To wonder what all the walkers would usually be doing

[CloseSchoolsProtecttheNHS]

I live in a small village near a lovely green open space for walks. I walk every single day and have done since I moved here many years ago. It's always been very quiet - many, many times I've been the only person out and have walked for an hour+ and not seen a soul.

Since Covid - and particularly since the summer - it's been mobbed! I'm dodging people constantly when out walking and although the size of the space means I can keep 2 metres away, I now often have groups of people behind, in front and to the sides of me which makes me a bit uncomfortable. Most are considerate but some are arseholes that want to brush past you so you have to be aware and it's a lot less relaxing. I'm pretty sure that they are local people as it's not a 'day out' place or anywhere people would know about let alone go to, and it's nice that more local people are out walking but... why have they all just discovered walking? It's not like it was a closely guarded secret before and we are quite rural. What would they normally be doing (for example today on a Saturday afternoon) that they now can't do that leaves walking as their only option??

(Yes I do kind of wish they'd bugger off and yes IABU for that as I don't own this piece of land! But mostly I'm just really perplexed as to why so many people are now out walking!)

This can't be a serious question!

@CloseSchoolsProtecttheNHS, what do you think people could or should be doing right now on a Saturday afternoon instead of walking?

@megletthesecond are you really so bloody stupid that you don't think people walk in other places than locally when it's not a pandemic? I work in the city, on the very rare occasion I need to access my office I go there and guess what ITS EMPTY! Because everyone is working from home .....therefore the lunchtime walk is around their home, they'd normally take their exercise at lunch time but because they can't travel, they don't. People will get off the tube a stop earlier to walk to their office and get their exercise and vitamin d!

You need to research what vitamins are required to be able to make you think logically and be a better person. Maybe you'll be a bit nicer after this? I doubt it though, you sound awful.

Honestly, these people that think they own the local walking areas, I bet it's the same ones that think people shouldn't park on the road outside their house.

What, so due to necessity people have discovered the pleasures of walking because it's practically the only thing you can go out and do atm....and you somehow think that's a bad thing OP? How unbelievably selfish and small-minded. How can you think that people doing more outdoor exercise is anything other than positive?!

And as for your faux-ignorance about why this could be and about what other activities those people would possibly be doing normally instead.... fgs. This is just another one if those "AIBU to not get why people x,y or z?" where the OP pretends to 'genuinely' not understand things other people do or like, but is really just gleefully looking down on them.

Every sport and leisure activity under the sun OP, they are walkers, swimmers, yoga people, boxers, body pumpers, sailors, treadmill in the gym-ers, cadets, volunteers, choristers, guide leaders, darts players, racing track drivers. Walking is fab and funnily enough most people (like) you do it all year round, just not necessarily every day or hyper locally 😊

Bonkers question OP.

Jeez, I used to think that worrying that seasoned runners looked down on me for being a slightly wheezy, fat arsed jogger, was my innate paranoia....now I realise all the holier and more lycra-ed than thou running and walking wankers,dothink I am a lesser mortal, who probably spends half their run lurking in a bush for a sneaky vape and a Greggs whilst planning my next shopping trip to Poundland.

I run all the time.if I see someone else running, it makes me happy that they enjoy the same thing!

What the hell else are people supposed to do during the lock down?

Going for a walk is the only way for a lot of people to get outside. Not everyone has a garden or is going out to work.

@Changemaname1

Gee I just can’t Possibly think what could have happened to mean that people’s only real option for recreation outside of the home is to go for a walk

Hmmmm

Nope am as stumped as you op

Quite.

This is one of the stupidest OPs I have read on here for ages, and that's saying something.

You just carry on being "perplexed" dear

Of course there’s nothing much else to do other than walk at the moment.

But.... all the same slightly galling that everyone has jumped on my hobby! I imagine others would feel the same if going outdoors had been banned and suddenly 20,000 people had joined the local gym.

I always enjoyed a good walk but I also enjoy the gym so I wouldn’t normally be out for as long as I am now. I would be at the gym before and the walk would be to work off any aches of a weekend.

Also you can’t see anyone so getting out even if it is just a walk is some people’s way of looking after their mental health.

