Agreed, who knows how the new variants will affect us anyhow? these jabs bay be ineffective in two years from now. If i was still in blighty i would explore places likes Wales or in summer (scoff) Scotland would be where i would head up.

That`s what happening here in OZ, nobody allowed in & nobody allowed out, so everyone is exploring their own back yards.

Mezo.

Echoing some of the above.

Next "big trip" - we had planned to go to South Asia this year, that's not going to happen. We think there's a reasonable chance of being able to do a 3-6 month trip in Canada this year, with all of the quarantine periods etc.

Meanwhile - during the periods in which we are able to travel locally (below "red alert" level) we've been able to make several excellent trips to parts of the country in which we live which are new to us. 2-5 days on average. We plan one of these once a month on average until we can make the Canada trip.

We hope things will not "return to normal" but will improve in terms of social and environmental responsibility and sustainability.

Certainly seems to be plenty of bike travel still going over in the HU Facebook pages ...

Meanwhile, here at BoB Towers we've now just abandoned our two big bike travel trips for the second year in a row. They were the ones that needed planning, shipping, flights etc so stuff had to be arranged months in advance. Everything is too uncertain to want to put money down with only a partial chance of getting it back if things don't improve like everyone hopes. It was a real struggle to get refunds last year and I don't want to spend out again until there's a substantial chance of things actually being able to ahead.

So this year I'm going to stick to 'spontaneous' travel - that's stuff where I can go / not go / make it up as I go along/ at short notice etc. Not necessarily local but where I don't have to plug too deeply into the travel 'industry'. Wherever that takes me (and I have a few ideas on the list) it almost certainly won't be anywhere 'touristy' - beaches, seaside resorts, cultural centres etc as they're all going to be swamped with a tsunami of summer lockdown release travellers.

Certainly in the UK the vaccination programme (for once) actually seems to be quite successful and is getting needles into people's arms. So (assuming it works anyway) by the summer the virus itself may not be the biggest issue. It'll be retained restrictions based on a 'just in case' fear of removing them mindset. How far other countries (European ones in particular) get with their vaccination levels (and the consequences of it) is going to be the big unknown. I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hope it'll all improve but I'm not laying out any money either.

Next year though ...

All very true (sigh). I'm reminded of a quote from Gustav Flaubert, the 19thC French novelist when talking about the weather in his native Rouen:

"this damned country where one sees the sun in the sky about as often as a diamond in a pig's arse."

And that was France - what hope have we got in the UK.

There are still people out there travelling, some still on the road from before the pandemic and some on new trips started after it hit the world.

Looks like were all eating pork chops in the rain then !
Yes i think we may be able to do Scotland / Wales , but i have done both to the death and just want to return to Morocco again !