We had only been home a week before we were making enquiries about going back to the United Kingdom in 2020 and completing the South West Coast Path.

Macs Adventures the company we used in 2019 to transfer our bags and book our accommodation along the path do not do the sections from Brixham to Exmouth.  However we found another company, Absolute Escapes, who did all the sections from Brixham to Poole and so decided to go with them.

By the end of October we had paid Absolute Escapes a deposit and made airline bookings for May 2020. We also booked accommodation in London and the Isle of Wight. We planned to spend a few days on the Isle of Wight after completing our walk as it is not too far from Poole, the end of the trail. We planned to leave home on May 8th and return on 9th June 2020.

And then COVID-19 arrived.

The first human cases of COVID-19 were identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The World Health Organisation  declared the COVID-19 outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March 2020. In New Zealand nationwide alert levels were put in place and set at level 2 on 21 March, Level 3 on 23 March and Level 4 on 25 March, setting all New Zealand in a nationwide lockdown.

By the middle of March virtually the whole world was going into lockdown and we had decided to postpone our walking holiday. On 15 March we advised Absolute Escapes we wished to postpone our trip as the New Zealand Government had strongly recommended that all non-essential overseas travel should be cancelled. At this time the government had introduced a 14 day isolation requirement for all people entering New Zealand. As it happened also at this time the United Kingdom introduced travel restrictions and Absolute Escapes advised us that all walking holidays in the UK were cancelled.

For several months we were distracted by the world wide catastrophe of the pandemic but also wondered what we had lost through all the travel restrictions and disruptions. Eventually we received a full refund of our airfares, accommodation in Auckland and the Isle of Wight. Absolute Escapes said they would honour the deposit we had paid and could use it for any future trip.  Expedia gave us a credit for our accommodation in London to be used within a year. This was later extended to two years but we never got to use it, So overall we were not unhappy.

The COVID-19 pandemic took its tragic course and we did not consider any overseas travel for the remainder of 2020, or for 2021 and 2022. By the beginning of 2023  the world was pretty much back to normal and we were getting itchy feet. We decided it was now safe enough to go to the United Kingdom and complete the South West Coast Path.