Status update November 2021 II – Here we go again, perhaps

Here we go again, perhaps.

A new and perhaps very virulent new strain of the virus is emerging from southern Africa, the UK and other countries are shutting down entries from that region and an increasing number of countries in Europe are going back into lockdowns as the known Delta variant wreaks havoc, mainly amongst the unvaccinated.

We are expecting the new variant to spread rapidly around Africa and then the rest of the world. What measures countries will take to contain the spread is unkown and at the moment unknowable.

We are therefore placing our first two expeditions of 2022 (Arabia and Kenya) on a warning. This means that we now believe that there is a higher than 50% chance that we will have to defer these expeditions again. The outlook for Kenya is particularly bleak, because Kenya is in Africa, our expedition scientist comes from South Africa and is there at the moment.

Our recommendation is not to book any flights or make further arrangements for now (flights and other services already booked should have been booked with a cancellation insurance, as recommended in the dossier). If we have to defer, information on how deferment works is here.

We will keep monitoring the situation and keep you informed. We will make a decision about whether to defer or not at least four weeks in advance of the first day of the expedition (so for Arabia scheduled to start on 8 January, we will tell you by 8 December at the latest).

Please bear with us. We realise this is disappointing, inconvenient and annoying for everyone, but we are also sure you understand why we have to take this action.