Stunning @Rhe 
Two years??? Was I lucky??? I left Chania, for Batumi just as people began wearing masks in Crete, only to have the Georgian borders close two days after my arrival. As a result, I got stuck there for six months. After 3 lonely months i Batumi I went to Tbilisi in hope to meet some people. No luck. As soon as I could I went to Turkey from where I could fly to the US
Completely understand (and commiserate) with your situation. We will keep sitting but we have the luxury of driving to the vast majority of our sits (Europe). We had hoped to do a few more “exotic” sits this year but we will put those on the back burner until the world gets its act together. I feel for everyone affected not to mention the tourism industry that are still hurting from COVID.
@august I didn’t get to Batumi but Georgia is my favorite place on earth I think. I loved it! I could live there and had planned on going back this trip.
@Oztravels yes it’s so much easier when you live in Europe. I’m envious at times. Oz is soooo far away particularly at times like this but I do feel comfortable with my decision now, as hard as it was. Let’s hope the situation is over soon and we can get back to living x
I’m in the north of England at the moment not too far from home but the petrol prices are going up every day so I am going to enjoy the garden and not go out so much. My next 2 sits are quite long drives so it will be more of a challenge to keep costs down. As the middle east is such a hub for travel the people on one sit have had their holiday changed twice and now it has been cancelled altogether. We have kept the dates as they will go somewhere in the UK. It does make life uncertain. I have a home to go back to so if something changes last minute it would be fine but that won’t help anyone who has tickets to travel. I think it will only get worse.
@Chrissy yes, that was the other concern re cancel or not cancel. If I didn’t cancel, possibly the homeowners would have if they decided not to travel then I would have been caught with a long flight and no sit. Admittedly I could probably have picked another one up but it gets really stressful and expensive to do that. I agree that I think it just might get worse before it gets better 
Thank you for sharing your pandemic stories—they’re powerful examples of resilience and making the most of the situations we find ourselves in.
Being able to count our blessings and maintain a sense of humour can make a real difference when dealing with an unexpected change in circumstances.
I’m so sorry you had to cancel @ziggy . We are hoping that by the end of the year things will be better as our son is getting married in Scotland. They have just made the decision to scale it back to immediate family due to the worry of other guests having difficulties. Mum and Dad can suck up the difficulty 
@Silversitters so kind of you. Yes, travel has taught me that if you can’t fix it you just do the best you can and keep on going. I’ve been in some doozy situations and looked at them all as a great adventure. A sense of humour can also get you through some difficult times. I know there is another member on the forum from the UK who was in the same situation as me in Perth during covid who was also stuck, only klms from where I was! Better not mention names without approval though.
@Cathie oh wow! Let’s hope this situation is well and truly over by year end! Heaven forbid if it isn’t. I hope everything goes well for you all. Good ol’ Mum and Dad hey, what would they do without us
To be fair, we potentially could have left Crete before 2 years, but we had made friends, got Greek residency, and, well, headed back to miserable England didn’t seem like the best choice!
So sorry to hear you’ve had to cancel your trip @ziggy - thanks for posting this topic as it’s been really interesting to read about everyone’s thoughts - and COVID era experiences.
I’m curious to see how the current situation will affect everyone’s sit choices moving forward - do we think people will begin to stay closer to home?
Thank you @Jenny. I wasn’t really looking for sympathy from anyone 
but all posts have been so informative and interesting and I’ve enjoyed the responses. My intent was, as you say, to actually hear what others are thinking and if anyone else is making decisions going forward due to the current situation, as a few have already mentioned. I for one feel better about my decision after reading the responses. And hey, who would have thought that our COVID experiences could have been positive in a negative world at the time 
I was hoping to travel to UK in the early fall but that has been scuppered.
Sits will likely all be within Canada for the foreseeable and they will have to be special. No more local ‘doing a favour’ sits that will trigger a booking fee. Glad that I opted to downgrade to Basic tier at my next renewal.
Like @ziggy I’ve been watching the situation re fuel in Australia and how we don’t seem to have great supplies.
I’m booked to fly to the UK late April with Royal Brunei who go via Brunei, Dubai then London. An email today from them confirmed my flight would now be a direct flight between Brunei and London. So it looks like my plans remain on track. Returning home mid July - time will tell how that works out!
So sounds like I would have been ok if stuck in Brisbane….
I’m sure you would have been @Smiley we are a friendly bunch here. They say when you cross the Queensland border you set your clock back ten years We live a slower and more open lifestyle so you would have been well looked after. Brissie is very similar to Perth
@temba crossing fingers everything stays the same for you and well done for pushing through x
We haven’t made any changes yet and are bouncing around (in theory) from Türkiye to Bosnia, Montenegro, back to Türkiye and then Kenya and Tanzania which takes us till around mid August. None of our flights (or chosen sit destinations) were/are that expensive so we’re going to just go with the flow for now and see how it rolls out. Gutted you’ll not be closer this summer @ziggy but totally get it. #keepyouposted