Aussies warned as chaotic Easter scenes hit popular 4WD and camping spot
A long weekend in Australia's Sunshine State is hardly complete without a trip to one of the world-famous 4WD beaches.
But as more and more people flock to the area, chaotic scenes have emerged showing dozens of 4WDs lining up as early as 2 am on Good Friday to make their way onto Queensland's K'gari island (formerly Fraser) for the Easter weekend. It comes as Aussies have been reminded not to disobey road rules while they enjoy camping, fishing and exploring at any of the state's iconic beaches.
Queensland Police warned officers will "saturate" the roads and beaches to keep a close eye on campers and 4WD enthusiasts. Additional support has been deployed to popular 4WD spots, including K'gari, Teewah and Rainbow Beach for the holidays to remind drivers that road rules apply on the sand.
Officers will be focusing on seatbelt, speeding, drink and drug driving offences, as well as keeping an eye out for modified and defective vehicles.
"Not only will we see an increased volume of vehicles on our roads, we will also have plenty of people visiting or driving through the area that are not familiar with our roads," Wide Bay Burnett District Officer Superintendent Anne Vogler said earlier this month.
"I urge you to think of the consequences of dangerous driving — you may lose your licence, you may be issued a hefty fine or charged and have to attend court, or you may lose your life or end someone else's.
"I urge you to not drink or have any drugs in your system before driving, take frequent rest breaks, wear a seatbelt, get off your phone or any other distracting devices, and drive to the speed limit and the conditions. They sound simple but these measures will save your life, and ensure you don't hurt someone else's."
While some saw the images from K'gari and were keen to find out more information ahead of their own voyage over to the island, others said they "couldn't think of a worse time" to visit than over Easter or Christmas.
Other Aussies were envious of the adventure, adding that the weather was "supposed to be mint". Meteorologists told Yahoo the forecast in Queensland is expected to remain dry and warm to start the long weekend
Despite being a popular tourist activity in the area, calls were made last month to restrict beach access to 4WD users. University of the Sunshine Coast researcher Thomas Schlacher warned that 4WD activity on Queensland's beaches is causing "unequivocal" damage to coastal dune ecosystems.
Schlacher said Queensland's southeast is among the worst affected areas when it comes to 4WD damage, with numerous species effectively being "pumelled" and "crushed to death".
He said in Victoria, cars are already banned from beaches, and in NSW, authorities are currently having a "strong debate". In South Australia, some spots are facing limited access by 4WD users, and it's something Queensland should consider, Schlacher argued.
"The four-by-fours running over [marine species are] basically crush them to death. It only takes one vehicle to cause very, very severe impacts," he told the ABC.
Aussie dad slapped with $700 fine for son's illegal road act
Shocking change to famous Aussie swimming spot
Aussies flock to adult-only campsite
Late last year, 22 shore birds and a dingo were found dead as a result of "reckless driving behaviour".
Schlacher warned urgent action is desperately needed, as delaying further will only exacerbate the damage. "Southeast Queensland has probably the world's single strongest evidence base for serious harm caused by four-by-fours," he said. "So we are basically in the driver's seat, here to make sensible decisions."
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
31 Dream-Turned-Nightmare Vacations That Went So, So, So, So, So, So Horribly Wrong For People
Reddit user u/ujin- asked the community: "What was the scariest moment you've had on vacation?" The thread quickly filled with tales of travels gone very, very wrong. BuzzFeed Community members also shared their own vacation horror stories. Here's what people shared: 1."On a family trip to Spain during Easter week, my husband got food poisoning from oysters (he was the only one who ate them). He got violent diarrhea, and on Easter Sunday, as he was driving, he passed out and went up a curb, knocking down a stop sign and almost mowing into a crowd of people on their way to Easter Mass! I had to drive to Madrid and he had a very long, hard flight back to the USA!" —Anonymous 2."We flew from Los Angeles to Rome to start a three-week vacation. On the first full day of the vacation, I tripped on an extra curb set away from the sidewalk and broke two ribs and shattered my arm (humerus) into six pieces. I spent the next day in a Rome emergency room. I tried to get a flight home the following day. I finally flew on the fourth day. This was almost six weeks ago, and I still have pain and almost no use of my arm. The doctor says it will take six to eight months of physical therapy to regain full use of my arm. The trip insurance (no pun intended) only covered $8k of the $27k we paid." —Anonymous 3."It was the mid-'70s, and we were in Casper, Wyoming, on a family vacation. I was about 12 years old. My dad had a bad habit of driving until it was dark before trying to find a hotel for the night. This put us in some very shady hotels over the years. This particular night, the hotel was an old, two-story brick building that looked more like a jail than a hotel. There was one bathroom on each floor. When my dad asked for a room for two adults and four children, the clerk laughed. We were put in a room with one bed and given an extra mattress to throw on the floor. About halfway through the night, a commotion woke us all up. We heard people shouting and furniture banging around. Then there were three gunshots followed by silence and the sound of footsteps running down the hallway and out the door. I've never seen my parents pack a car faster in all of my life." —u/Sparky3200 4."We were on our honeymoon and flying into the Toronto airport. We were about to land to make a