Mumbai: Five Dutch tourists, who were stranded in Mumbai amid the national lockdown, flew back to Europe on Thursday in a special recovery flight chartered by Germany.
TOI had earlier reported that the group, along with their dog, were on an international road trip and had travelled to 21 countries in their car. Their dog named Jam will stay back in India for some more months, as it wasn't allowed back on the recovery flight.
"We found a shelter in Malad where Jam will be well taken care of. I will try to return to Mumbai around October, hoping that the situation would improve by then," said Weagert Beugelink, a Dutch police officer who was among the stranded tourists.
The group had started their trip from Amsterdam 11 months ago in a Landcruiser. They were in Gujarat for Holi when the coronavirus outbreak began. By March 24, they reached Mumbai and put up at an AirBnB property in Madh. But local shopkeepers were not too keen on selling them groceries for fear of contracting coronavirus. They managed with the food they had stocked up.
"We were in regular touch with the Netherlands Consulate in Mumbai. We were told that Germany was planning to charter Air India aircraft to fly back its citizens to Frankfurt and we could go on one of these flights. But we had to get our landcruiser to the customs warehouse first," said Beugelink. The plan was to send over the car on a shop. As the docks are closed during the national lockdown, Beugelink was asked to leave the vehicle at the customs warehouse in Uran with all documents inside. The issue was driving the vehicle amid the curfew 75 kms from Madh to Uran. After trying for several days, the group finally got police permission to drive down on Wednesday. This was cutting it very close as their flight to Frankfurt was on the next day.
04/04/20 Nitasha Natu/Times of India
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TOI had earlier reported that the group, along with their dog, were on an international road trip and had travelled to 21 countries in their car. Their dog named Jam will stay back in India for some more months, as it wasn't allowed back on the recovery flight.
"We found a shelter in Malad where Jam will be well taken care of. I will try to return to Mumbai around October, hoping that the situation would improve by then," said Weagert Beugelink, a Dutch police officer who was among the stranded tourists.
The group had started their trip from Amsterdam 11 months ago in a Landcruiser. They were in Gujarat for Holi when the coronavirus outbreak began. By March 24, they reached Mumbai and put up at an AirBnB property in Madh. But local shopkeepers were not too keen on selling them groceries for fear of contracting coronavirus. They managed with the food they had stocked up.
"We were in regular touch with the Netherlands Consulate in Mumbai. We were told that Germany was planning to charter Air India aircraft to fly back its citizens to Frankfurt and we could go on one of these flights. But we had to get our landcruiser to the customs warehouse first," said Beugelink. The plan was to send over the car on a shop. As the docks are closed during the national lockdown, Beugelink was asked to leave the vehicle at the customs warehouse in Uran with all documents inside. The issue was driving the vehicle amid the curfew 75 kms from Madh to Uran. After trying for several days, the group finally got police permission to drive down on Wednesday. This was cutting it very close as their flight to Frankfurt was on the next day.
04/04/20 Nitasha Natu/Times of India
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