Ghana trip (1 Viewer)

Jos Stratford · Sep 12, 2020

Paul Chapman said:
Pretty much the whole of Europe is in a mess on the Worldometers numbers - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. On yesterday's confirmed cases, I get the UK at 22nd highest on confirmed cases per 100,000 population for yesterday.

Indeed, wasn't intending to single out the UK, just that the poster is resident in the UK. Many EU nations now require a negative test result before travel for residents from any country with over 25/100,000 and there are moves to try and standardize this as a standard across the EU. Bar the Scandanavian and Baltic bubble, there are now very few countries indeed that remain below the threshold.

Numbers also climbing in Lithuania, but still well below the 25 count, so travel in the EU is still permitted without restriction on arrival, but do need to isolate on return to Lithuania from virtually everywhere, and test

Lanhua · Sep 12, 2020

Andy, I'm just back from three weeks birding trip to Tanzania, which was I think the first country which has opened the boarder for foreign tourist.
I'm living close to Swiss boarder, so I went to Basel and got my test within 24 hours, cost 160 SF. After returning to Germany I have had to go for test again, but this test pay the government, I need to provide flight ticket or any another evidence, that I'm returning from an risk country.
November I planed as well to go to Ghana, but the message from the tours company is the same which you got. To be honest it's ridiculous to ask people come to Ghana, but I have to walk the whole day using mask and rubber gloves. Fortunately many another countries in Africa are going to accept tourist soon.

Mietek

Paul Chapman · Sep 12, 2020

Jos Stratford said:
Indeed, wasn't intending to single out the UK, just that the poster is resident in the UK. Many EU nations now require a negative test result before travel for residents from any country with over 25/100,000 and there are moves to try and standardize this as a standard across the EU. Bar the Scandanavian and Baltic bubble, there are now very few countries indeed that remain below the threshold.

Numbers also climbing in Lithuania, but still well below the 25 count, so travel in the EU is still permitted without restriction on arrival, but do need to isolate on return to Lithuania from virtually everywhere, and test

Noted. I am in a waiting game really whilst shifting weight & trying to get fit so hoping travel can resume in 2021.

Stay safe & I hope you are feeling recovered from your recent illness.

All the best

Andy Adcock · Sep 13, 2020

Lanhua said:
Andy, I'm just back from three weeks birding trip to Tanzania, which was I think the first country which has opened the boarder for foreign tourist.
I'm living close to Swiss boarder, so I went to Basel and got my test within 24 hours, cost 160 SF. After returning to Germany I have had to go for test again, but this test pay the government, I need to provide flight ticket or any another evidence, that I'm returning from an risk country.
November I planed as well to go to Ghana, but the message from the tours company is the same which you got. To be honest it's ridiculous to ask people come to Ghana, but I have to walk the whole day using mask and rubber gloves. Fortunately many another countries in Africa are going to accept tourist soon.

Mietek

Thanks Mietek,
must be easier to get a test there than it is here, were you also tested on arrival in Tanzania as you would be in Ghana?

Jos,
overpriced Europe doesn't interest me right now, especially with the £ being almost 1-1 with the Euro.

Lanhua · Sep 13, 2020

Andy, no test and no stress on the emigration. Tanzanian is happy to receive tourist.
I travelled with a Norwegian guy, who is living in Tanzania, a very good guide.
Mietek

kb57 · Sep 16, 2020

One problem we are going to find when the pandemic (hopefully) recedes is that it won't be quite as easy to get where we want to go.
A major airline has pulled out of our local airport (Easyjet from Newcastle), there is no sign of Emirates reinstating the Dubai connection anytime soon, and a lot of flights have been cancelled to other hubs - we had a trip to Greece planned from pre-Covid for next week but BA pulled our Heathrow connection - not that we'd have wanted to go anyway, as our plans involved ferries / trains.
We did get to Portugal in July - I hadn't planned to, but we were desperate to get away and my partner had booked to go with her self-isolating friend who couldn't therefore travel. Our direct flight was then cancelled about a week after I booked my ticket, so we went via Amsterdam (using a voucher from an earlier cancelled flight!). We ate most of our time in our apartment, conveniently owned by the restaurant below who delivered us takeaways, and I have to say Newcastle, Faro, and Amsterdam on the way out were quiet and safe. Amsterdam on the way back not so good...lots of staff not wearing masks, and we were forced into a crowded bus to take us to the aircraft. And of course we had to self-isolate on return.
I'm very lucky in a lot of ways - able to work from home, still have a job...but feel I'm getting too used to staying on my own and not getting out, have even lost my interest in birding this year. Hoping a trip to south Scotland next week will renew my enthusiasm, a few days in a holiday cottage near Aberlady isn't exactly Lake Kerkini though!