connecting flight overseas when we heard grinding under the plane. This repeated a couple of times, and then the pilot, calm as can be, clicked on the intercom and said, 'We seem to be having a little trouble with the landing gear. Everyone, please take your seats and buckle your seatbelts. We're going to delay our approach. Please bear with us.' One of the flight attendants rushed towards the cockpit. The seatbelt light went on, and I looked at my husband, who hates to fly. He just gave me a look of pure dread and terror, not saying a word. I knew this trip was my idea, so this was all my fault." "There was more grinding, and the plane tilted as we started to circle. The pilot returned to the intercom and said, 'All flight attendants to their seats, please.' More grinding. Then, the pilot said, 'Everyone, we have the landing gear down and engaged. We will be landing shortly. Thank you for your patience.' The whole plane cheered when we landed." —u/darkest_irish_lass 5."I went vacationing in Mexico with my family when I was 9. I lost my parents in a marketplace in Cancun and tried to tell a guy I was trying to find my family. He told me he'd find me a new one mere moments before my father arrived." —u/DoorstepCult 6."I was snorkeling with my wife and son. My wife was free-swimming, so she went ahead of us while my son and I gently paddled over to the main snorkeling area. She was probably about 50 yards away, and everyone else in the area was about 30 yards away. I was swimming and suddenly felt something start pushing me into the water. I recovered and realized my son, who's 17 and bigger than I am, was holding onto me. He took water into his snorkel and started panicking, so he grabbed me. I was trying to tread water, hold up another full-grown man, and figure out how to get somewhere safe to stand or get to shore." "I started dipping in and out of the water because my arms and legs started getting tired, and I was treading for my son's life. Finally, I got the other snorkelers' attention and called for help, and a group of them came over. Someone with a paddleboard got my son, and then I floated and paddled as much as possible while a dude there pulled me toward a boat. I almost passed out from exhaustion when I got on the little boat. I legitimately thought both my son and I were goners. The thing is, we're both good swimmers. If he hadn't been panicking, he could have swum to shore, which wasn't far away, or expelled the water from his snorkel and continued swimming. And since he was pulling me down, I was panicking and not thinking straight enough to tell him what to do. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life." —u/SweetCosmicPope 7."On our way to the New Orleans airport at like 4:00 a.m., the vehicle next to us on the highway shot at us for no reason. The bullet went through the windshield and rearview mirror, lodging in the roof right between me and my wife's heads." —u/Guerilla555 8."My uncle decided to mess around on a trail in Yellowstone near some hot pools. He was walking backward on the trail and FELL OFF right onto the crust near the hot pools. By sheer luck, he didn't fall through. It was horrifying. I thought we were witnessing a man die." —u/alizabs91 9."It was the last day of our trip to San Diego, and my friend and I called an Uber for brunch. A car pulled up that didn't match the app description at all. The car was the wrong model and had the wrong license plate. The driver yelled my name, acting super casual like, 'It's your Uber! Come on in!' My phone rang, and it was the actual Uber driver I requested. He was confused about why I hadn't gotten in the car yet. I tell him I didn't see his car, and he says, 'Uber hasn't updated my car model or license plate yet,' but the person in the car clearly wasn't even on the phone! He was looking straight at me!" "I told the person on the phone I was canceling, and the next thing I know, the driver in the car yelled at me through the window to get in. He even got out of the car at this point. My friend and I ran back into the hotel lobby. We explained the situation to the front desk, and thankfully, the staff jumped into action. We also reported it to Uber. I am grateful we were close enough to the hotel to run away. If we weren't, I don't know what would have happened." —u/Moon2078 10."I was 13 on vacation overseas with my mom. We woke up at 5:00 a.m. due to jet lag, and the morning was beautiful, so we decided to go for a swim. We are used to a very calm sea (technically, a bay), so we didn't think swimming was a big deal when there were no lifeguards. As a result, we got caught in a rip current without knowing what it was. My mom was a very weak swimmer, so she told me to swim to the shore and call for help. But the shore was empty, so I knew she just wanted me to leave her and save myself. I grabbed her by the hand and swam as hard as I could. Luckily, we were close to the shore, and my desperate 'sprint' got us to a place where we could stand. We returned to our room and felt incredibly sleepy, so we went to sleep and woke up 10 hours later. When we looked out the hotel window, we noticed the red flags on the beach, and no one was swimming." —u/Sleepy_Glacier 11."On a three-week tour of Thailand with my Muay Thai instructors, we happened to be in Krabi during December 2004. We took an early boat ride for about two hours to Bamboo Island to snorkel and hang out on the beach. We noticed a weird feeling in the water, like something was stinging, and got out after a while. Then we noticed, 'Wow, that is a bizarre loud wave coming in.' Our next thought was, 'Wow, that big wave just keeps coming. I wonder if that's related to how all the water receded a few minutes ago, making the shoreline a thousand feet wider?' Then we climbed the highest point on the island and sat there for about 12 hours, watching the next two tsunami waves come in and leave, all while wondering if the highest point would be high enough to avoid the water." "The pre-smartphone days were rough; we had no idea what was happening. After being rescued by the Thai Coast Guard and