“ It was mostly business as usual ,” shrugs Alex Petrov as he explains when he first heard of Coronavirus , over a year ago . “ I was in Thailand in January , it was Chinese New Year , there were busloads of Chinese tourists .”
Alex was on the Asian leg of his ride across the world , from Europe to Australia almost a year earlier . Observing that there was no social distancing , no panic , no serious changes to life .
“ Probably by mid-March it became clear things were getting serious ,” he continues , explaining that flying between Malaysia and Australia was nothing different , no precautions or risk . “ Then the border closures happened very quickly .”
It was when riding between Perth and Sydney , opposite sides of the Australian continent , that it occurred to the 32-year-old from Ireland , although a Russian national , that something was amiss . He didn ’ t want to leave Australia and knew that he would have to rush through if he were to see as much as he could before the borders closed .
“ I was eager to reach Sydney before the borders shut ,” he smiles almost apologetically . Sydney was to be Alex ’ s final destination before finishing his ride around the world . “ I also have friends there and it is a major transportation hub .”
Riding across the continent , Alex was already making
plans to get out of Australia and as he reached Sydney in mid-March 2020 the borders were slammed shut , yet what he found was a people full of love and willing to help .
“ The people were fantastic , very welcoming , very friendly despite the whole crisis .”
Six weeks in Sydney , the capital of the state of New South Wales , meant that Alex ’ s visa was fast running out , the Australian government refusing to extend visas to make it easier for people to organise and return home .
“ The message was to get out of Australia as soon as possible ,” a worldwide pandemic , a human disaster and a nations government wants people out . “ While I understand the logic behind it , it really didn ’ t help and put on a lot of extra pressure .
“ I was lucky to find a container for the bike to Europe as there were a few other European bikes stranded so the shipping company had enough to send the whole container .”
The challenges often felt by overland travellers was firmly confronting Alex , as a dual national it seemed that everything should fall in place however , Alex ’ s adopted Ireland essentially turned its back .
“ The Irish embassy couldn ’ t care less ,” there ’ s a level of anger , a degree of embarrassment . “ In the end I still chose to go to Dublin not Moscow .”
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