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Original poster

Where is the risk in going out for country walks?

239 replies

OatMilkAddict · 30/03/2020 00:01

I've been very careful to limit social interaction (apart from food shopping once per week for me and elderly family members isolating elsewhere), but I have been out walking for an hour or two most days since lockdown.
I head on foot to secluded woods and fields where I only rarely see people (and give them a wide berth if I do). I don't touch a thing while I'm out, nor sit down or brush against anything. As soon as I get home, I remove my shoes and wash my hands, phone and keys.
Without being goady, I am curious to hear from the most vehement "stay at home" advocates precisely how my daily walk is going to get me (or anyone else) sick, because I literally don't understand where the risk is!

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 30/03/2020 08:39

People post all sorts of crap as fact on here. Eg the number of people who think you need 6 months left on your passport to travel to any overseas country, when in fact many allow you to come and go up to the day of expiry, in normal circumstances of course.

TrojanWhore · 30/03/2020 08:41

I think a distance cut off will be imposed, precisely because of the attitude in the opening post.

The permitted exemption is to exercise, not tomtravel to a pretty place to exercise.

Some people are doing the 'climb the quivalent of Everest on your stairs' challengd. You don't actually have to go outside to exercise, so its not a given that the 'exercise' emotion will continue in place.

There is no listed exemption for 'travelling tona different location to exercise'. Mercifully people seem to have spooned rather less of it this weekend

1forsorrow · 30/03/2020 08:42

I think it is about commonsense. We have been isolated for over a week, exercise for my husband is very difficult. He is disabled and lives in constant pain, we were told 30 years ago that he would be in a wheelchair within 10 years. He is still walking albeit slowly and for short distances. It is important for him to keep pushing himself or he will be in that wheelchair.

What is the problem? Well we live on a steep hill, we don't have pavements. About 200 to 300 metres away there is a flat open area. On here I was told I would be killing people if I drove him those 200 or 300 metres. Now I can walk to that area and walk round it so we are talking about the round trip in a car of well under half a mile and that is going to kill people. I don't know how.

We haven't done it as we are worried about being reported and the police reaction but shouldn't commonsense indicate that we wouldn't be unreasonable to do that.

There seems to be a sort of collective hysteria that means commonsense has gone out of the window. We don't want to risk getting the virus as it would probably kill my DH so we wouldn't be doing anything silly but a 200 metre drive? I assume if he had an electric wheelchair to do the same journey it would be ok, if I had the muscle power to push him in a wheelchair it would be ok.

Things aren't always straightforward.

PutThemInTheIronMaiden · 30/03/2020 08:44

Under normal circumstances I walk every day - most days to the woods. As a prepper I don’t need to put myself at risk with loads of trips to the shops. I still walk once daily and safely.

1forsorrow · 30/03/2020 08:48

Is there a 2km limit, maybe you could link to it? I'd love it if that was true.

CassieAuLait · 30/03/2020 08:49

The problem in general is people going for walks in places that other people have thought of.

Read the threads in here from farmers and rural people who are saying that suddenly the paths in bridleways near them are crammed with folk, loads of extra people walking the dog past ewes about to lamb etc.

If it is genuinely deserted, fine. If busy, not at all fine

PineappleDanish · 30/03/2020 08:49

There is no risk in going out for a walk.

However, when lots of people all get in their cars and drive out into the country or to a local beauty spot, it gets crowded and people can't keep away from each other.

nannieann · 30/03/2020 08:50

As bigbluebus said, there are a lot more people out rurally than there are usually. Ideally don't touch gates, latches, or stiles. -there may have been an infected person through there 5 minutes before you and it is possible to pick the virus up from such surfaces. Take hand sanitiser with you and use it if you have to touch anything. As I understand it, you are able to walk from home for an appropriate length of time for you at the moment. Things could change in the future of course, there are tighter rules in other countries.

ErrolTheDragon · 30/03/2020 08:50

So even in rural areas it is quite important to minimise the time outside

If you start in a village, in many places the bit nearest home will have more likelihood of encountering others. Minimising contact is what's important, and how best to do that will vary according to location. If the Italian 200m limit was imposed it would make matters worse.

Nollett · 30/03/2020 08:50

DianaT1969 you’re allowed to go out for daily exercise. What’s your problem??

Do you work for Derbyshire Police? 😂

Put the Daily Mail down and get out for a walk - it’ll do you good

longearedbat · 30/03/2020 08:51

@1forsorrow Why would you love it?

VivaLeBeaver · 30/03/2020 08:54

I thought our daily exercising meant 1 hr max outside per person, per day

Why do you think that? There’s been no mention of time limits from anyone that I’ve seen.

Nollett · 30/03/2020 08:54

2km limit is Ireland I think.

