Last Updated: March 25, 2021
I cannot believe it’s been a whole year since we rushed back from Mexico to the UK due to the coronavirus pandemic. One. Whole. Year! 12 Months. 52 Weeks. 365 Days. No matter how I word it, it doesn’t seem real. We had so many plans for the last 12 months, which have all disintegrated into nothing.
But hey, we’re still here, still going, still dreaming, still hoping.
And things are looking up (to a degree). The UK has begun it’s ‘road-map’ out of the latest lockdown, most kids are back in school (not ours!) and there’s a full calendar of stages published by the government. So it seems like things can only get better, right?
But, we’ve been here before. The last post I wrote on our coronavirus experience we were feeling really positive and beginning to sculpt some ideas of some forms of travel if things progress well. But little did we know…
Winter Was Coming!
The UK went into a second lockdown in the space of 2 months, Christmas essentially got cancelled and travel both abroad and within the UK was banned. Again! With dark, wet and cold nights we longed fort travelling more than ever.
Winter was rubbish!
But we always try to remain positive, we’re so much better off than so many people in the world. And we’re here, with hope again (even if it’s blind hope) that our travel adventures may begin again soon.
But we’re like caged animals at the moment. Our eldest has done a lot of planning with a detailed a route around the UK then other countries based on vaccine progression and predictions! He in particular wants to get going again. And he’s got big plans!
Kid’s Quote: “I just feel trapped. How long do you think until we can travel again?”
Laith, Age 11
But with foreign travel still pretty restricted currently, the UK is going to be our area to explore for the foreseeable future. And we’re very excited about that!
We’re on the hunt for a campervan so when we do travel we can do it safely and contained. We’ll probably end up coming into contact with less people than we do now! And all we want to do is explore the outdoors constantly. We never want to be cooped up again!
We essentially want to replicate our trip around New Zealand in a Campervan. Which was one of our favourite travel experiences.
Kid’s Quote: “When is our campervan coming?!”
Aden, Age 4
Chalk and Cheese
Our year being back in the UK also coincides with a year since the first lockdown in the UK began. The pandemic was well underway already by this point, but for UK residents this felt like the start for a lot of them personally.
It certainly felt like the start for us. Although we had been isolating in Mexico for a week, this was self choice, in the UK it was mandatory!
There’s definitely been ups and downs over the last 12 months, but there’s always ups and downs in any chapter of our lives. This was just a different set of ups and downs than we were expecting.
The last two year’s could not have been more incomparable for us.
The twelve months before the pandemic we went through 12 countries in 12 months, we sandwiched in bursting buses in India, shared food and accommodation with friends and families in Mexico, visited hustle bustle markets in Malaysia, and sat on more planes than we can count.
So to go from that too; one country in one year, not taking the bus at all, barely seeing friends and family, not entering a supermarket and not even daring to think about being able to get a plane again! It’s certainly been a tale of two halves.
Exploring without moving
But we try to look back on all our life’s journey as ‘experience’. This year has certainly not been a waste and we’ve come out with some decent achievements. And, although it’s been a different year, it’s still had it’s many highlights.
We’ve always said ‘exploring’ isn’t just about travelling to new places. It’s about exploring our inner selves and exploring experiences. And we’ve still been enriched in that respect over the last 12 months.
So hey, it’s not all bad, in fact it’s pretty damn good in some ways.
But we’re ready. Ready to move. Ready to see new places again. Ready for the world after the pandemic! We just need it to be ready for us now!