Good to hear from you, Michael, and thanks for the information about how bad coronavirus would be for indigenous communities in Australia. Hope you all stay safe and well.

That makes sense. But at the moment, we should stay home wherever we are. The australian government imposed anyway an 14d isolation period for each foreigner

For those who are confined to their homes - please write some more reviews! We're running empty

Is anyone aside of me actually still traveling? I think this paranoia is more annoying than ruining the world economy, not to sound like the "silly US president" but flu kills more people? Governments shutting down the country short notice are much worse in creating panics.

I would have been happy to still go to Kenya & CAR - but Sangha NP is closed, flights have been cancelled and I am not allowed to go outside of the EU. So, what can you do? Just accept it I think and make the most of it. I am now postponing everything til the 2nd half of 2020, so that will become a very busy travel schedule.

How about cycling the fortenroute @elsslots? Lost of free weekends! 185km to see the whole of the stelling van Amsterdam!

paul
Coincidentally, I went to the 'Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie' yesterday! Report to follow.
I may revisit some Dutch WHS indeed for better photos, but the weather is quite gloomy so not great for that. This weekend it may be better.

You wouldn't have been allowed in to Kenya - "Kenya halted the entry of foreigners from countries that have confirmed coronavirus cases and suspended schools in a bid to reduce the risk of contagion within the East African country.
"Only Kenyan citizens and any foreigners with valid residence permits will be allowed to come in provided they proceed on self-quarantine or to a government designated quarantine facility," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised press briefing"

There are apparently c500 miscellaneous UK travellers "stuck" in Peru which has totally closed its borders and isn't (at the moment) even allowing rescue flights.

Anyone travelling at the moment must be prepared to have the time and money to hunker down in some remote place in whatever country they are in and sit matters out. There are some interesting places around the World where this could be done???? But what if they run up against their entry permit limitations?? .......

Yeah I don't mind being in Thailand for a few more months, even rainy season in the north is not that bad if I end uo getting stuck, and immigration is most likely going to extend visas under these circumstances. 212 cases in a country of 70m I think I'll take my chances! Unfortunately I only have 1 TWHS left to visit but I promise to Els that I shall review it lol

I was planning on traveling for around another year, so technically I still am.

But all the borders around me closed like dominoes falling last week, so for now I am stranded in Germany. I don't really mind hunkering down somewhere for a month or two, but I was hoping to do that somwhere with a lower population density, and lower expenses. Somewhere in Eastern Europe was my goal, but I missed my chance to get there by just a few days. I recently heard that one of the goals of the EU closing its external borders was to encourage the member nations to reopen the internal borders. Do any European members here think that might happen, or is that just normal politician-talk?

One thing is for sure, I have no intention to return to the USA right now, because I had previously given up my former house and I really don't have a place to return to there, and because the current government response there has been a real clown-show, and I think the worst covid situation will be happening there soon.

Edit: Though I am generally not ready to advertise this yet, I now think that I actually did have a mild case of Covid-19, probably picked up in Paris on 16-17 February (seems to have been gone for over a week now), though I had been thinking it was probably flu untill cases started exploding in France recently. I did my best to keep a very low profile anyway to avoid spreading it around, but I can't promise that I was perfectly successful with that. Sorry. At least that should give me some immunity if we are all able to start moving again sometime soon.

@Els, Sorry you had to cancel Africa! I was looking forward to your reports...

An example of what it is costing to get out of Peru at the moment!!
Some of them are, no doubt, running too quickly to the government to bail them out. But others deserve some sympathy.
Some will be "gap year kids" travelling on a real shoe string budget - Peru seemed a nice, not "very difficult" adventure, when it was all being planned! They may have to look to the "bank of mum and dad".
Then there are the "mid-life travellers" who set off in hope of finding something new after 20+ years of boring jobs and failed relationships with nothing but more of the same to come..... (I am sounding "depressed" aren't I!!!). Well - their resourcefulness and resilience may be tested and they will learn something about themselves that way
It basically comes down to - Do I
a. Congregate in Lima, spend my days at the UK embassy and try to get out on the only available flights
b. Chill out "up country", live as cheaply as possible and improve my Spanish, teach English, meditate..........

Some, much harder cases, of course, will find it difficult to do either without real help. For instance - no doubt there will be some older people on the adventure of a lifetime with limited supplies of prescription drugs. This morning's radio had an interview with a Cardiac Surgeon on a 4 week holiday to Peru/Bolivia who, needs to get back for his work and EVEN with, presumably, no budgetary restrictions and the help of a very active travel agent in London who moved heaven and earth to get him onto flights back first via La Paz and Rio and then via Bogota wasn't (TWICE!) allowed on the plane for reasons such as - a lay over of more than 10 hours in La Paz which meant officially entering Bolivia (not allowed!) and having checked in baggage which meant entering Colombia for the flight change to pass through customs (not allowed")

"Desperate Britons stranded in Peru are being charged up to £6,500 to be flown home.
Around 250 British travellers are stuck in Peru after the government declared a 15-day lockdown and banned flights.
Yesterday the British embassy advertised £3,000 economy seats on a charter flight home – rising to almost £6,500 for business class seats.
Sarah Baxter, 42, from Bath, is stuck in Cusco in southeastern Peru and called for the government to subsidise the cost. She said: 'It is an outrageous amount of money that no one can pay.' Usually a return flight to Cusco costs up to £800."

mrayers

Judging by Wuhan's progress (with far more drastic restrictions in a non-democratic country!), it will take at least 4 months to halt the contagion phase. After that, intra-country lockdown should end but country borders will most probably remain closed to avoid starting all over again.

I'm really hoping travel will be possible in summer, but I'm not too optimistic at the moment.

For 2 months, Europe will be on lock down. Non EU citizens will have a hard time in any case. And even crossing borders as a EU citizen will be difficult.

All sites are more or less closed and you are not allowed to congregate. Soon, leaving your place will be prohibited, too, so to me there is no point doing any trips for the time being. Unless you are from a 3rd world health care system (e.g. the US), I would try to get home. But not at 3000 GBPs.

If I may add my three (euro)cents, I would like to appeal to everyone on this site to stop all trips to (T)WHS* for the following weeks or months. Even if in most countries non-essential travel is not banned now, you should realize that you may contribute to the spread of the virus. This situation is really serious and I am still afraid some countries don't treat it with deserved respect.

* Ok, if you plan to visit, with your own car or bike, one of remote Primeval Beech Forests nearby, it is likely you will meet nobody, so this may be an exception :-)