Two bewildered officials threw arched eyebrows across an airless room high above the river Nile, six months after the irrepressible Arab Spring vanquished Egypt's dastardly dictator Hosni Mubarak.
"Crossing the border is entirely at your own risk," said the senior official. The risk he was referring to was that posed by the conflict between Sudan and the then new country, South Sudan. This essentially meant I was to be given no consular support, nor travel insurance coverage, if things went pear-shaped.
This pre-COVID tale is not supposed to be a North African visa masterclass, but an exemplar of the contrasts between where our travel freedoms once stood and where we are now: subject to an open-dated blanket travel ban .Advertisement I subscribe to the"liberty for wolves is death to the lambs" philosophy and have so far broadly supported international border closings. I get it: unvaccinated, unmasked travellers are potential agents of death.
In my 15-minute wait in the side-effects chair, I reflected on what travel has taught me about risk and accepting any consequences of my own, sometimes dumb decisions. When I was"reconsidering" a trip to Iran, I immediately struck its"do-not-travel" zones from my itinerary . Given Iran's fractious relationship with the West, I also refrained from poking any bears. I was careful about what I photographed and I adhered to local customs even when they seemed antiquated.
TravellerAU Will Australians choose to travel to countries with high rates of Covid? Yes. Will Australians catch Covid on their travels? Yes. Will Australians travel home to Australia with Covid? Yes. The result will not be good for Australia
TravellerAU Selfishness personified. It’s all about me.
TravellerAU I had to have two inoculations to come to Australia the first time in 1975 and I was still squirted with fly spray.
TravellerAU no they didn’t; smallpox, yellow fever, etc vaccinations were mandatory to get into many if not most countries ...
TravellerAU Only country in world where citizens can't leave freely other than North Korea.. pathetic. Government needs to change this policy
TravellerAU Then they’ll bitch and moan when they can’t come back.
TravellerAU There ‘used to’ not be a global pandemic happening. 🤦🏻♂️