Wednesday, May 13, 2020

12 May 2020 – Lockdown Day 61



Saturday 9 May
Lovely sunny morning, and it was very pleasant to be able to go for our daily walk.   Once more we were surprised how few people were doing so, in fact we didn’t see anyone else out at all.   Parcent is usually very quiet, even at the best of times.   And I don’t suppose it as any quieter than previously.   But we did expect that after such a long lockdown more people would want to take advantage of the sunny morning.

We move from Level 0 to Level 1 on Monday.   Good news, but if anything more confused than ever about what it will mean.   It seems clear that we will be able to go out in the car together.  And apparently we can drive anywhere in the region (whatever that may mean).   But no news about any extension to our walking limit of one km from the house

I wrote to the town hall this morning to ask if there are any plans to extend the distance.   At present I could run anywhere I wanted in the valley as “training”.   But if Jan and I walk together it must not be more than one km.   Perhaps if we walked faster we could call it “training”.

I do not have great hopes that we will be allowed to extend our daily walk.   But at least we will know the official answer when they reply, instead of relying on “experts” on Facebook.


Sunday 10 May
The more information that is released about Level 1 the more confused I become.    And from what I hear on UKTV the situation is pretty similar over there too.

We are reasonably happy with the current situation.  The weather is very pleasant and we can go for a daily walk each day.   True we could prefer to be able to walk a little further, and perhaps even drive to the start of the walk.  But it is a huge improvement on house confinement for six weeks.

There is talk that bars will open from Monday, though only the outside area and half the tables that were allowed pre lockdown.   There is also a lot of talk that it will not be worth the expense of opening them in such conditions.  And that is before you take into account that a lot of (particularly older) people will not want to share a table in a bar with a load of strangers, even if it is outside.   Jan and I are certainly of that opinion at present.

Monday 11 May
Another lovely morning, and another very pleasant walk.

We had a very polite reply from the town hall to our email.  They are asking for further advice on a number of queries raised as a result of moving to Level 1, including our query about whether we can walk more than 1 km from the house.   As I anticipated, the town hall are just as confused as the rest of us.

But I am impressed that at least they are asking for further clarification.

Tuesday 12 May
The town hall replied, and we are allowed to go hill walking! 

They have confirmed that we can walk further than one km from the house because we are “practising an outdoor sport such as trekking”.   They even confirm that we could walk up to Col de Rates as an example.

We were really expecting a prompt “no” to our query, and are so excited that we can do some real walking now.   We will still have to start from the house, and can not drive to the start of a walk.  But there are a lot of options for many walks such as Jalon, Alcalali and Lliber.

I have now posted this week’s Lockdown Walking Video on YouTube.   You will find it here




No comments:

Post a Comment