This blog began as a way to document our travels, starting with early retirement and our sojourn in China, and continuing to other trips around the world. Those who know me know that my obsession is travel, and that I am always travelling or planning a trip. Nothing makes me happier than having one or preferably two flight tickets in my email box.
But something has happened, namely the big C. Since we are distinguished members of that exclusive club known as the high risk category of so called “elderly” people all that has changed. We are now in the “Age of Corona” – apparently not yet “post Corona” so with that in mind I shall carry on from the previous blog post , a Traveller at home. I have to admit that we, my friends and I, who are all used to hopping on and off planes to distant climes, have never seen ourselves as elderly or at risk. It is a very strange situation to find ourselves in. But it is what it is, and all we can do for now is discover places closer to home. And wonder of wonders, we have found a few.
So far we have really only ventured up to an hour’s drive from home, but in this radius we have found some truly beautiful sights. We discovered plants, fruits, and fields. We discovered the simple enjoyment of fresh air, and walking through strawberry fields and citrus groves. We discovered the exhilaration of walking along the beach early in the morning to avoid the crowds. WE are fortunate in that we can get out and about and enjoy such simple pleasures. We are fortunate in that we live only about 20 minutes drive from the Marina in Herzliya, and only about 25 minutes from the beaches of south Netanya. We have found a couple of these that we really love, and try to go there early, to avoid crowds, and so far we have had these beaches to ourselves.
In addition, we have found that we really enjoy walking in the fields in the villages and farms (communal farms called “moshavim” in Hebrew) and seeing all the fruits and plants that grow there. Occasionally a truckload of Thai workers pass by and we wave and say “Sawadika ” to them.
So this is our daily routine for the foreseeable future. We really don’t have any illusions that we will be flying anywhere in the near future, at least maybe we can make a trip to the beautiful north of our country before the streams and waterfalls dry up. We should have been in Uzbekistan in May but there it is. We count our blessings and look forward to every day, the lovely sunshine on our balcony, the food that we make together, and most of all the relationships we have together and with our lovely friends and family.