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Floods, wildfires, a superbug and cancellations galore

The Seabourn family experienced a little bit of everything during their most recent trip abroad.

The Seabourns are home and oh, what a journey it’s been.

Like the words in the Blue Rodeo song Lost Together, the Victoria Harbour family’s well-intentioned plans seemed to have been ‘stumbling from one disaster to another’ over an odyssey that began in earnest last year before finally wrapping up earlier this month.

During that stretch, they experienced bungling bureaucracy, major wildfires, torrential tropical storms, flooding and just to keep things hopping a deadly virus that has crippled much of the world.

“This one was unique and we travel a lot so we’re used to things happening, but not like this trip,” explains Brian Seabourn.

Things began normally enough last year when Brian booked tickets for himself, wife Noreen and son Paul to visit the couple’s daughter Adrienne and their five-year-old granddaughter Summer, who live in Sydney, Australia. The family had regularly completed the trip in the past with nary a hitch.

“Every foreigner needs a visa to get into Australia,” Brian says, noting the application normally consists of filling out a form online, paying a small fee and being instantly issued a visa.

This time around, however, there was trouble securing the 90-day visa for Paul, who is a special-needs adult. After weeks of back and forth over whether Paul would need a physical examination in Toronto before being granted the visa, the family was told that in actuality the original application had been lost.

But the three-month visa delay meant their original November 14 flight leaving Toronto had long since departed.

So it was back to the drawing board for the Seabourns.

This time around, Brian managed to secure seats on a China Eastern flight to Sydney via Shanghai on January 6 with a return flight slated for the spring.

“Shortly after landing in Sydney, the virus broke out and China Eastern cancelled their return flight and service,” Brian explains.

But while in Sydney, the family experienced the wildfires that devastated the country’s eastern seaboard while destroying large swaths of land and killing millions of animals.

“They had had about a two-month drought,” he says. “It was absolutely dreadful. It was all burning at the same time and went on and on.”

But then the fires stopped thanks to nearly 10 days of non-stop torrential downpours that included tropical rainstorms, high winds and flooding.

“It was a very interesting experience. It was a little tougher to get around and then the virus came in.”

Brian managed to rebook a return trip with Air Canada May 11 through Vancouver, but that flight was also eventually cancelled and replaced with an April 9th offering.

And because their visa was only for 90 days, the family had decided to visit relatives in New Zealand April 1 before returning to Australia to catch their return flight.

“Then on March 19, New Zealand closed their borders,” Brian says, noting they still could have visited, but it would have meant they would have had to remain isolated while there along with their hosts, who still had to go to work.

“You could still fly in, but it was an automatic 14-day quarantine.”

So, Brian and Noreen again found themselves looking for alternative arrangements.

“Now, we’re not in compliance with our Australian visas,” he says, noting that in the interim, Air Canada had cancelled their April 9 flight, but managed to squeeze them on to the last three seats on its April 6 flight.

“We were on the very last Air Canada flight leaving Australia. The flight was absolutely packed and filled with backpackers trying to get home. They knew they had to leave. There was a lot of pressure and you could see the tension.”

But, wait, that’s not the end of this tale.

Air Canada also cancelled their original Vancouver to Toronto flight and rebooked them on an earlier flight that only left a 90-minute window between their arrival in Vancouver and eventual departure back to Ontario.

“The Sydney to Vancouver flight is just over 15 hours and the departure was delayed for 20 minutes while they rebalanced (the aircraft) for takeoff and finally moved nine people from the back cabin forward,” Brian says, noting that clearing Canadian customs and immigration also now takes longer because of the additional health screening in place.

“We got there seven minutes before the gate closed. It was a nearly empty (Airbus) 333 on the Toronto flight with only about 60 people on the plane and probably 300 empty seats.”

And now, they’re back home and nearing the end of their two weeks of self-isolation.

“We ended up booking close to 60 flights with all the changes and it didn’t really cost a whole lot more,” Brian says, noting they arrived home to find an ample supply of food courtesy of friends.

“Spring is coming so all is well. We’re lucky to live here.”


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Andrew Philips

About the Author: Andrew Philips

Editor Andrew Philips is a multiple award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in some of the country’s most respected news outlets. Originally from Midland, Philips returned to the area from Québec City a decade ago.
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