Can we drive to an area for a walk?

[Swissrollypoly]

Or is it like last time when you had to walk/exercise in your local area.
I want to be able to take my toddler on a walk in the woods that’s a 15 min drive from us.

The guidelines have been updated to say you can travel a short distance to exercise. Short last time seemed to mean for most people, walking for longer than you are driving. Those with particular needs it would mean travelling further is ok if it is to a regularly visited familiar place to maintain routine.

@Underhisi

The guidelines have been updated to say you can travel a short distance to exercise. Short last time seemed to mean for most people, walking for longer than you are driving. Those with particular needs it would mean travelling further is ok if it is to a regularly visited familiar place to maintain routine.

That's interesting

You should avoid travelling in or out of your local area, and you should look to reduce the number of journeys you make. However you can and should still travel for a number of reasons, including:

travelling to work where this cannot be done from home
travelling to education and for caring responsibilities
hospital GP and other medical appointments or visits where you have had an accident or are concerned about your health
visiting venues that are open, including essential retail
exercise, if you need to make a short journey to do so

A change from this morning.

The "essential" wording has gone.

@ChangingStates

That's why PP brother would have been ok to cycle but not drive to the local park.

Some would argue he’s more likely to be injured from cycling than driving....

These ‘details’ are just exhausting. They let the people decide on Brexit but won’t let them even have an opinion that has any standing on lockdown.

Covid has brought the worst out in so many people, the worst recently being the Welsh government sectioning off areas of the supermarket. You can’t make this stuff up.

All the lockdown details are on gov.uk
Under 'Staying safe outside the home' it says you can visit the countryside (only with your household/bubble).

They’ve added travelling for exercise is ok. Yay some common sense.

Always some people pushing their luck. A friends partner who was furloughed and bought an electric bike around the time of lockdown. So initially when most people were just going outdoors for an hours exercise a day (he was driving 30-40 miles each way) and then spending 6-8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. He was cycling up and down fells, coming down at a very fast pace (he posted videos and frequently fell off but only minor injuries and fortunately didn’t require medical or hospital treatment) he passed through tiny little villages and covered a great many miles (bragging on FB about how many miles he’d covered).

Always some people pushing their luck

Some people's "pushing their luck" is others "totally allowed within the guidelines".

Guidance says you can have a short drive to exercise, so yes.

@Noideawottodo

Always some people pushing their luck

Some people's "pushing their luck" is others "totally allowed within the guidelines".

Exactly. The amount of made up rules that some people expected others to stick to were unreal.

There was no limit on how long you were allowed to exercise, how many times you could go to the shops or what you could buy, so people complaining about others 'breaking the guidelines' by going on a 2 hour walk, going to the shops twice a week or buying a newspaper were talking out of their arse.

It was the 'if you drive anywhere your car might break down and then the garage will all get Covid" people who were the most nuts.

Did he get and spread covid cycling up and down fells even for hours?...seems very low risk to me!

There was never a one hour rule for exercise.

It may not have been in the ‘spirit of lockdown’ but if someone wanted to go out and had the time and inclination to exercise for hours on end then that wasn’t against any rules.

I went out for walks/exercise several times a day. We are still on one of the lowest parts of the country for cv, so clearly my walking didn't create a massive second wave here.

@Quaagars

Avoid all non essential travel, so I'd have thought driving to exercise somewhere away from where you live would class as non essential travel.

I'd say walking in woods and other places of nature is essential for many people's mental health 🤷🏻‍♀️

We'll certainly be going to our usual haunts for walks. We won't be interacting with anyone else while we are there so I can't see the harm. It's not like we are driving all the way to Barnard Castle for an eye test.

@Underhisi

The guidelines have been updated to say you can travel a short distance to exercise. Short last time seemed to mean for most people, walking for longer than you are driving. Those with particular needs it would mean travelling further is ok if it is to a regularly visited familiar place to maintain routine.

Thank goodness. A 10 minute drive to walk for 1-2 hours seems reasonable, and as a previous poster said the risk of an accident is lower than if cycling, which boomed in the last lockdown.

In the last lockdown I didn't drive my car for 6 weeks. Then I realised everyone else had been driving theirs around every now and then in order to maintain the car and the tyres etc. That also entails some risk. The key is to minimise the risk, so don't drive to some ILs at the opposite end of the country with suspected CV.

@caringcarer

This is so stupid. There is always someone claiming their child is so precious they don't have to follow the rules. We would all prefer to walk in beautiful secluded woods rather than walking around a housing estate but it won't kill anyone to just do as they are bloody told and only drive for food if you can't have it delivered, for medicine, care duties or to flea abuse. Those reasons have got to be more important, thetefore walk locally. Our council has written letters begging residents not to risk spreading virus further and to please consider exercising at home on exercise bike if at all possible. We got this letter yesterday morning so before national lockdown announced. This is serious not some stupid game of I am allowing my child to do whatever they want. I hope the police do start fining people who break rules, that is the only way some will learn the rules are for everyone's best interest.

This post aged very quickly, eh?

Absolutely. We must only eat cold food in case we burn ourselves while cooking, and nothing from a tin in case you accidentally slash your wrists while opening it. It's important not to wash as you could drown in the bath or slip in the shower. We must not do anything to cause strain on the NHS!

SoloMummy is probably planning on lowering herself into an iso-tank to hang motionless there until 2 Dec. Or maybe not as that would make it difficult to stand at the window curtain-twitching the neighbors.

So where is everyone going to go and buy all these exercise bikes?

They'll get them delivered, of course, just like Caringcarer is urging people to get their food delivered if possible. Because it's okay for delivery people to drive about, just not anyone else.

Our council has written letters begging residents not to risk spreading virus further and to please consider exercising at home on exercise bike if at all possible. We got this letter yesterday morning so before national lockdown announced

This seriously cannot have happened unless that poster's council is run by people as batshit as she is.

@BarbaraofSeville

Our council has written letters begging residents not to risk spreading virus further and to please consider exercising at home on exercise bike if at all possible. We got this letter yesterday morning so before national lockdown announced

This seriously cannot have happened unless that poster's council is run by people as batshit as she is.

Ikr??! What a waste of money if true, which I find hard to believe

Dear Resident of La La Land, We are responding within seconds to all of you. We are begging you to stay in your spare bedroom with your exercise bike.
Please press button A and a new bike will fly throught your covid proofed window.

Many thanks, the Council.

One of my friends is insisting that one hour exercise was mentioned during Boris presser on Saturday. I listened and don’t remember hearing it. I know last time it wasn’t a requirement / in guidance / in legislation just just mentioned in passing during the press conference.

Did anyone hear it this time? It’s really annoying me now (but not enough to want to watch the thing again!)

The guidelines say “you can and should travel ... to visit venues that are open”.

That “should” is interesting, no?

And they’ve been quite specific about allowing public pay-to-enter gardens to stay open.

So we should all drive to visit National Trust properties and the like, excellent.

"Can we drive to an area for a walk?"

Yes, by law you can. But bear in mind that some public areas are the personal fiefdoms of some Mumsnetters and they may treat you with hostility for breathing their open air and walking where there may want to walk later, thus putting them in mortal danger.