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IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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We were supposed to go to Snowdonia next Thursday. We booked a place with Sykes. They don't do refunds but the email we got from them today says:
"We are not in a position to enforce any travel restrictions across the UK; however, we strongly advise against UK travel until the end of April"
"We have stopped taking bookings for arrivals between now and the 4th June"
"We continue to offer free amendments [...] for travel up to and including 4th June."
@Rosie - Blackford is right to bring this up. Kate Forbes too.
This all comes from the 'back to the futurism' where the 'spirit of the blitz' is evoked when people left London to the quieter corners of Greater Brittania.
Will they close the Skye Bridge to tourists I wonder (particularly campervan, caravanners)? The actual border may also be a monitoring point too (eg campervans). This I'm afraid would mean tourists from here couldn't do reverse trips to quiet bits of England or Wales either. (sorry @bill as when you work non stop holidays are the thing that keeps you going!).
No one community or country has the answer but it looks like travelling 'needs' to be made less attractive for a while. EU has borders up everywhere for this emergency I think.
Our South African lodger from last year elected to stay in south. Mrs LB and I are relieved as he would have had to quarantine really for us to be sure.
Our mountaineering club has stopped all its organised activities, and is about to change the advice on using the club hut (near Inverness) from "Club members can use it if they clean it really thoroughly" to "consider it closed".
I'm a little conflicted - I can't see the infection risk in driving to a hill, climbing it, and driving home again without interacting with anyone. I guess the argument is that things might happen that you don't expect - to you on the hill or to your car on the road - and not doing that removes the (very small) risk.
Hi Fimm, yes the hills are in remote areas without infra so people are being asked to keep away. May need roadblocks.
Also total ban as each individual may think ok to go to beach / second home/ camper van but instruction is not to travel. YOu needs pass now in Paris
Tyningham Beach, Blackness Castle, Arthur's Seat, Pentlands all hoaching yesterday.
The English National Trust opened its gardens for free and now has to close them again.
I'm going to exercise around Murrayfield and Coates and Merchiston streets.
@gembo - I can see that happening here as well.
Sheesh Rosie you got around the entire Lothian yesterday :-)
“ Sheesh Rosie you got around the entire Lothian yesterday :-)”
Maybe spent all day on the internet...
@gembo So Facebook tells me...
@chdot - You know me well.
It is a bit worrying that some people think we are 2 weeks behind Italy virus wise which certainly seems to be the case when you look at the deaths. When told to social distance the Italians done what Britons are doing now with a lot of people just ignoring it.
Hoping to be wrong but I suppose we'll find out in a few weeks.
Stay apart and stay safe everyone.
@fimm: Glencoe Mountain Rescue posted this over on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/glencoemountainrescueteam/posts/2830501763703272
"In these exceptional times Glencoe Mountain Rescue must make some difficult choices.
In these circumstances, as leader of GMR, my FIRST priority is Glencoe Rescue team members safety.
My SECOND priority is to help stricken mountaineers.
With that in mind, if you call 999 and ask for MR, we will address your call as normal, however...
IF you are uninjured, lost, benighted, you will asked to consider waiting until morning, and/or better visibility to extricate yourself.
IF you are “walking wounded” you will be asked to consider extricating yourself from the mountain.
IF you are seriously injured, and/or can not physically get yourself off the hill, we will attend.
We will attend with the BARE MINIMUM of team members to complete the task, to subject fewer members to risk, which means your journey off the hill, in a stretcher for example or from difficult rocky terrain, will take longer and be less straightforward.
Helicopter support will only be requested if a time critical injury is sustained ie head injury, femur, and pelvis injuries etc.
This is contradictory to everything we believe in, but I must look after team members in order for them to help casualties who really need it.
Team members have; old relatives, infant babies, self employment stopped due to the COVID-19 virus and I will not risk their lives or livelihood.
Also we must consider that WE may infect YOU!
I would ask all visitors to the mountains to think very carefully about their actions, and to observe government guidelines on where to exercise in the outdoors, i.e. IN YOUR LOCAL AREA!
The NHS facilities in the Highlands may not have capacity to admit you if they are otherwise occupied.
Many Thanks for your understanding, stay safe and help us all stay healthy.
Andy Nelson. Leader, Glencoe MR"
Yes, that's the general advice coming from all mountaineering organisations - stay local, stay well within your safety zone (what one person can do safely is different to another person).
