and borders did start closing. I booked a ticket, one that was less than €1000, with 1 layover and would take less than 30 hours to lower the risk of getting stuck somewhere. The flight was suppose to be on friday 27th of March. I didn't hear anything on the news and decided to Google for it and found out ALL flights going to Abu Dhabi got suspended from the 25th of March for at least 14days.
Right after I read and shared the news with my family at home, my sister send me news that the Dutch government is working hard to get people home asap (and after that, another 10 people send me the same message). Costs €900, bam. It's all such a waste of time and money, but I feel like there's nothing else I can do anymore. Either be stuck here (and here is not Australia, but the hostel in Melbourne and Melbourne went in to lock down yesterday) or go home and at least work. Oh and my friends left for Queensland by car last monday, before they close their borders as well (they just announced they're doing that this thursday, it's one of the last States to close it's borders).
And so, there it is. The end of my trip, not by choice and spending a fortune waiting and getting home. But I went for a walk today (and yes, away from people), looked up to the blue skies. Little bits of freedom that still excists and make me smile. I had a fantastic time these last 10weeks and all that is left is Indonesia with my friend and my mom, but I'm sure we can do that some other time. So all that's left to do, is register for a flight back home and wait for a date....
State of mind; all good :-). Thanks for traveling with me through my words and pictures! I hope you enjoyed it, I know I did!
Cheers,
T.
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