Boris Lets Us Out To Play

Current Location: Ebley, UK

Current Date: 8th June 2021

Click Here: I'm going to Barbados

Just a quick update to let you know we'll soon be back on the water.

Boris has said we can now fly to Amber countries, but not for 'holidays'. Grenada is Amber but we're not going on holiday, we are returning to Mehalah - we only have one way tickets. So on Friday we fly to Barbados on Virgin and then onward to Grenada on Caribbean Airlines.

But organising an international flight is no longer plain sailing, these are shark infested waters......

Before: Tickets, passports, go.

Now: UK PCR test, tickets (one each please, not two for John and none for Gill please Virgin), PureSafe document for entry to Grenada, pay in advance for another PCR test on arrival in Grenada and upload receipt, a transit document for Barbados, a booked quarantine hotel until the PCR result comes through....

But hey, who cares? We'll soon be back in Grenada, just ready for hurricane season. If we don't take the opportunity to go now maybe we'll be locked down again in the UK as the dreaded Indian, now Delta, variant spreads across the country.

I have to say it's been a bit of a moral dilemma. A significant percentage of the British population considers ANY air travel is selfish and potentially helps to spread the virus around the world (and I suppose they are correct really). So by flying to Grenada we become pariahs as far as that group of people is concerned. But others, mostly the people that we tend to socialise with, think that careful, tested travel is OK. So there is an element of guilt in what we are doing.

It's been a weird 9 months here. Frustrating but good to catch up with friends and family and to help my brother and his wife look after my mum. A family reunion in Leicester, a great visit to friends and family in the southwest, Emma's week here in Ebley, a surprise visit to Andy & Val, an 'interesting' upriver narrowboat trip up the flooded lower Thames, a couple of fabulous, cold days with friends Mark & Rachel in Pembrokeshire and plenty of time helping to restore the local canal.

So there we are. Packed and ready to leave. Next stop Grenada.