getting back to the mainland 12-15 hours later, we found out that thousands of people had died. It was a shock. Overall, it was the scariest vacation moment I've had and the scariest day of my life." —u/Azagsloth 12."My appendix ruptured while on vacation in England. Full perforation. I was on a school trip, and my classmates had to continue their trip, so I was left behind. It happened on my second day in England, and I spent 13 days alone in the hospital before getting out. Then, I had two days left before I flew home. I was puking my guts out and crapping my brains out. Tubes down my throat, oxygen in my nose, catheter down my pipe. I was 15, and my parents didn't have passports, so I had to handle it myself. I had one amazing nurse (we are still friends to this day, 19 years later), and that alone made the whole ordeal worthwhile." —u/PigeonFace 13."Remember that 2018 Hawaii Ballistic Missile false alarm? That. I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law, and my girlfriend and I thought we were going to die. We called our loved ones to say goodbye and cried in the closet, taking shelter, waiting for our imminent doom. The funny thing is, we were supposed to have left days prior, but I decided we should stay an extra three days since the seven-day flight round-trip ticket was the same as the 10-day one. It took 45 minutes or so for the correction to go out. Everyone in public looked like they went on with their day just fine. We remained shell-shocked the whole day, and my girlfriend and I needed therapy when we got home." —u/Rigar_ 14."On a girls' trip to Cabo, my friend and cousin decided to do an ATV beach excursion. Before taking off, I asked if I could ride with any of them, and they said no, and the tour guide wasn't allowed to carry a passenger with him. Therefore, I was left to ride on my own. I didn't want to ride on my own because I have carpal tunnel on my right index finger, and it acts up with frequent usage. Take a guess where the accelerator was located? The tour was over an hour long, so I was worried. On the way to the beach, I was placed behind the guide, so it wasn't bad because I set the speed for the others. However, I was placed last on the way back, and they were hungry for speed." "I was trying to catch up, but my finger started giving out. At one point, I was so far behind that I tried to go a little faster, and that's when my finger locked up and I slammed into a dune hill, causing the ATV to flip over on top of me. It wasn't a little one either, and my life literally flashed before me. It all happened so fast that all I remember was that I was pinned under, but my adrenaline must've kicked into high gear because I somehow managed to lift this 1,000-pound object off my back. I walked out with minor scratches and a lifelong fear of ATVs." —Anonymous Buggy on the beach 15."I got sun poisoning as a kid, became delirious, sleptwalk (which I have no history of doing), opened the hotel doorway, and knocked on what I thought was my parents' bedroom. A guy answered and told me I had the wrong room. Luckily, I somehow found my way back to my room, went to the bathroom, and went to bed. I remember it all, so I don't know if it was sleepwalking or only happened as a result of my sun poisoning. Who knows. It's terrifying to think about what could've happened, especially as a kid." —u/AlternativeGreen6400 16."When I was 12, my dad took me to the Grand Canyon. He had bad arthritis and couldn't walk well, so I asked if he wanted to walk down a trail. He said he'd stay put, but I could go. I walked down the trail, like a switchback, only a little ways. Then I turned to see if I could see my dad, and was waving to try to get his attention. I kept waving and backing up and waving, then turned, and my back heel was right at the edge of the Grand Canyon. I was not the smartest kid." —u/DueEntertainer0 17."I got bitten on the neck by a cheeky monkey in a park in Vietnam. I did not have a rabies vaccination and had to rush to the nearest hospital to get the shot. It was scary as hell. I was traveling solo." —u/Honey-bee542 18."We lost my baby brother at Seaside Heights Boardwalk. My family went wild for about an hour. We finally found him sitting outside a saloon surrounded by bikers and their chicks. He had a bowl of popcorn and a tall soda. They were all facing the boardwalk and watching people go by, waiting to see if he recognized anyone looking for him." —u/Rosanna44 19."I was on an overnight bus from Delhi to Dharmsala. (I am female and was 26 at the time). We stopped at a gas station at night to use a restroom. I was the last in line, and when I came out, the bus was taking off and headed back onto the highway. I sprinted after it, repeatedly screaming, 'No!' at the top of my lungs. Someone must have heard or seen me, and the bus stopped. I truly do not know what I would have done had I been left behind." —u/liabt 20."I was in one of the ruined temples of Cambodia and got lost from my group, and I ended up in a restricted section by mistake. I photographed a dead end with roots coming down the wall. Looking at the photo later, I noticed an infamously venomous snake in the corner, staring at me in a defensive position." —u/placeholderNull 21."While studying abroad in New Zealand, I took a solo trip to the South Island. I was supposed to go with a few friends, but they canceled at the last minute. This was my first solo trip ever, and I booked a few hostels along the way. There was a French man whom I immediately noticed upon arriving at my hostel in Queenstown. I remember him saying something odd to me. Then, after a day at the hostel, he moved into my room. He then spent an entire afternoon in the room staring at me while I watched YouTube in my bed. Later, when I went to grab dinner in town, I spotted him off in the distance as if he had followed me." "Later that night, when I finished showering, he was waiting in the room and again wouldn't stop staring. I told him off and had a worker at the hostel change me to a private room. I gathered my stuff and booked it out of there the next day. I was 