How COVID-19 thwarted some best-laid travel plans, but proved no match for others

This year seemed like a perfectly reasonable year for a bucket-list adventure, but within a few months, COVID-19 has dramatically changed the circumstances of those adventures.

For the O'Brien family in the Comox Valley, a carefully organized nine-month long trip around the world was cut short after just three months. 

The family of five had left Vancouver Island mid-January, having rented their house and taken time off work until October.

The family was touring Vietnam when COVID-19 started to affect their daily life.

"Our family was contacting us. Friends were contacting us, saying, 'Where are you guys? What's your plan? When are you coming home?' and all we could think about was keeping the kids' hands clean, stopping them from touching their faces," said Melissa O'Brien. 

The family decided to fly to Singapore and then Australia, thinking an English-speaking country would be easier to navigate if things escalated.

"It was easy to go about our travels and think 'We'll just ride this out for a little while.' We thought we'd give it a couple of months, and then make a decision," O'Brien said. But it quickly became apparent that wouldn't work.

Listen to the interview with Melissa O'Brien here:

When the family realized it might be months before the pandemic subsided, they decided to head home. 

But that was easier said than done.

This was the end of March and flights out of Australia were rapidly booking up. After multiple cancelled flights, hours-long conversations with insurance providers, it took a friend of a friend who was an Air Canada pilot to help them get on a flight out of Sydney. 

"Getting on the plane was a huge relief," O'Brien said.

But just as the O'Brien family was departing Australian soil, another Vancouver Islander had entered Australian waters on his own trip of a lifetime. 

Bert ter Hart, from Gabriola Island, departed Victoria alone in his sailboat on Oct. 28. He hasn't set foot on land since then, and hasn't seen another person since a quick stop in San Francisco in January.

Ter Hart is on a seven-month solo sailing trip to navigate the five southern capes using celestial navigation: South Cape in New Zealand, South East Cape and Cape Leeuwin in Australia, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, and Cape Horn in Chile. 

"I prefer to call him the social distance champion," says his sister Leah ter Hart.

Ter Hart says her brother's main challenges will be the weather, the often treacherous conditions in the rough Southern Ocean and making sure his supply of provisions lasts for his entire trip.

Ter Hart is expected back home in July, and it is unclear whether he'll have to quarantine himself when he gets back to Canada. 

"He technically hasn't left Canadian soil … he hasn't disembarked," said sister Leah. "So we'll just have to see what the authorities say, and see what it looks like in July with COVID-19."

Listen to the interview Leah terHart here:

The O'Brien family, who are currently holed up in a cabin in the Comox Valley, are also waiting to see what happens in the near future — and whether any part of their great global adventure can be salvaged.

"At this point, we don't really have a plan. We're just going to ride this out," Melissa O'Brien said. "This trip definitely had an impact on us on recognizing how vulnerable the world is. We will travel for sure, but it will probably be something shorter."

If you have a COVID-19-related story we should pursue that affects British Columbians, please email us at [email protected].