by Mal Grey » Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:53 pm
For 6 Easters now, we've travelled to Scotland at Easter for our "Pirate Kids" canoeing adventures. Up until about a week ago, I thought we might still make it somehow, as we really do end up in the middle of nowhere (last year we didn't see another person for a whole 7 days, something I would have thought impossible but if you plan a daft enough route...).
As I read more and more about the situation, I realised things would have to change. For a day or two, I thought we might be able to rethink locations, risk and timings, and do something without impacting the local situation. But I came to realise this was probably impossible, and a few days ago, cancelled the trip. I was a bit gutted. Then I sat back and thought about it a bit. I'm having to cancel a long anticipated trip, but I will still get there at some point in the future. If we went, and somehow either carried the dreaded virus, or had an incident no matter how cautious we were, and this impacted the locals because we just wanted a holiday, how wrong is that!? Its just a holiday.
If we act sensibly now, and each stay local to home, I hope we'll still be able to make great use of our own local outdoors. Social distancing needs to become more seriously observed by some I've observed, but I've just been out for a wild camp overnighter (in Surrey) by canoe where we saw almost nobody, and kept a distance from each other. We chose a safe, familiar route, and had a great time in our local outdoors just a 4 miles from home. Each of us will hopefully have somewhere close to get outside without it being thronged by others; look at the map and try somewhere new. And for those who live in the hills, keep it safe, but make the most of your location sensibly, you lucky things.
If we don't observe the correct social distancing, and throng to our outdoor venues, be it parks or mountains en masse, then we will force lock down upon ourselves. Then I'll go quietly mad sat in my small 1 bed flat in town, desperately reading WH trip reports and canoeing blogs to keep (almost) sane whilst working from home.