20, and it was my first solo travel experience. It sucked." —u/shimmysticks 22."I was 7 years old on my first European trip, and we were in Brussels. My dad and I were waiting for the subway, and when it arrived, it was crowded, so my dad decided not to get in, but I decided I could get in between people, given my small size. I remember turning around to realize my dad was not on the train with me, and the doors closed as he reached to pull me out. Panic. Tears. My dad yelled at me, 'Get off at the next station.' That brief ride to the next station was the longest wait of my life. Luckily, a man saw the whole situation and got off the train with me, and we both sat on a bench waiting for the next train, not even being able to speak the same language. My dad finally arrived on the next train, but that was a horrible and traumatic experience. Thank god for good Samaritans; it could have been awful." —u/zevoruko 23."My in-laws' family overloaded a golf cart shuttle, and as it was climbing a hill, it tipped, falling 10 or so feet down the embankment. My father-in-law was underneath it with his mother and two other people, including the 20-year-old driver, still in the cart. If it weren't for him holding it up, his 70-year-old mother would have been crushed as well, and the cart would have continued falling into the lake 20-30 feet below. He had some nasty bruises, but everyone was okay overall." —u/Conquistador-Hanor 24."We were tent camping in a state park, and a large tree limb fell in the middle of the night in the campsite next to ours. It fell directly across where a tent would go if we had picked that site, which we almost did. It scared the living crap out of us when we heard the 'boom' sound that woke us up at 3:00 a.m." —u/cofclabman 25."I got food poisoning while in Japan. I was with a tour group on a bus with no bathroom when the diarrhea struck. I had to wait until we arrived at our stop, which was five agonizing minutes away. When we finally got out, I had to scramble to find a store that A) had a bathroom and B) wasn't busy to avoid the embarrassment of crapping my brains out. And it's not like anyone spoke English, which made it harder. It took 10 minutes of me searching, all while holding in impending diarrhea, before I finally found one. 10 minutes is an eternity when you're holding in liquid poop. I was drenched in sweat from the effort of holding it in and the fear that I might crap myself in public, in a foreign country." —u/ipissnapalm 26."We were on our way back from a small trip. My mom had texted that my kiddo was sick, so we did our best to get home fast. It was about a three-hour drive on all back roads with few places to pass. We got stuck behind two semis. My partner insisted I go past them, but something told me not to. He pushed it for about five minutes, but I just would not. Something in me said no. Suddenly, the first semi stopped to turn, and the semi behind it had to slam the brakes and swerve to stop in time. You could see the smoke coming off the tires. If I had tried to pass, we would have been hit. I fully believe we would have died. It was a silent ride home." —u/Megnuggets 27."I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time back in the '90s in the winter. As we drove into the area, the fog was so bad that we couldn't see very far, and we were afraid we'd never get to actually see it. As we pulled into a parking lot, the fog drew back, revealing a breathtaking view of snow-frosted canyons. One other car was parked there, with a young couple. The woman stood up on a wall above a sheer drop after the guy with her asked her to pose for a picture. Suddenly, he shoved her hard. Her arms windmilled for several seconds, and she almost fell. Somehow, she got her balance, yelled at him (he just stood there and watched her almost go over the edge), then they both got in the car and left. I was speechless. I know I had just watched that guy try to kill that girl. My companions never saw anything because they were looking at the amazing view." —carotha 28."On the second day of our vacation in Puerto Rico, my husband and I were excited to go to the local beach. There were some kite surfers, but no one was swimming in the ocean because the waves were pretty big. We wanted the ocean experience, so we went out, but only up to our knees. My husband started diving into the whitewater and encouraged me to as well. I grew up in CA and knew how to dive under waves, but I was nervous for some reason. I did it anyway. The third time I dove, I could no longer touch the ground when I came up because there was a drop off, and I was swept back into the bigger waves. I tried my hardest to swim towards shore, but the tide was too strong and I was now battling huge waves to stay alive." "I yelled for help. My husband was trying to come to my rescue, but was fighting the waves to get to me. My energy quickly depleted, and after the next wave, I only barely came up for air. That's when I realized that no one was going to be able to save me, and I was going to drown. At that moment, a voice told me to stop fighting the waves. My survival instinct told me otherwise, but the voice was calm and commanding. So I did, and within two giant waves, I had been brought close enough for my husband to grab my arm and pull me to shore. I sat quietly, shaking and blue, for a while as my husband cared for me. Needless to say, I avoided the beach pretty much the rest of our trip." —Anonymous 29."Driving in Maui, I noticed a dump truck headed toward me, getting closer and closer to the lane line. I kept watch, and we passed each other with no incident. I looked in my rearview 10 seconds later, and it collided head-on with a car behind me in our lane." —u/jwangy84 30."I arrived at the airport in my long-distance girlfriend's country. I was traveling alone, and she was coming to pick me up. As I was leaving the airport, people aggressively tried to offer me rides (cabs, Uber, unlicensed, etc.), which I obviously declined. Then, one guy called out to me by name and said he was sent to pick me up. I called my girlfriend to ask about it. She freaked out and told me to return to the airport immediately until she arrived to get me. So, I guess I almost got kidnapped or something? I have no logical explanation as to how they knew my name." —u/unsoldburrito "I was about 11 years old while on vacation at the beach with my family. I was swimming in the ocean and got stuck in a rip current, which pulled me far from shore. My father came out to save me. As we were both succumbing to exhaustion and starting to drown, someone on a surfboard floated over and had us hold onto the board until lifeguards made it out to us. As we were catching our breath on the shore, we looked around for the surfboard person, but they were nowhere to be found." —u/k_marts Have you ever been on a dream vacation that quickly turned into a nightmare? What happened? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Buzz Feed