DippyAvocado · 30/03/2020 08:55

There is nothing wrong with what you're doing if you live near the area concerned. I'm lucky enough to have a large area of woodland at the end of my street. We go there every day for a walk. There are always few other people from our village in there - we see maybe 6 or 7 other people if we are out for an hour, but the woodland is not dense and it's easy to keep out of other people's way.
There is no rule about walking outside so long as you observe social distancing while you are out and don't go to the tourist hotspots (I think most of them have been closed?).

fedup21 · 30/03/2020 08:59

If you aren’t driving to get there, what makes you think this isn’t allowed?!

PutThemInTheIronMaiden · 30/03/2020 09:00

Is there a 2km limit, maybe you could link to it? I'd love it if that was true.

I wouldn’t.

BarbaraofSeville · 30/03/2020 09:01

It's fascinating how so many people are making up so many 'rules' that they believe to be true when they have come from nowhere except their own imagination. I wonder if there's a name for such a phenomenon?

You could quite legitimately spend several hours outside each day, within the actual rules, even if you're not currently going to a job, if you do all of the things that you are allowed to do. As long as you keep away from other people, the chances of transmitting the virus is virtually zero.

Supermarket shopping - people are having to queue to get into the shop, your daily permitted exercise, plus helping others - we are currently picking up shopping for MIL and walking her dogs a few times a week as she is in the 12 week isolation group. This doesn't really count as exercise as they are tiny things and we are mainly taking them to run round a field a few minutes walk from her house.

1forsorrow · 30/03/2020 09:04

@1forsorrow Why would you love it? Because as I posted earlier my DH is disabled, he can't walk outside out house as we live on a hill plus there are no pavements so it isn't safe for him. I've been told on here if I drive him 2 or 300 metres up the road where there is a flat area where he could walk on I would be killing people. So if I can drive 2km that means he can get out.

StampMc · 30/03/2020 09:10

i gather though there are only a few people who are fortunate enough to live remotely and have unlimited access to the wild

What?

Millions of people have open land within minutes of their homes. The OP is talking about the woods next to her house, not “unlimited access to the wild”

OP, I’m still walking my dog on common land rather than patrolling him around the (much busier) pavements. I’m working in the NHS and am getting fed up with the hysteria of armchair fascists who are quite happy to have patients cough in my face at work but accuse my of literal murder for walking my dog in an empty field (not farmland, not mountain terrain, not touching gates, not worrying sheep, not blocking roads).

BarbaraofSeville · 30/03/2020 09:11

Ignore what you've been told, there's no factual basis for it. In the very unlikely event that you are questioned as to what you are doing having driven to the flat area, you'll be almost certainly left alone.

As long as this flat area is not crowded with other people, what you're doing is fine. What they don't want is lots of people driving miles to beaches or national parks leading to crowds of people from all over the place congregating in queues for fish and chip shops, like has been seen.

Driving a disabled person to a quiet flat area so they can safely take a walk, is almost certainly allowed, despite what some think.

Pleasedontdothat · 30/03/2020 09:12

Why on earth are you washing your phone and keys when you get home if you’ve not seen anyone or touched anything when you’re out?? There’s no possible way they could have got contaminated while you were out and actions like that just add to the general sense of hysteria and panic prevailing at the moment. Going for a walk as you describe is absolutely fine and no danger to you or anyone else, despite the frothing of some posters ...

Bigearringsbigsmile · 30/03/2020 09:13

I don't understand why people are so shocked that footpaths etc are busy.
There is fuck all else to do! Going for a walk is actually a bit dull but when you can't go to work, cant go to see friends or family, can't go to the gym, the cinema, the pub, the shops, can't buy the stuff needed to do projects at home then going for a walk is the holy bloody grail!

I think this relentless arguing about 'following the rules " and making up new more restrictive rules is all a way of people feeling like they have some control over the situation.

MarshaBradyo · 30/03/2020 09:13

No I can’t see anything wrong with it. No chance here in London but it’s totally different if it’s so remote.

1forsorrow · 30/03/2020 09:14

BarbaraofSeville, thanks for that. I would hope the police have your mindset and not like some on here but I do wish the govt would be clearer about the rules and some people, including police, are making up their own rules.

Peapod29 · 30/03/2020 09:14

Rural town here. People complaining to many people are in the park. We can walk out to foot paths but most are through farmland, people complaining that we shouldn't be walking through farms because farmers might get your germs from a gatepost. Lots of people just don’t want anyone to leave their homes at all even for permitted exercise. We will continue our short drive to our local forest to walk because there we see no one and it’s not farmland, and it’s not against the law. Im wondering why the local police aren’t stopping people in the park to check they haven’t driven there from surrounding villages. It’s a nice park. For some reason it’s the rural spots they like, it’s almost like they want to spend the day in the sunshine patrolling local beauty spots where they won’t see anyone.