Today, at 4:00 pm, a small group of us will be meeting at one of Marloth Park’s favorite Crocodile River overlooks, known as Two Tree for sundowners. Doing so requires the participants to bring lawn chairs. Without a single such chair in our bush home, we were able to borrow two chairs.

Linda and Ken, who will participate in the Two Trees gathering, have invited us for dinner following the event. No doubt, it will be a fun and entertaining late afternoon and evening. We so much appreciate being able to socialize after such a long dry spell months ago in India.

It certainly has been a social dry spell for citizens throughout the world over the past 14 months since Covid-19 precipitated lockdowns in almost every country. At this point, we can’t help but wonder how safe the lessening of lockdown will impact the new cases of the virus as more and more private and public gatherings pick up the pace after all this time.

Surely, what’s transpiring in India now, with almost 400,000 new cases daily, has something to do with the lack of protective measures exercised by the masses attending political, social, and religious gatherings. It saddens us when we especially recall hotel guests wandering the corridors in the hotel in Mumbai, talking loudly and gathering in groups without wearing masks or social distancing.

On several occasions, we were shocked by the hotel hosting weddings, conventions, and other events with little regard for the risks of Covid-19. This mentality carried through the entire country, and now, India is paying the price with these outrageous numbers of cases and subsequent deaths.

On the occasions where I went downstairs to pay the hotel bill, which later we had them bring the bill to us, again, I was shocked by the resistance to wearing masks, wearing masks properly, and lack of social distancing. The hotel staff tried desperately to get the guests to comply to no avail.

But, the desperation by the privately-owned hotel to recoup some of their losses prompted them to allow social events to transpire during the worst months of the pandemic, which surely continued long after we left. We wonder if the hotel or any other hotels in India are still open for non-Covid guests.

Gosh, we’re grateful we were able to leave India. It’s so much safer here in Marloth Park. We often wonder about the accuracy of the stats here in South Africa when it appears cases are dropping at this point. And yet, just yesterday, we read a news article from what seems to be a reputable source, stating a potentially new lockdown on the horizon.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post here, the uncertainty during these times of Covid-19 is palpable for all of us. Many are frustrated over being unable to visit loved ones, and many miss traveling to their favorite locations. Of course, cruising has been out of the question and may continue to be so for a few more years to come.

We currently have four cruises booked for April 2022, most of which we expect to be canceled. One of our cruises will require a payment in full in July which is scheduled to set sail in November 2021. We feel compelled to pay the final payment since we got such a great price, which is now priced 50% higher. So, just in case it isn’t canceled, we’ll pay the final payment to lock in our price. It’s all up in the air.

That’s it for today, dear readers. Thanks for hanging in there with us during these peculiar times. Hopefully, as restrictions lessen (or not), we can still provide ample fodder to please our readers.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, May 5, 2020:

Tom and I were at Amazing River View in October 2018, when friends Lois and Tom visited for three weeks. For more photos, please click here.