4 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
31 Vacation Disasters That Will Make You Stay Home
Reddit user u/ujin- asked the community: "What was the scariest moment you've had on vacation?" The thread quickly filled with tales of travels gone very, very wrong. BuzzFeed Community members also shared their own vacation horror stories. Here's what people shared: "On a family trip to Spain during Easter week, my husband got food poisoning from oysters (he was the only one who ate them). He got violent diarrhea, and on Easter Sunday, as he was driving, he passed out and went up a curb, knocking down a stop sign and almost mowing into a crowd of people on their way to Easter Mass! I had to drive to Madrid and he had a very long, hard flight back to the USA!" "We flew from Los Angeles to Rome to start a three-week vacation. On the first full day of the vacation, I tripped on an extra curb set away from the sidewalk and broke two ribs and shattered my arm (humerus) into six pieces. I spent the next day in a Rome emergency room. I tried to get a flight home the following day. I finally flew on the fourth day. This was almost six weeks ago, and I still have pain and almost no use of my arm. The doctor says it will take six to eight months of physical therapy to regain full use of my arm. The trip insurance (no pun intended) only covered $8k of the $27k we paid." "It was the mid-'70s, and we were in Casper, Wyoming, on a family vacation. I was about 12 years old. My dad had a bad habit of driving until it was dark before trying to find a hotel for the night. This put us in some very shady hotels over the years. This particular night, the hotel was an old, two-story brick building that looked more like a jail than a hotel. There was one bathroom on each floor. When my dad asked for a room for two adults and four children, the clerk laughed. We were put in a room with one bed and given an extra mattress to throw on the floor. About halfway through the night, a commotion woke us all up. We heard people shouting and furniture banging around. Then there were three gunshots followed by silence and the sound of footsteps running down the hallway and out the door. I've never seen my parents pack a car faster in all of my life." "We were on our honeymoon and flying into the Toronto airport. We were about to land to make a connecting flight overseas when we heard grinding under the plane. This repeated a couple of times, and then the pilot, calm as can be, clicked on the intercom and said, 'We seem to be having a little trouble with the landing gear. Everyone, please take your seats and buckle your seatbelts. We're going to delay our approach. Please bear with us.' One of the flight attendants rushed towards the cockpit. The seatbelt light went on, and I looked at my husband, who hates to fly. He just gave me a look of pure dread and terror, not saying a word. I knew this trip was my idea, so this was all my fault." "I went vacationing in Mexico with my family when I was 9. I lost my parents in a marketplace in Cancun and tried to tell a guy I was trying to find my family. He told me he'd find me a new one mere moments before my father arrived." "I was snorkeling with my wife and son. My wife was free-swimming, so she went ahead of us while my son and I gently paddled over to the main snorkeling area. She was probably about 50 yards away, and everyone else in the area was about 30 yards away. I was swimming and suddenly felt something start pushing me into the water. I recovered and realized my son, who's 17 and bigger than I am, was holding onto me. He took water into his snorkel and started panicking, so he grabbed me. I was trying to tread water, hold up another full-grown man, and figure out how to get somewhere safe to stand or get to shore." "On our way to the New Orleans airport at like 4:00 a.m., the vehicle next to us on the highway shot at us for no reason. The bullet went through the windshield and rearview mirror, lodging in the roof right between me and my wife's heads." "My uncle decided to mess around on a trail in Yellowstone near some hot pools. He was walking backward on the trail and FELL OFF right onto the crust near the hot pools. By sheer luck, he didn't fall through. It was horrifying. I thought we were witnessing a man die." "It was the last day of our trip to San Diego, and my friend and I called an Uber for brunch. A car pulled up that didn't match the app description at all. The car was the wrong model and had the wrong license plate. The driver yelled my name, acting super casual like, 'It's your Uber! Come on in!' My phone rang, and it was the actual Uber driver I requested. He was confused about why I hadn't gotten in the car yet. I tell him I didn't see his car, and he says, 'Uber hasn't updated my car model or license plate yet,' but the person in the car clearly wasn't even on the phone! He was looking straight at me!" "I was 13 on vacation overseas with my mom. We woke up at 5:00 a.m. due to jet lag, and the morning was beautiful, so we decided to go for a swim. We are used to a very calm sea (technically, a bay), so we didn't think swimming was a big deal when there were no lifeguards. As a result, we got caught in a rip current without