The Passionate Traveler

Meerkats watching me work from my home office.   2020 has not been a good year for a travel blogger! With all the current indications, 2021 will probably not be very much better - if not even worse. The novel Coronavirus has caused havoc and it will not be going anywhere anytime soon. The novel mutations of Covid-19 is the top story on the virus at the end of 2020. There are a few new variants which have been found. One of these variants is in the UK and the other - which is slightly different, has been found in South Africa. The fact that there are variants is not strange. Coronavirus is - after all a RNA virus and RNA is known to be highly unstable and prone to errors when replicated. However, what is of a concern is that the new variant appears to be more transmissible - which means it spreads much more. The potential problem with any variants is that it could increase the disease causing ability of the virus and can also have an impact on the ability of the vaccines to work. We...

  Did this pandemic just come out of the blue? Were there warning signs? Most definitely!   The 1918 flu pandemic - the big one Let’s start from the really big one in 1918 – 1920 – Spanish flu. Killed between 50 and 100 million people. People were dying in such high numbers that they literally stopped counting! This virus started off in a pig farm and then spread from pigs to man.There is some academic debate on if the virus first came from a bird and spread to the pig and then to the farmer, or just from the pig to the farmer. In any case the pig is the pig in the story. This farmer (patient zero) went off to join the army as the USA joined the war very late in the war. The virus then spear like wildfire through the army camps and on teh troop ships bring the soldiers across from the USA to France. There are many lessons which can be learned from the 1918 pandemic and when you look at the mistakes which were then made during that serious pandemic, it is shocking to see that p...

  New way of life - getting tested for Covid-19 (not my photo)   There is no doubt that Covid-19 has caused a disaster in just about every country in the world. As of 10 August 2020, the world has passed 20 million people with confirmed infections. There have been over 734 000 people who have died. Each of these people who have died have left loved ones behind and families and lives have been disrupted. As bad as this is, the cost in human lives is by no means the only effect of this pandemic.  Social fallout - not USA military but civilians!   The economies around the world have taken a terrible blow and will take many years (if not a generation) to recover. The economic impact of this virus could still far out-weight the health impact of the disease with many millions of people out of work and the world economy in ruins. Many small businesses have just not been able to cope with the prolonged lockdown and social distancing rules (some of which are pretty illogical ...

Last trip on an A 380 on the long flight from Dubai to Sao Paulo When will we be able to travel again? That is the all important question. The world is in lockdown and many flights have been grounded. For the next hundred year or so, people will be talking about the 2020 global pandemic that crippled the world. We are living through it! This will be studied by microbiologists, sociologists and economists for generations to come. That is, assuming that we survive this! The beautiful Pangolin - believed to have been the host of the virus which spread to man   Yes - of course -  man-kind will survive! After all, the virus which has grounded most of the planes currently has a mortality rate of around 4%. That means that out of every 100 people who get the virus, about 96 of them will survive. Based on the normal processes in the human body, those who survive should have antibodies and these antibodies should be able to prevent people from getting the virus a second time. Mankind...

Troops waiting for the inevitable attack! Just like us waiting for the inevitable coronavirus attack We are in a war with an invisible enemy  - French graves in Belgium (my photo) WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGES AND DISTURBING FACTS The world is in lock down. The world is also in the grip of a devastating global pandemic caused by a virus which spread to man because of the disgusting eating habits of the Chinese. At times like this, the individual human rights have to give way to the rights of the global population. The Chinese do not have the right to eat anything that moves! Pangolin in a live food market. It is about time that nature hits back! This needs to stop! Truly shocking images from the market in Wuhan The sale and slaughter of wild animals around the world needs to be stopped, not only in China, but all around the world. The current Coronavirus pandemic is all over the news and we are all acutely aware of the origin of this virus from a live food ...

Covid-19. The "One in a hundred year" virus All travel has come to a stop. Even Emirates has stopped flying! 2020 is not going to be a travel year. The world is in Lock down! As of 28 March 2020, about one third of the World's population is under lock down. If there was any doubt that the Coronavirus Covid-19 is not the "One in a hundred year" pandemic at the beginning of the year, this has now been completely dis-proven. This is the dreaded pandemic that many microbiologists and epidemiologists have warned about.  What can man do? Fire out of control! Covid-19 is now like the Australian bush fires. Devastation of Australian wildlife Recently, the major massive bush fires in Australia were all over the news. These fires devastated vast tracks of Australian bush lands and killed millions of Australian's unique wildlife and birds.  These fires were clearly totally out of control and every effort made by man were pretty pointl...