I hope that the appreciation for parks and open spaces will have increased due to the pandemic and maybe people will appreciate them more after.

Well as there’s not much else to do and nowhere to go people are walking. I’m not working from home I’m just doing the same as before & walking our puppy but I’ve not seen many more folk out but I think that’s more due to the route we take than anything else tbh. I’m lucky to live somewhere with loads of lovely scenic walks so I don’t always do the same one - I don’t always have the pup yet either as some are too far. And everyone I’ve met has stayed away but been friendly. Didn’t cross my mind there would be crabbit folk stomping about moaning because there are people outside walking. It’s nice to see people out and about more with kids:dogs etc.

OP hasn't returned

Are you surprised I think her and her false naivety can't handle the responses.

Hopping on the tube for half an hour to explore / shop / go to a restaurant / see a play / visit a museum or gallery. Used to do that probably two weekends out of three.

@megletthesecond

Walking around shopping centres drinking coffee 🤷‍♀️.

Im always out running and walk everywhere and am fascinated by everyone suddenly discovering their outdoor legs. I wonder how deficient in vit d they must usually be. Maybe everyone will be healthier after this, but I doubt it.

You've managed to sound both smug and ignorant in the same sentence!

@UntamedWisteria

Similar situation to you OP.

As one of my neighbours said to me, when the outlet malls reopen they will disappear again.

Lovely thinly veiled contempt for people who enjoy shopping as a leisure activity.

There's not just people who love the outdoors and rambling vs people whose sole entertainment is walking round the shops.
The vast majority are in the middle and would normally be at sports clubs, dance classes, playing tennis, visiting family or friends, eating out, going to the pub, doing any number of hobbies that they can't currently do.

I would be walking

Ive always walked, I've walked to friends houses, I've walked to the village for shopping, I've walked to the village to meet friends for coffee etc

Sometimes, just sometimes (and i just know this will blow your mind) i just went for a walk

Sometimes it was two walks a day...i know !!

Don't worry OP.
This is the weekend that most people end.up breaking their NY resolutions, so you will soon have the countryside back to yourself.
They will all go back to sofa surfing and takeaways.
Gyms in January ate usually chocabliock in January for the same reason. It annoys the he'll out of the regular gym bunnies.
Apparently

I enjoy shopping for recreation. Window shopping, I suppose, but if I see something I like and can afford, I'd get it while I'm out. I like wandering around the shops and just seeing what's on offer, with people around and possibly finding something nice to eat or take home. I find it calming.

I am indeed a lesser and inferior human being, but that's not why. I've got much better stuff than that.

Gosh people are rude. OP is asking what sort of activities people used to do. Not why they are not doing them.

Op and those who are going through this noble struggle...I found this poem, think it might be a long lost Wordsworth or Pam Ayres or something.
Smugness and Solitude
I wandered lonely as a cloud
But then my route became a crowd
Of novice runners with puffing wheeze
And groups of teens dressed to freeze.
The group's of women, sipping lattes,
Missing shopping outlet sorties.
The children walking, oh so slowly
...they made me sigh and made me fret
At their sheer lack of etiquette
But on I ploughed with my faithful hound
Covering MY hallowed ground
Praying for the day when, don't think me rude,
I could walk in my smugness and my solitude.

Everywhere else is shut and there’s nothing else to do or nowhere else to exercise. What do you expect?

Our 2 little fluffy dogs are spoilt, yapping, nervous little shits so we walk them in remote woodland and fields near home and we picnic in all weathers. Now those isolated places are full of intolerant, rude, nervous-of- dogs people, in their new, pristine outdoor gear, who shout at us about out of control dogs because they bark when they see other humans. We put their leads on whenever we see people coming. Should we gag them too?

@ParlezVousWronglais

Gosh people are rude. OP is asking what sort of activities people used to do. Not why they are not doing them.

Both questions are equally daft and disingenuous.

@megletthesecond really? We have a dog so always walked, but dc used to play a lot of sport so they would be doing that at weekends and we would take dog or walk nearby some of the time. Now we all walk locally.

Incidentally you can’t get vit d in uk at this time of year