knowing what it was. My mom was a very weak swimmer, so she told me to swim to the shore and call for help. But the shore was empty, so I knew she just wanted me to leave her and save myself. I grabbed her by the hand and swam as hard as I could. Luckily, we were close to the shore, and my desperate 'sprint' got us to a place where we could stand. We returned to our room and felt incredibly sleepy, so we went to sleep and woke up 10 hours later. When we looked out the hotel window, we noticed the red flags on the beach, and no one was swimming." "On a three-week tour of Thailand with my Muay Thai instructors, we happened to be in Krabi during December 2004. We took an early boat ride for about two hours to Bamboo Island to snorkel and hang out on the beach. We noticed a weird feeling in the water, like something was stinging, and got out after a while. Then we noticed, 'Wow, that is a bizarre loud wave coming in.' Our next thought was, 'Wow, that big wave just keeps coming. I wonder if that's related to how all the water receded a few minutes ago, making the shoreline a thousand feet wider?' Then we climbed the highest point on the island and sat there for about 12 hours, watching the next two tsunami waves come in and leave, all while wondering if the highest point would be high enough to avoid the water." "My appendix ruptured while on vacation in England. Full perforation. I was on a school trip, and my classmates had to continue their trip, so I was left behind. It happened on my second day in England, and I spent 13 days alone in the hospital before getting out. Then, I had two days left before I flew home. I was puking my guts out and crapping my brains out. Tubes down my throat, oxygen in my nose, catheter down my pipe. I was 15, and my parents didn't have passports, so I had to handle it myself. I had one amazing nurse (we are still friends to this day, 19 years later), and that alone made the whole ordeal worthwhile." "Remember that 2018 Hawaii Ballistic Missile false alarm? That. I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law, and my girlfriend and I thought we were going to die. We called our loved ones to say goodbye and cried in the closet, taking shelter, waiting for our imminent doom. The funny thing is, we were supposed to have left days prior, but I decided we should stay an extra three days since the seven-day flight round-trip ticket was the same as the 10-day one. It took 45 minutes or so for the correction to go out. Everyone in public looked like they went on with their day just fine. We remained shell-shocked the whole day, and my girlfriend and I needed therapy when we got home." "On a girls' trip to Cabo, my friend and cousin decided to do an ATV beach excursion. Before taking off, I asked if I could ride with any of them, and they said no, and the tour guide wasn't allowed to carry a passenger with him. Therefore, I was left to ride on my own. I didn't want to ride on my own because I have carpal tunnel on my right index finger, and it acts up with frequent usage. Take a guess where the accelerator was located? The tour was over an hour long, so I was worried. On the way to the beach, I was placed behind the guide, so it wasn't bad because I set the speed for the others. However, I was placed last on the way back, and they were hungry for speed." Buggy on the beach "I got sun poisoning as a kid, became delirious, sleptwalk (which I have no history of doing), opened the hotel doorway, and knocked on what I thought was my parents' bedroom. A guy answered and told me I had the wrong room. Luckily, I somehow found my way back to my room, went to the bathroom, and went to bed. I remember it all, so I don't know if it was sleepwalking or only happened as a result of my sun poisoning. Who knows. It's terrifying to think about what could've happened, especially as a kid." "When I was 12, my dad took me to the Grand Canyon. He had bad arthritis and couldn't walk well, so I asked if he wanted to walk down a trail. He said he'd stay put, but I could go. I walked down the trail, like a switchback, only a little ways. Then I turned to see if I could see my dad, and was waving to try to get his attention. I kept waving and backing up and waving, then turned, and my back heel was right at the edge of the Grand Canyon. I was not the smartest kid." "I got bitten on the neck by a cheeky monkey in a park in Vietnam. I did not have a rabies vaccination and had to rush to the nearest hospital to get the shot. It was scary as hell. I was traveling solo." "We lost my baby brother at Seaside Heights Boardwalk. My family went wild for about an hour. We finally found him sitting outside a saloon surrounded by bikers and their chicks. He had a bowl of popcorn and a tall soda. They were all facing the boardwalk and watching people go by, waiting to see if he recognized anyone looking for him." "I was on an overnight bus from Delhi to Dharmsala. (I am female and was 26 at the time). We stopped at a gas station at night to use a restroom. I was the last in line, and when I came out, the bus was taking off and headed back onto the highway. I sprinted after it, repeatedly screaming, 'No!' at the top of my lungs. Someone must have heard or seen me, and the bus stopped. I truly do not know what I would have done had I been left behind." "I was in one of the ruined temples of Cambodia and got lost from my group, and I ended up in a restricted section by mistake. I photographed a dead end with roots coming down the wall. Looking at the photo later, I noticed an infamously venomous snake in the corner, staring at me in a defensive position." "While studying abroad in New Zealand, I took a solo trip to the South Island. I was supposed to go with a few friends, but they canceled at the last minute. This was my first solo trip ever, and I booked a few hostels along the way. There was a French man whom I immediately noticed upon arriving at my hostel in Queenstown. I remember him saying something odd to me. Then, after a day at the hostel, he moved into my room. He then spent an entire afternoon in the room staring at me while I