Are you as sick of that title as I am?
It’s been a year, hasn’t it?
PIVOT
We’d just begun to build a travel brand and we semi-retired to travel more and then a global pandemic happens. For others, it was going to college on their computer, or losing a service job, or spending every waking hour working to heal sick people, and many have lost their lives or their loved ones. It’s clear that pivot is what we’ve all had to do. And we are grateful because other than a literal broken heart requiring surgery, we’ve been healthy. But while we’ve kept busy, with projects, and new side hustles, keeping loved ones safe and staying close to home, we sure miss traveling!
A safari to Rwanda and Tanzania in Africa will have to wait!
A trip to Norway in May 2020 (didn’t happen) was rescheduled for New Zealand in November 2021 (won’t be happening) was turned into a trip we booked to Gorilla Trek in Rwanda in February 2022 with an abundance of hope after we received our vaccines and assumed “covid was over” for good. But with Delta variant and the slow pace of vaccines in the developing world, it became clear, that trip would have to be canceled too. After learning gorillas are testing positive for covid 19 after encounters with infected zoo keepers, we did not want to be the people who wipe out an endangered species or sicken people in countries who have little access to vaccines.
So we pivoted on our travel and travel work. In our travel, we’ve primarily stayed close to home, and outside in the last 12 month. The next pivot is all the booked trips we had ready to go in 2019 have had to be re thought, and “moved”. Traditional mass market, large cruises have been canceled, and we’ve pivoted from gorillas in Rwanda to wolves in Yellowstone. Mainly, we are prioritizing long postponed visits to vaccinated friends and family.
In our travel work, we’ve been presenting virtual safaris on Zoom, rather than in person presentations . They proved popular enough to be picked up by more than one of our local community continuing education programs. People are anxious to travel again and hear about travel. We haven’t had much “content” to share or report, so presenting information about past travels has had to suffice.
If you’d like to attend one of our Virtual Safaris please use one of the following links to register
All of the DRAMA! None of the danger...Kathy and Jeff GoSeeItTravel present Virtual Safaris for several local community education programs! Join us for multi media, photo, video and all the dramatic wildlife stories! WEDS Sept 29 (Costa Rica), Oct 6, (Galapagos) Oct 13 (Southern Africa) on ZOOM.
Link to register : fall 2021 LSRHS
https://lsrhs.ce.eleyo.com/course/78/fall-2021-winter-2022/virtual-safari
Link to register : fall 2021 Lexington
Link to register: fall 2021 Arlington
https://arlington.ce.eleyo.com/course/1196/fall-2021/virtual-safaris
In An Abundance of Caution
Travel industry people I’ve spoken to are traveling again and they say there’s a balance between traveling to support cultures and businesses that rely on our travel for their economies and traveling safely to protect vulnerable populations. They are encouraged, as am I, that more and more travel providers are requiring vaccines and testing to make travel safer for everyone. For us, with one rebuilt heart and fully vaccinated, we are ready to find that balance, while exercising the titular “abundance off caution”. What do we have planned?
Isolated off the grid, with private cabins, bath houses, and lots of wilderness to explore, Nahmakanta Lake Wilderness Camps in Maine was a perfect place for a family getaway!
A Family Trip to an Off the Grid Lake Cabin
A reunion with our adult children, in a quiet traditional hunting camp, where had our own cabin tucked in hundreds of acres of wilderness was a safe bet. The time together, hiking, paddling and enjoying campfires after so many months of forced separation was perfect! Click here to see our trip report from our Moose Safari in 2020
Despite the possible Covid dangers of traveling domestically in states where cases are high, it will be necessary to see family after more than 2 years apart! This harmless snake from Six Mile Cypress Slough in SE Florida is the least of our worries!
Road Trips to See Vaccinated Relatives and Friends
After many months of not seeing my parents and other relatives in Florida, we will need to make a trip there despite being displeased with the way the state is handling the virus. We also have a family wedding and friends in the Midwest were we hope to add 5 new states with a road trip through the Midwest. Planning this trip we discovered a new “trueism” of domestic travel- the flight to your destination will usually cost far less than the car rental!
Our last wolf sighting in the wild was in Denali Naional Park, next spring, we plan to go on a special photographic wolf safari in Yellowstone to learn more about these fascinating canids!
Wolf Photo Safari
In March we plan to take a trip with Natural Habitat Adventures to Yellowstone, where we will track wolves in remote parts of the National Park. We’ve traveled with this trusted group in the past and know they will enforce their vaccination and testing policies within our small group photographic departure.
Our first international trip? Possibly?
In May we have a trip to Machu Picchu and a cruise down the Amazon River on a very small expedition ship through National Geographic Expeditions. Peru is still a vulnerable place and people along the Amazon are especially vulnerable, so this trip is one to watch to see whether its safe to visit. On the other hand, Peru is open with restrictions and heavily traveled tourist places like Machu Picchu are at less than half capacity making for a safer and more pleasant trip.
A river cruise to from Prague to Budapest was pushed off from December 2020 to December 2022, will it be time to go, 2 full years after the original plan? Only time will tell!
Our first post covid trip to Europe? Possibly?
In December, we have a postponed river cruise to explore Christmas Markets along the Danube with AMA waterways. We are prepared to pivot again, if needed. Will Christmas markets be open? Will river cruise ships be safe? Will European countries be open to visitors, and if they are, how difficult will it be to move between them on a river ship? These are all open questions, and one of the best skills to have as a traveler is the ability, to go with the flow, changing plans and being open to adventure! You know…having to PIVOT!