Mysticete · Sep 17, 2020

kb57 said:
One problem we are going to find when the pandemic (hopefully) recedes is that it won't be quite as easy to get where we want to go.
A major airline has pulled out of our local airport (Easyjet from Newcastle), there is no sign of Emirates reinstating the Dubai connection anytime soon, and a lot of flights have been cancelled to other hubs - we had a trip to Greece planned from pre-Covid for next week but BA pulled our Heathrow connection - not that we'd have wanted to go anyway, as our plans involved ferries / trains.
We did get to Portugal in July - I hadn't planned to, but we were desperate to get away and my partner had booked to go with her self-isolating friend who couldn't therefore travel. Our direct flight was then cancelled about a week after I booked my ticket, so we went via Amsterdam (using a voucher from an earlier cancelled flight!). We ate most of our time in our apartment, conveniently owned by the restaurant below who delivered us takeaways, and I have to say Newcastle, Faro, and Amsterdam on the way out were quiet and safe. Amsterdam on the way back not so good...lots of staff not wearing masks, and we were forced into a crowded bus to take us to the aircraft. And of course we had to self-isolate on return.
I'm very lucky in a lot of ways - able to work from home, still have a job...but feel I'm getting too used to staying on my own and not getting out, have even lost my interest in birding this year. Hoping a trip to south Scotland next week will renew my enthusiasm, a few days in a holiday cottage near Aberlady isn't exactly Lake Kerkini though!

I suspect that once it gets safe to travel there will be, economy allowing, a pretty big surge in people traveling. I know I am not the only person desperately longing to get away to somewhere else. So hopefully many of these routes will get reinstated pretty quickly.

Andy Adcock · Sep 17, 2020

Mysticete said:
I suspect that once it gets safe to travel there will be, economy allowing, a pretty big surge in people traveling. I know I am not the only person desperately longing to get away to somewhere else. So hopefully many of these routes will get reinstated pretty quickly.

The thing really is, will there be many / any airlines which survive this, BA is struggling badly as is Virgin and a few smaller ones have alread gone.

If demand oustrips supply, gone is the economy flight.

YuShan · Sep 17, 2020

Bankruptcy doesn't mean the business (or even the specific airlines) disappear. It just means that the current shareholders and some bondholders are wiped out. Once that has happened, new investors buy the assets and restart (part of) the airline. That's why we should never be duped into accepting that the government bail them out. There are trillions of private money available to invest in them if their business is viable.

Andy Adcock · Sep 17, 2020

YuShan said:
Bankruptcy doesn't mean the business (or even the specific airlines) disappear. It just means that the current shareholders and some bondholders are wiped out. Once that has happened, new investors buy the assets and restart (part of) the airline. That's why we should never be duped into accepting that the government bail them out. There are trillions of private money available to invest in them if their business is viable.

Bankruptcy as I vaguely understand it, involves a debt to creditors and selling off assets to pay those creditors, in this case, those assets woul be aircraft?

Investors typically invest in the form of shares, can a bankrupt company even offer shares?

Where's Paul...?

Steve Babbs · Sep 17, 2020

andyadcock said:
Thanks Mietek,
must be easier to get a test there than it is here, were you also tested on arrival in Tanzania as you would be in Ghana?

Jos,
overpriced Europe doesn't interest me right now, especially with the £ being almost 1-1 with the Euro.

You'd still have to self-isolate when you returned. I'd be rather reluctant to travel to Tanzania - although I was hoping to reschedule this year's visit to Tanzania to next Easter, as I feel that is now unlikely - as there is no way of knowing how rife it is due to the president saying that the power of prayer has removed it from the country.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/africa/tanzanias-coronavirus-president.html

Paul Chapman · Sep 18, 2020

andyadcock said:
Bankruptcy as I vaguely understand it, involves a debt to creditors and selling off assets to pay those creditors, in this case, those assets woul be aircraft?