watched YouTube in my bed. Later, when I went to grab dinner in town, I spotted him off in the distance as if he had followed me." "I was 7 years old on my first European trip, and we were in Brussels. My dad and I were waiting for the subway, and when it arrived, it was crowded, so my dad decided not to get in, but I decided I could get in between people, given my small size. I remember turning around to realize my dad was not on the train with me, and the doors closed as he reached to pull me out. Panic. Tears. My dad yelled at me, 'Get off at the next station.' That brief ride to the next station was the longest wait of my life. Luckily, a man saw the whole situation and got off the train with me, and we both sat on a bench waiting for the next train, not even being able to speak the same language. My dad finally arrived on the next train, but that was a horrible and traumatic experience. Thank god for good Samaritans; it could have been awful." "My in-laws' family overloaded a golf cart shuttle, and as it was climbing a hill, it tipped, falling 10 or so feet down the embankment. My father-in-law was underneath it with his mother and two other people, including the 20-year-old driver, still in the cart. If it weren't for him holding it up, his 70-year-old mother would have been crushed as well, and the cart would have continued falling into the lake 20-30 feet below. He had some nasty bruises, but everyone was okay overall." "We were tent camping in a state park, and a large tree limb fell in the middle of the night in the campsite next to ours. It fell directly across where a tent would go if we had picked that site, which we almost did. It scared the living crap out of us when we heard the 'boom' sound that woke us up at 3:00 a.m." "I got food poisoning while in Japan. I was with a tour group on a bus with no bathroom when the diarrhea struck. I had to wait until we arrived at our stop, which was five agonizing minutes away. When we finally got out, I had to scramble to find a store that A) had a bathroom and B) wasn't busy to avoid the embarrassment of crapping my brains out. And it's not like anyone spoke English, which made it harder. It took 10 minutes of me searching, all while holding in impending diarrhea, before I finally found one. 10 minutes is an eternity when you're holding in liquid poop. I was drenched in sweat from the effort of holding it in and the fear that I might crap myself in public, in a foreign country." "We were on our way back from a small trip. My mom had texted that my kiddo was sick, so we did our best to get home fast. It was about a three-hour drive on all back roads with few places to pass. We got stuck behind two semis. My partner insisted I go past them, but something told me not to. He pushed it for about five minutes, but I just would not. Something in me said no. Suddenly, the first semi stopped to turn, and the semi behind it had to slam the brakes and swerve to stop in time. You could see the smoke coming off the tires. If I had tried to pass, we would have been hit. I fully believe we would have died. It was a silent ride home." "I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time back in the '90s in the winter. As we drove into the area, the fog was so bad that we couldn't see very far, and we were afraid we'd never get to actually see it. As we pulled into a parking lot, the fog drew back, revealing a breathtaking view of snow-frosted canyons. One other car was parked there, with a young couple. The woman stood up on a wall above a sheer drop after the guy with her asked her to pose for a picture. Suddenly, he shoved her hard. Her arms windmilled for several seconds, and she almost fell. Somehow, she got her balance, yelled at him (he just stood there and watched her almost go over the edge), then they both got in the car and left. I was speechless. I know I had just watched that guy try to kill that girl. My companions never saw anything because they were looking at the amazing view." "On the second day of our vacation in Puerto Rico, my husband and I were excited to go to the local beach. There were some kite surfers, but no one was swimming in the ocean because the waves were pretty big. We wanted the ocean experience, so we went out, but only up to our knees. My husband started diving into the whitewater and encouraged me to as well. I grew up in CA and knew how to dive under waves, but I was nervous for some reason. I did it anyway. The third time I dove, I could no longer touch the ground when I came up because there was a drop off, and I was swept back into the bigger waves. I tried my hardest to swim towards shore, but the tide was too strong and I was now battling huge waves to stay alive." "Driving in Maui, I noticed a dump truck headed toward me, getting closer and closer to the lane line. I kept watch, and we passed each other with no incident. I looked in my rearview 10 seconds later, and it collided head-on with a car behind me in our lane." "I arrived at the airport in my long-distance girlfriend's country. I was traveling alone, and she was coming to pick me up. As I was leaving the airport, people aggressively tried to offer me rides (cabs, Uber, unlicensed, etc.), which I obviously declined. Then, one guy called out to me by name and said he was sent to pick me up. I called my girlfriend to ask about it. She freaked out and told me to return to the airport immediately until she arrived to get me. So, I guess I almost got kidnapped or something? I have no logical explanation as to how they knew my name." And: "I was about 11 years old while on vacation at the beach with my family. I was swimming in the ocean and got stuck in a rip current, which pulled me far from shore. My father came out to save me. As we were both succumbing to exhaustion and starting to drown, someone on a surfboard floated over and had us hold onto the board until lifeguards made it out to us. As we were catching our breath on the shore, we looked around for the surfboard person, but they were nowhere to be found." Have you ever been on a dream vacation that quickly turned into a nightmare? What happened? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Everything is uncertain now': Venezuelan travelers blindsided by travel ban
