What do you do when a global pandemic suddenly accelerates and affects all parts of the world? You have travellers and crew in the 4 corners of the globe with seemingly nowhere to go with borders closing at an alarming rate! - I know the Emoji I am thing of? - how about you?
With Foreign and Commonwealth travel advisories that you can usually realistically expect to hit your inbox once a week suddenly increasing to around 25 a day as something changed somewhere. So you need to make a plan and FAST! - this is real and this is serious!
For our travellers on trips, the messaging from governments was tragically GO HOME and go NOW. Flights were filling up fast, prices were skyrocketing to an unbelievable level and quarantine procedures were being instigated in different ways in many of the countries we were in without warning. Not negotiable and in many cases somewhat panicked. You could be forced to stay if you don’t go now!
Our crew did everything they could to assist, but ultimately in many cases they just needed to find a safe location for their trucks and head home to their respective countries, be it the UK, USA, Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe or Kenya.
And that’s where our trucks still are…… One in a campground in Brazil, one in a truck park in Argentina, and one in a monastery in Angola! - the rest thankfully back at their respective bases.
Sadly our dedicated crew currently have nowhere to go and our valued local guides, Taxi drivers, restaurant owners and local agents have no travellers to look after. There are however positive signs starting to emerge and we hope to be back on the road soon!
The UK based crew are all now working from home and pushing hard to get extra dates up for next year as there is clearly a huge desire from our travellers both past and future to get back on the road too. People who overland have that insatiable wanderlust and always want to get back out there to see the world and support the communities they pass through.What has been brought into stark focus is just how much your booking affects so many people not just here in the UK and for the Oasis family but more importantly in every country you will visit and our extended family. Some of these people you will never see or meet but they are there working hard and making things happen for your trip possibly of a lifetime.
We are so grateful to all our travellers for their understanding and work they are doing with us to re-schedule their trips for later this year and into 2021 and beyond.
There has never been a better time to take stock of everything that has happened and value what’s important in life and to make a plan for the future and we very much look forward to helping you to do just that.
Travelling may never be the same again, but whatever it does look like we’ll be there to play a big part in your BIG adventure!