Investors typically invest in the form of shares, can a bankrupt company even offer shares?

Where's Paul...?

I suspect most corporate insolvencies end up with the assets being sold as a single entity so effectively the company then exists in a new guise but with a fraction of the set up costs. If that is not feasible or it can be demonstrated individual sales will produce a better return for creditors, assets will be broken up.

All the best

Mysticete · Sep 19, 2020

Even if airlines go broke and are just bought out and reconstituted after the current crisis is over, that doesn't really do anything for all the workers laid off in the interim. I have to wonder what long term that will do for industry.

Andy Adcock · Sep 19, 2020

Mysticete said:
Even if airlines go broke and are just bought out and reconstituted after the current crisis is over, that doesn't really do anything for all the workers laid off in the interim. I have to wonder what long term that will do for industry.

Demand will way outstrip supply when everything opens up again. I expect that we've seen the last, budget fares for a while and that prices will be high to extortionate for a good time after restart.

we were hoping to get to Russia for the Orthodox Christmas and New year but with a likely second wave emerging, I'm very reluctant to book anything. If flights aren't cancelled but local or national restrictions mean you can't travel to the airport, will you even be entitled to a refund? Too many unknowns.

Lerxst · Sep 20, 2020

Just returned from a week in Mexico (Yucatan area). Other than the masks and additional form to fill out at the airport, and a half-full plane, seemed like 'normal' travel. Our guides had not had a client since March and were enthusiastic to be out there birding and working. It was a cleaning-up bird trip with only 40 targets, most of them tough (e.g. Agami Heron, which we didn't find) but got 24 in all. Flight was cheap. Obviously this is no good for any of you across the pond, though - but for us in the USA, an existence proof that international birding, if very limited, can be done now.

pppppvvvv · Oct 22, 2020

Took a while to find this thread again, Andy: you type a lot!

Something else I have started to realise, regarding future trips.
I for one have assumed we'll wake up one day, and this will be over, we go back to doing things we like.
It could be much more complex..
Some countries might open up maybe months, or years ahead of others, some countries may fall into seasonal
Risky periods every year.
So your next trip may not be the one you are thinking of.

About a year ago, I thought about all the places I'd like to visit. Downloaded free maps for my GPS, found places to stay etc.
South Africa and Thailand were pretty much booked, but it might be that churchill polar bears, or Morocco open up a lot quicker than those places? Or vice versa.
I'd make a big list for now, and be flexible.

Andy Adcock · Oct 22, 2020

peter.jones said:
Took a while to find this thread again, Andy: you type a lot!

Something else I have started to realise, regarding future trips.
I for one have assumed we'll wake up one day, and this will be over, we go back to doing things we like.
It could be much more complex..
Some countries might open up maybe months, or years ahead of others, some countries may fall into seasonal
Risky periods every year.
So your next trip may not be the one you are thinking of.

About a year ago, I thought about all the places I'd like to visit. Downloaded free maps for my GPS, found places to stay etc.
South Africa and Thailand were pretty much booked, but it might be that churchill polar bears, or Morocco open up a lot quicker than those places? Or vice versa.
I'd make a big list for now, and be flexible.

Totally agree Peter,
practicalities will decide the next trips for me and I don't relish a long flight with a mask on either!

pppppvvvv · Oct 22, 2020

Or it could even go the opposite way, where it is easier to spend a week in Africa, than a week in the Netherlands. These forums may prove very useful for advice when we do start, hopefully dusting off our passports and international driving licenses,

Mysticete · Oct 22, 2020

Everything is waiting for a vaccine (which I do think will come). I think once one is delivered, you are going to see thinks rapidly open back up. I don't foresee a scenario where some places are open next year whiles others still have limited travel 2 years from now.

About the only issue I can see, affecting birders, is how long this pause is and how it hurts the industry. Will the same lodges and guides be available once travel resumes, or will they go out of business?

jurek · Oct 22, 2020

I am more worried what happens to wildlife in the tropics without tourists, especially huntable wildlife in Africa.

Ghana trip (1 Viewer)

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