For Venezuelan travelers the past few days have been filled with uncertainty, fear and confusion — not to mention the financial toll. Since the Trump administration issued a travel ban barring nationals from 12 countries including Venezuela, Venezuelans both in and outside the U.S. have scrambled to reschedule flights — some moved them earlier, others delaying plans. Some wanted to arrive before the ban kicked in on Monday. Others wanted to waitto travel out of fear that Customs and Border Protection would be revoking visas. And for families that were hoping for reunification pending an upcoming appointment to get a visa, plans have been canceled. Among those who changed plans to beat the travel ban was José Malave and his family. READ MORE: What you need to know about Trump's travel ban on Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela Malave had booked a flight with his wife, Estefanía Ramírez, their 10-month-old baby, and his mother-in-law from Mexico City, where they currently reside, to New York City. The trip was meant to reunite his wife with her brothers, whom she hadn't seen in over a decade. The family had scheduled the trip six months in advance for June 12 — just three days after the travel ban was set to take effect. But on June 4, when the White House proclamation was made public, their plans were thrown into chaos. 'We moved our flight to June 8, a day before the travel ban took effect, terrified that once it started we wouldn't be allowed into the U.S.,' Malave said. 'We were scared and distressed, but luckily, we were able to enter without any issues at customs, though the financial impact has been huge.' The family had to spend an extra $800 to change the flights. Malave, 33, and Ramírez, 32, both computer programmers, are naturalized Mexican citizens. However, they travel using their U.S. tourist visas, which are stamped in their Venezuelan passports. Their 10-month-old son is a born Mexican citizen with a U.S. visa in his Mexican passport, while Ramírez's mother holds only Venezuelan citizenship. Malave expressed deep frustration with the abruptness of the travel ban — and he takes great offense to the implications it makes about Venezuelans. Trump's proclamation states that the measure is a way to protect the United States from terrorism and crime, and that the designated countries lack screening and vetting information for travelers. 'This proclamation affects everyone, no matter their background. It should've taken effect with more notice,' he said. 'People are interpreting it differently, and Venezuelans are caught in the middle.' He feels heartbroken, unsure of how to plan for the future. 'Everything is uncertain now. We had planned to spend Christmas in New York, maybe take our son to Disney — but those dreams are shattered. We don't even know if we'll be able to travel again on our Venezuelan passports.' 'We don't know when, or if, we'll see our family again. This is the reality Venezuelans face, even outside of Venezuela.' While Malave's family was able to reschedule their flights and reunite with their relatives, many others may never get the chance to reunite with their loved ones in the U.S. Karla Flores is a Venezuelan who has has lived in Woodbridge, Va., for the past three years. She planned to take her mother, Mercedes, from Venezuela to Spain in order to apply for a U.S. tourist visa, where the application process is faster than in Colombia. Since the Nicolás Maduro regime severed diplomatic relations with the United States in 2019 after President Trump, during his first term, recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president, the U.S. consular office for Venezuelan visa applications now operates out of Bogotá, Colombia. But it has a year-long backlog. Flores said her mother is living alone and struggling with health issues. Flores left Venezuela eight years ago—that was the last time she saw her mother, who is 75. Now the hope for a reunion seems lost. 'We have uncertainty and profound sadness,' Flores said. 'We don't understand why we have to go through this.' The U.S. State Department clarified on Sunday that the travel ban does not apply to individuals holding valid visas issued before June 9. However, for many Venezuelans with current tourist, business, or student visas, and flights scheduled just days away, the clarification came too late to ease their fears. Confusion and anxiety had already set in, with travelers uncertain about whether they would be denied entry at the border — or worse, have their visas revoked. Venezuelans living in Maracaibo, in the western state of Zulia—about 700 kilometers from Caracas—often travel overland for more than three hours to reach Colombian border cities before flying from Bogotá to U.S. destinations like Miami. There have been no direct flights between Venezuela and the United States since 2019, when the Trump administration suspended air service. As a result, what was once a three-hour flight from Caracas to Miami has become a costly and time-consuming journey, often taking longer than a flight to Europe. On Monday, Venezuelan passengers at Bogotá's airport reported unusually slow and thorough security screenings. Aleika Áñez, co-owner of Kunana Travel, a Venezuelan travel agency with 34 years of experience said her clients reported that there were delays leaving Colombian airports. 'A customer who traveled on Monday said the check-in process was more rigorous at the airline counter because they held Venezuelan passports,' she said but despite the uncertainty, many Venezuelans flying from Colombia to Miami have been able to enter the U.S. 'without incident.' Many are waiting to see how Venezuelans are treated at immigration checkpoints this week, she said. Several Venezuelan travelers told her they were rescheduling trips for later in the summer to see how the travel ban is implemented. Ultimately, entry to the U.S. ultimately depends on the discretion of customs officers.
