YELLOWWOOD Park’s Michelle and Mike McClelland have shared their experience of their holiday in Bali which was abruptly thrown into disarray when the nearby volcano, Mount Agung started spewing ash and smoke, preventing any flights to or from the Indonesian island in the past three days.
The McClellands who were due to return to their Yellowwood Park home on Thursday, 29 November, were forced to cancel their flights and have been left stranded on the island. Michelle was eagerly awaiting the reopening of the local airports so that flights could resume, something which has been announced today.
As such, she hopes to return to South Africa on Sunday, she told the Sun on Thursday morning.
Despite the volcanic activity making worldwide headlines, Michelle’s experience in Bali has not been traumatic as they were about 50km to 60km away from the volcano. The McClellands have relished the idyll and tranquility of the southeast Asian country for the last week. “The beauty of the island sucks you in,” said Michelle.
“We cannot see it from where we are because of the cloud cover. We are currently in Ubud. We were in Legian from 23 November and arrived in Ubud on 26 November. We were due to fly out yesterday (Thursday, 29 November) but because of the ash and smoke it was cancelled,” she said.
Mount #Agung: #Bali volcano eruption photos explained (by me): https://t.co/nlPFhCbHPg pic.twitter.com/rVdkWfx6lP
— Dr Janine Krippner (@janinekrippner) November 27, 2017
The locals she has spoken to are not too worried about the rumbling volcano, since they are far from the danger. “They were handing out masks in town yesterday but said we do not have to use them. We can’t see any ash. It’s the rainy season now and there’s lots of cloud cover so we are not affected at all where we are. But I would like to say the people here are amazing and we are being so well looked after by the hotel and locals here. Our travel agency has been amazing and has been sorting out everything for us. The best experience here was interacting with the locals and learning about their culture,” she added.
Her stay in Bali became considerably more interesting when the prince of Ubud, having heard of their plight as tourists, invited them to visit his palace.
READ: Flights resume as Bali’s volcano-hit airport reopens
He had reached out to the McClellands through the hotel they were staying at, which he owns. “We were so excited when he invited us and he was even more excited to meet people from South Africa,” she explained. “He’s such a chilled man, so friendly and informative. He feels sorry for us being stuck here. Bless him.”
While she is calm and collected, her heart breaks every day that she is not yet back with her four children. “I want my children to know we are missing them terribly and cannot wait to squeeze them. Connor, Carter, Cayman and Cooper – mummy will be home soon!” she said.
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Her mother, Shirley Mitchell is looking after her grandchildren while Michelle is away. Shirley said the whole ordeal has been difficult on them, “especially her four-year-old daughter”. The others are old enough to understand but she doesn’t, so when she has all these questions as to why her mom is not home, it’s hard to explain. For me it’s worrying as anything can happen between now and their return. I just want my daughter back home with her children and me,” she sobbed.
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Since Mt Agung started spewing ash into the sky, up to 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate the vicinity and thousands of tourists have been stranded. Layers of ash settled on houses and fields on the Indonesian island. According to BBC news, the airport might have to close again if the wind changes direction. The UK news service reported that although the airport reopened from 3pm local time, it remained necessary constantly to monitor the situation on the ground.
