5th of April – 5th of Mai 2020:
Since more than a month we are back home in Switzerland and slowly get used to the climate, mentality, culture and the completely different food.
Surprisingly, it felt like we never left our home Switzerland from the first day since we are back. Despite that, many things were different than during the last months on the journey.
The water from the shower was always hot, there were no sudden power shortages and we did not have to search for an accommodation or a spot for our tent every few days.
Adrian settled in his childhood room in Buchrain and Fabian went to the farm of his sister Nadine and her husband Simon in Römerswil. Fabian could finally meet his new family members. In his absence, both his sisters had babies and therefore he could finally take his responsibility as an uncle serious.
Due to the exceptional situation, we could only slowly meet our family and friends and therefore spend most of the time in our new homes. Of course, we did not neglect to do sports, since we were afraid of gaining tons of body weight, since our calorie intake was still enormous after pausing the trip. From time to time, we did cycle tours to visit someone or cycled one or two mountain passes.
In addition, we tried to do different kinds of sport, which we did not do during our journey. So, we ran, hiked and Fabian was finally able to go climbing again. Unfortunately, we realized quickly that those movements use completely different muscles and therefore we had lots of pain when going down the stairs.
Of course, it was kind of special to sleep “alone” in a bed and to cycle without company. Humans are as is generally known creatures of habit and still one gets used to new surroundings, situations and circumstances quickly.
In the end of April, there was a decrease of newly infected people and therefore there were the first countrywide relaxation of the regulations. The infections reduced in Switzerland from far above 1000 new daily cases when we arrived to below one hundred in the beginning of May.
In all of Europe the mighty ordered relaxations in different aspects of daily life and there were many discussions if one could travel abroad to enjoy the beaches or not.
While lots of people lost their jobs in Europe or the small businesses suffer from existential fear, people in Africa were hit much heavier and starvation threatens millions of humans. Savings and compensations for loss of income are inexistent in many states and therefore people live from hand to mouth. There is no possibility to prepare for such a crisis and currently there are no legal possibilities to earn money.
The African regimes mostly reacted more restrictive against the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to Switzerland and forbid any businesses to open. All those women, kids and men that sold us all those delicious snacks or meals on the road, are currently without any income and have a hard time to earn any money at all.
Having said this, Namibia and South Africa already did their first relaxation of restrictions. Namibia is in stage 2 since the 5th of May, which means that all people in public need to wear masks and can travel around inside the country. However, there is still a nationwide alcohol prohibition and restaurants remain closed. Surprisingly, there was no single new infection since we left the country. Therefore, Namibia has only 16 infections while 1500 tests have been done.
In South Africa the situation is quite different and there are almost 10’000 registered cases and therefore belongs to the country in Africa with the most infections. However, South Africa has a much higher population than Namibia and already did more than 340’000 tests. The border between Namibia and South Africa remain closed and even locals must enter a quarantine for two weeks when crossing borders.
Therefore, there is no possibility in the next weeks for the continuation of the trip!
Reto Fehr from the sports desk of the online newspaper Watson did an interview with us about our confrontation with the virus and its consequences in our view and how our journey back home happened.
Furthermore, we have a new online shop on our website where followers can order different post cards to their home. Thanks to the generosity and straightforward collaboration with Streit AG, we could transform our picture in handy post cards.
Stay healthy and you will hear from us soon with news from our side…
