Thu
26 Mar
2020

A bit of a mira­cle has hap­pen­ed: I am on the train from Frank­furt to Dres­den.

Yes­ter­day it all see­med far away and somehow unrea­li­stic, after all the back and forth of the days befo­re. But sud­den­ly things hap­pen­ed. Ever­y­bo­dy boo­ked flights as much as they could. Not exact­ly straight­for­ward for many on board, and not exact­ly made easier by the means of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on we had available. Con­side­ring the who­le situa­ti­on, it is per­fect­ly under­stan­da­ble if blood pres­su­re and emo­ti­ons are occa­siona­ly steam­ing a bit when a boo­king web­site kicks you out during the pay­ment pro­cess for the 100th time or of misun­derstan­dings lead to expen­si­ve dou­ble boo­kings. But final­ly most seem to have got flights and it looks as if most if not all can tra­vel home over the next 2-3 days.

I hap­pen­ed to be in the first group that went, being a bit of a gui­nea pig for the „sani­taire cor­ri­dor“. Which is actual­ly a bus with the dri­ver behind glass, an ambu­lan­ce car and a num­ber of poli­ce­men on motor­bikes, and we went through Mon­te­vi­deo just as the pre­si­dent of a lar­ge coun­try would have done. If you ask me then I would say that this might be a litt­le bit exag­ge­ra­ted. Just lea­ving half an hour ear­lier would have done. But any­way, we got to the air­port!

From the­re on it was just like any flight pas­sa­ge, just with face masks which were – at least during the „sani­taire cor­ri­dor“ – com­pul­so­ry for us. Less traf­fic in the air­ports than during nor­mal times, but actual­ly more than I would have thought. I am very curious what the new rea­li­ty will look like for us who just retur­ned from a long trip in the Ant­ar­c­tic. I guess more or less not­hing will be as it used to be when we went on board, which was a cou­ple of weeks ago and not a cou­ple of years.

So, this voya­ge back home sud­den­ly seems to come to a quick and hap­py ending. I keep fin­gers crossed that this goes for ever­y­bo­dy who left yes­ter­day or today or is still on board Ort­eli­us or Plan­ci­us in Mon­te­vi­deo – we left actual­ly tog­e­ther with the first dis­em­bar­king pas­sen­gers and staff from Plan­ci­us. Fin­gers crossed for ever­y­bo­dy! I wish you all a good, safe and quick trip home!

To make one thing clear: this was obvious­ly not a mira­cle (alt­hough it feels like one right now) but the result of end­less nego­tia­ti­ons on many chan­nels and levels. A big thank you from me to Ocean­wi­de Expe­di­ti­ons!