You’ve likely heard stories of people getting stranded on cruise ships or in other cities when the lockdown rules were first imposed around the world. Having nowhere to go, the people in these places were forced to stay aboard the ships, to seek shelter among relatives and friends, or find some way to travel back home. But for those who found themselves in quarantine in remote locations like the Arctic, an ancient castle, or a submarine, lockdown dropped an even greater challenge. Read about 8 such unbelievable lockdown stories of people getting stuck in the most unexpected places imaginable below. Truth is, many of them are still quarantining there now!
1. Stranded on a nuclear powered Russian submarine
We can hardly imagine what it’s like to be stuck in a military submarine for months or even years, but one mind-blowing fact about submersibles is that the crew are often completely unaware of the bad news going on in the world, as this information is intentionally withheld from them in an attempt to boost the crew’s morale.
However, by far not all submarines are self-sustainable, and recently, a civilian contractor was asked to complete some work on the Russian military nuclear-powered submarine called “Orel”. It later transpired that the civilian had been in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient, and as a result, the entire 100-man crew has been in strict quarantine for two weeks.
2. Stuck in this small cabin in the Arctic until September
Two Arctic researchers, Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Fålun Strøm, have been researching climate change and the local fauna in the small Arctic cabin called Bamsebu since the end of 2019. As such, they were supposed to return to the mainland in May, but travel restrictions made this impossible. It seems like the two researchers will have to face the harsh Arctic climate and the total darkness until September.
3. Camping out at an abandoned Disney attraction
The Disney Discovery Island in Disney World, Florida, has been closed ever since a deadly bacteria had been found in the drinking water in 1999 and since then, the island was overgrown by trees and essentially left abandoned. During the shutdown, however, one Richard McGuire decided to camp on the premises of the island and was found sleeping in one of the abandoned buildings by the police. The man reportedly wasn’t aware he was trespassing, and it remains unknown how much time he spent in the once-famous wildlife park.
4. Self-isolating at an abandoned hospital in Vietnam
The Ninh Binh province in Vietnam is a famous travel destination in the country, known for its majestic green landscape and a relatively lower influx of tourists, but for three British tourists, Lucy Parker, Alice Parker, and Hanna Ahlberg, it was not a pleasant vacation. The BBC reported that the three tourists were tracked and quarantined after it became clear that one of the passengers on their flight at Hanoi had Covid-19.The three women were taken to a former psychiatric hospital in Ninh Binh where they were asked to self-isolate for 12 days. The women describe the time spent at the abandoned mental asylum as “pretty scary at night.”
5. Sharing a remote island with marsupials
Not all quarantine experiences were as scary as the previous one, though. For example, 800 passengers of the Australian ‘Vasco da Gama’ cruise ship destined to never arrive at Rottnest Island also had an outbreak on the ship, and the Australian government decided to quarantine them all on the Quokka Island, a popular tourist resort.For those of you who are not familiar with Australian wildlife, quokkas are probably the cutest marsupials on the planet and a favorite among tourists, as these small fluffs of cuteness seem to always have a smile on their cute little faces.
6. An extended trip to the Bahamas
The Great Exuma island in the Bahamas is another famous resort, also known as the “Fyre Festival Island”. A number of social media influencers visited the island for a promotional music event right before a lockdown was announced in the Bahamas and the nearby Nassau airport would close down completely. One of them, Kinsey Wolanski, who planned to stay on the island for only 8 days, ended up staying for an entire month. Luckily for her, her social media career helped her hitch a ride on a private jet back home, while some of her colleagues stayed behind.
7. Stuck on an icebreaker in the middle of the frozen Arctic ocean
The Polarstern is a famous German research icebreaker that has routinely explored the Arctic since the 1980s. Since October, the ship and its crew were on an expedition that was procuring ice and ocean samples and examining the atmosphere in the Arctic to learn more about the rapid climatic changes in the region. However, remoteness didn’t save the crew from Covid-19, as in March, one of the crew-members caught the dangerous virus, which resulted in strict quarantine regulations onboard. The mission ended up being delayed due to the quarantine.
8. Living in an Irish castle for months
A couple, Laura Jamieson and Michael Smith, has been stuck in a Medieval Irish castle, the Ashford Castle, since the end of March, and they’re planning to stay there until the end of July. Both of them work at the hotel when it’s open, and they decided to stay there to keep up routine maintenance of the premises. An uncanny resemblance to Hotel Overlook and most horror film aside, the couple says that they’re enjoying their stay at the luxurious hotel so far.
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