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Published: October 24th 2020
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We are nearing the end of the year, Christmas is just around the corner in a few weeks, but what a year 2020 was! Who knows what 2021 will bring us, let's hope for sanity for this world! I have been slightly lazy on the travelblog side. So here is a long overdue blog. This one is to cover our stay from June till our departure of the Seychelles on the 7th of October. Imagine, 207 without crossing a border, 207 days without any single international flight. To the first, this has never happened to me, as I was crossing a border daily to go to school from the age of 4! To the next, well, it must have been something like 30 years that I didn't take a single international flight for 6 months!
As you can see on the picture, 2020 is actually a year treating us pretty well. Yes, she said yes and it is now Mrs & Mr Maisondubonheur! It was a beautiful wedding on the beach in the middle of June with few friends. We were actually lucky to keep it dry as it had been a very wet week. Morning was spent
at the Mayor office in town for the official affairs. Late afternoon, every little girl dream, we had the wedding on the beach! Next, reception with few friends, many bubbles on the terrace of the Royal Villa with a gorgeous view...and great food! This is actually the last wedding of the resort. Well...the resort has had no guests for over 2 months, but the week after, it would definitively close its doors. So we will stay in the history of this gorgeous little place on earth!
Resort closed, means we had to leave our "senior staff accommodation" by mid August. There was not a single tourism arrival till early August...and even August saw close to no arrivals. So the choice was ours and we moved to a gorgeous place few minutes away. A new beach, and a super cute nest for us. We also have a full time rental car since the beginning of July, so no more buses for me, and trust me, it's way more comfortable. Put it simply, Seychelles during the world lockdown is a little piece of paradise. Covid never really reached here. There has been cases, but all imported and spotted mainly
during quarantine. Never had we have to face any community transmission. So the stress was not their.
We had no tomatoes for 2 months, but somewhere between June and July, they came back. Bubbles and amazing wines did become cheaper by the week due to the local currency depreciation and the lack of customers. Sadly July was a super wet month.....but August and September proved very sunny, but slightly too windy for frequent diving.
Sadly, I have to admit the Covid, all over the world have had a devastating effect on the fear of the other...specially when he is a foreigner. You can see this all over Asia, but also in Africa. So yes, once the borders re-opened, the feeling of xenophobia, specially coming from officials did leave a very bad after taste! Seychelles didn't avoid this. It is sad to see people being treated as a commodity by officials...and yes, it's not limited to the Seychelles.
So we waited that South Africa could re-open. This is home for me. It was officially announced for the 1st of October. We were so happy, the first thoughts were that the borders could
be close till 2021. So October it was, but SA government only published the lists of countries allowed in hours before the 1st. First flight out for us was on 2nd, slightly too risky...so we made it on the next on, on the 7th. Went to do our covid test the day before leaving the country. Not much surprises on this side. Specially as the last few weeks we needed to start wearing masks in shops and public inside places.
Today, I'm writing this from my home, to the sound of the waves. We have been back for two weeks....it's amazing wine, great food, lot of quality golf with great friends, less diving for now as this is a very windy month. It's home sweet home for now. The country doesn't have much Covid for now, so we will explore a little before the second wave could hit us too. I'm not too scared, SA faced pretty well the first wave, no reason we need to be scared so far of the second.
As to how long we are going to stay here? Good question, I have no idea to where and when we
are moving again, but it is going to happen!
Next, pictures of our little honeymoon, a 20 minutes flight from our home in Seychelles!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Congratulations !
Nice wedding.