During late March I quickly jumped on a plane to my home city of Melbourne to stay with my family during the Covid 19 outbreak. Like everyone else, I had no idea of the dramatic change to everyday life that was going to come, let alone when I would even return to my flat in London again.

Fast forward 4 months later, I was keen to return to London’s summery weather and I felt like it was a relatively safe time to make the journey.

Here’s the process I went through to get across the other side of the world. If you are going through the same thing now, I hope you find this info useful!

1. Applying to leave Australia

Yep you read that right, I had to apply for a government exemption to leave my home country due to Australia’s closed borders. While I’ve always heard about Australia’s strict border force rules from foreign travellers, I’d never actually experienced it until now. I had to prove that I normally reside overseas and support it with statements and many documents. It even took me two attempts at applying to gain approval. While some people received the approval the day of their flights (after 2-3 weeks of waiting), I was lucky enough to get mine just 48 hours after applying.

When I got to the airport I was required to show this approval at the check in desk, which was followed by another call to the Australian Border Force for confirmation.

2. Navigating the airport

I chose to fly Qatar Airways as it was one of the only airlines flying out of Australia and didn’t have a ridiculously inflated price. My flight was at 10pm and there were a couple of other planes flying out around the same time.

But let me tell you that walking through an airport in this point of history is an incredibly jarring experience (and hopefully one that doesn’t last long).

Virtually every shop was closed aside from a pharmacy and one restaurant. Some lights were even turned off in full areas of the airport, and there are only a small number of people walking around. Felt a tad like those post-apocalyptic movies.

Security checks consisted of only one line operating with a handful of staff. While I was waiting around 40 minutes to go through, I had to remember that the staff are stretched super thin and working as hard as they can. It’s important to be kind during this tough time!

3. Boarding the plane

Every airline has their own Covid 19 policy and procedures, and Qatar Airways may just be one of the most prepared and cautious airlines at the moment. They have been advertising their ‘travel with confidence’ campaign, which focuses on the safety of travelling during Covid, like cabin sanitisation and cleaning, advanced air filtration systems and social distancing measures. All customers are required to wear a face mask and a face shield for boarding and the entire duration of the flight (except when eating and drinking). Seeing everyone wear these was quite strange, but also comforting to know that I had an extra sense of cleanliness. It also brought a sense of camaraderie between the passengers as we were all on this bizarre experience, while looking awkward with our masks and our shields on, together.

Not long after boarding the plane, the crew passed around a Protective Kit Pack which included gloves, a sachet of hand sanitiser and a spare mask.

4. The flight

Something I didn’t expect was that a whole section of economy was empty, and all of the passengers were pushed down to the back. Despite this there was still space, and during the flight we were allowed to move seats – meaning I got three seats to lay across! A budget traveller’s dream!

It took me a while to get used to sleeping with the face shield on, but as time went on there were moments I forgot I was wearing it.

You’ll be happy to know that food and entertainment was still the same, so I was able to enjoy the flight largely as normal and gorge on as many movies as my eyeballs could handle.

 

My stopover was in Doha for an hour. We were promptly brought off the plane and redirected straight to the departure gates. So we didn’t need to re-enter security. Doha Airport was quite busy, and if it wasn’t for the closed shops and face shields I would have forgotten about the pandemic for a minute.

The second leg of the journey was much busier, and on the plane I didn’t have a spare seat next to me which slightly heightened my anxiety. Mostly everyone wore their masks and face shields during the flight, but a few people in front of me took their’s off and weren’t told to put them back on by the staff. I’m hoping this becomes stricter.

5. Arriving in the UK

Touching down at Heathrow is usually a lengthy nightmare, but due to the limited amount of flights we quickly landed and went through customs.

To enter the UK, every arrival has to fill out a Contact Form outlining your journey and whether or not you have to self-isolate for 14 days. As I transited Qatar I was not exempt from the quarantine (and I write this blog post from mid-way through my iso), so I had packed packaged food to last me at least a few days – or at least until I caved in and ordered Uber Eats.

 

Overall, travelling during this pandemic wasn’t as stressful as I had expected, largely due to Qatar Airways’ safety measures and the social distancing imposed at the airports.

Something stuck with me since my journey though. On the first leg, the lady sitting next to me looked around at everyone with their shields and masks and said: ‘Well this is the new normal isn’t it?’

She’s right. While travelling might not ever be this tumultuous, stressful and at times isolating again, – we have to expect that some of these measures are here to stay for the long haul. Even if it’s just carrying some hand sanitiser and wearing a mask.

What do you think about travelling during the pandemic? Have you done it? Are you against it? Let’s start a discussion in the comments!