13 March 2020 – Lockdown Day 1

I started this blog when we moved to Spain in 2006.  The objective was to keep our friends and family up to date with what we were doing in our new home in the lovely Jalon Valley.

We used it to record holidays and day trips, but mostly our exploration of the surrounding area.   This was mostly done with a local walking group, and later when we formed our twice weekly U3A walking groups.  It was mostly a visual record using photographs taken on the holidays or walks.

The blog soon became an important part of my weekly routine.  It usually took a day to sort out the photographs of the previous walk, then type up brief notes and finally publish the blog.

The sudden and unexpected Spanish Lockdown for the Coronavirus brought this pleasant life style to an end.

My initial reaction was just to suspend the twice weekly blog entries.   The whole subject of the Lockdown is pretty depressing, and there were no photographs to illustrate our new routine.

However I have reconsidered and hope that our experience might be just as interesting as the records of our weekly walks.   And it will help family and friends understand how we are coping with the new life style.

On Thursday 12 March fifteen of us met in Castells for our weekly walk.    It was a lovely sunny morning and we were all looking forward to the 14km circular walk.   Six hours later we sat in the bar discussing which walk to do next week.   We were not aware that this would be our last walk for some time.

We had been aware of the Corunavirus since January, when one couple from the group had cancelled a planned holiday to China.  

By mid February we were aware that it has spread to Europe, and particularly Italy.  We postponed booking our planned visit to the UK in June to see how it developed.    

On Friday morning we received an email from the Parcent town hall.   It confirmed that with all activities that take place in buildings and public spaces of the town hall, and all sports activities, are suspended.   It also recommended that everyone stay at home, and avoid bars or places with lots of people

Soon after we received an email from the U3A to confirm that all meetings and activities were suspended.  This would include our Monday Ramblers and Thursday Explorers walking group

There are 42 members between the two groups, about half are resident and the rest live in the UK or other parts of Europe.   Most of the non residents had returned home already.

We could have continued our weekly walks, this was a recommendation not a legal ban.   However we decided that it was more responsible to cancel both groups until the U3A changed its advice.

We were not aware, but in fact the Lockdown had begun.