There's an article in the latest edition of the "Scottish Mountaineer" magazine about an accident and rescue - the victim fell off a plank bridge alongside a loch and broke his leg. Accidents can happen in very innocuous situations.
@fimm who was the famous mountaineer that did all sorts of daredevil stuff but died falling off a rather innocuous boulder?
Yes we have learnt nothing from Italy. People in capitalist countries expect freedoms. THe crackdown cam more quickly in totalitarian regimes
Around this time a year ago my friend and I went for a chilled ride in the Pentlands - or at least I was chilled! Coming down Maiden's Cleuch my friend came off his bike and ripped most of his elbow off. He went to minor injuries and had it cleaned and dressed but he was admitted a few days later with an infection. Fairly eye-opening to see how an innocuous scrape could develop into something a bit more serious.
Despite the slight escalation all is well now and I don't think either of us feel like we did anything irresponsible. However, if the same thing happened now I'd be feeling pretty bad. While we do need to keep exercising, I think we all have a responsibility to risk assess our activities a lot more strictly now. This isn't just about philanthropically reducing the burden on hospitals - there's an increasing chance they will simply not have capacity to deal with injuries in a timely fashion, which increases the risk of complications and long term harm.
(Of course, that's before even considering the possibility that you could be infecting any medical staff you come in contact with while this is all going on, or vice versa!)
I have seen a couple of messages from people saying they'll go out and if they come to harm they'll deal with it themselves or die trying, so anything they do is fine. This is of course total nonsense - the self-preservation instinct is a lot stronger when you're facing death rather than a computer keyboard. And if they do manage to stick to it, there's no way that anyone else who comes across them are going to take any notice of the dying casualty's delirious protestations before immediately calling for help.
How local is local? I could easily ride to any point in the Pentlands on my mtb for a quick bivvy trip, would that be irresponsible?
Emphasis on the any point since I'd be looking to go further west than most folk bother.
Will be like France, Spain and Italy next week so dont really matter
I don't know the definition of local. I imagine short car journey - but how short is short?
I have run from my flat near Tynecastle to Glencorse Reservoir and back. 25km round trip. But I started at my front door so it counts as "local"? Or not?
Yeah thats a toughy.
@gembo I reckon I could be out my house and on the WOL path before the old bill realised, they're not likely to start patrolling the hills.
Fined if you are caught
@fimm your running will be restricted to balcony only next week
I fancy going up and down my stairs but leaves me short of breathe these days.
Still got plenty wood to chop
It isn't just the British...
Mr fimm tells me that Germany has just banned people going out in groups of more than two - because people in Southern Germany were holding "Corona parties".
...
The mind boggles.
"Local" for the northern MRT teams probably means 'not in our patch'. I wonder if 'in range of your local hospital' makes sense given that part of the problem is rural hospitals not being scaled for thousands of urban visitors. Altitude and remoteness probably come into it too, and not driving maybe helps as there's no risk of congregating at car parks.
My experience over the last week has been that social distancing at close quarters is a bit of a nonsense - I'm sure trying your best helps (although lots aren't even managing that) but you naturally do just end up getting close to people unless you're physically separated. As a result, like gembo says, I suspect a ban on all nonessential travel is coming. So local will slowly come to mean 'round the block' and then 'your balcony, maybe.'
Apparently now can’t drive to Harlaw or Thriepmuir. You can walk or cycle tho.!!
Sensible as avoids car park congregating (and also car-sharing across households.) Still will be a popular area though.
I cycled the WoL yesterday and it was pretty chocka. OK on a bike maybe as you are passing everyone quite swiftly but is there much difference between one family keeping 2m behind another family for a while and being next to each other in a cafe? I did not feel like it was an experience I should be repeating for a while.
Ferries to Orkney & Shetland no longer allowing travel by people heading north for social or leisure/holiday purposes. Which seems kind of sensible given that the air ambulance to Aberdeen is a not hugely common occurrence from the North Isles in ordinary times... Loganair say they can't do the same unless the government requires it.
23rd tomorrow: time to Skidoo?
23rd today @crowriver, 24th tomorrow. I think we are Skidood already
Oh yeah. For some reason I thought we were still on 22nd.
23rd it is then: end times.
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