Lockdown: Day 63 - 25/05/20

When Spring Bank Holiday Monday comes around, I've no desire to head out for another 3 hour trip in the locality as the day looks like it's going to be a proper hot one, and every one of this last week's excursions have left me feeling completely zonked, as if I've gotten out of practice with the walking routine after two months off it during some of the best weeks of the season, so perhaps it's just as well that I've no plans to bust the season open any time soon, as I've got a good few weeks of local trails to pace as lockdown eases. Thus, I'll take the relaxed option that won't leave me feeling gassed once the time to return to work comes around, picking out the Trainspotting variant of the Social Distancing Circuit, and timing so that I might be in a good location to capture all four of the Nova services as they pass on the Trans-Pennine route, now that we've had a timetable change and it looks like full services have been restored between Leeds and Manchester, and that provides an amiable stretch for 75 minutes, pacing among the greenery and blossom that has come, and gone, over the preceding nine weeks. I hope that will be my last time out on the local SDC, as the optimistic half of my brain hopes that and easing of lockdown might allow for some longer local trips and a bit of weekend public transport usage as we slip towards summer, though the pessimistic other half of me worries that this is where July and August could easily end up again if a second spike in Corona Virus infection occurs, as it well might. Anyway, a week off has been a grand time to focus on getting my numbers back in order, having worked through the paper record of my walking which I started in the 2017 off-season, and have abandoned and re-started twice over since then, re-doing all the calculations to ensure that the stats that I present are correct, and after much hard work, the revision session is complete, and the numbers presented here from now on will be as correct as they'll ever be. My Up Country total proved to have the fewest issues, having been short by 4 miles since its initial calculation in 2014, while my Overall total turned out to have been short by 4 miles since 2013 (meaning that my 1,000 mile gain points and the sum of 1402.2 miles for my first three years were both wrong), before somehow losing another 15.1 miles in 2018, while my Solo total became my cursed number, having no fewer than six addition errors along its course, ending up at 19.5 miles ahead of reality.

 A Nova 3 unit at Morley on the Scarborough - Manchester service.

A Nova 1 in the White Rose cutting on the Liverpool - Newcastle service.

Of course there's a lot more work to be done with this paper journal, like all the timings and durations of my 370+ walking excursions, but with the core information finally completed, I can feel a small sense of satisfaction at having mut my week off to good use, putting a nice chunk of time and activity doing my own thing in the way of going to work, which I've happily left in the deep recesses of my mind for most of the last 10 days, only thinking about it again as we face down what the reality of an eased lockdown might look like when we return next week. I'm sure work will be the usual knot of business and frustration that it has already been, and it's more the prospect of travelling that would get me feeling worried, but having seen the 16.17 train out of Leeds drop off very few people at Morley during one of my trainspotting exploits last week, my immediate anxiety about having to face potential crowds has eased somewhat, and I'm not too fussed about the shopping situation either, having done two trips to Morley Morrisons, making best use of the NHS workers' hour yesterday too, doing a proper re-stock so that I might be ready for siege conditions if they do come round again. It' interesting that when you fill your days with your own activity, and eschew interaction with other people and media, that you can completely lose your perspective on what's happening with the Corona Virus pandemic and relaxation of the UK's national lockdown, and I actually have to go digging to find out the death toll, which at below 37,000 shows the first real sign of decrease, despite the many statements claiming it beforehand, though it's still way higher that where I'd consider the wisdom of throwing the population back into the mix. Indeed, the media seems more consumed by the tale of the PM's senior advisor, the one who looks like Clarence Boddicker out of Robocop, and his lockdown breaching cross-country odyssey to seek childcare, whilst having been Covid-19 positive, which throws into harsh relief that impression that there's a rule for them, and another for the rest of us, as if you didn't believe that already, which is a sad indictment of the manners and the times. Still, eased lockdown or not, I've no plans to be pressing the walking career back to where I wanted it to be in 2020, and I'll be avoiding the throngs as they return to the streets, shops and parks over the coming weeks, as an instinct towards self-preservation has to be prominent as these strange and febrile times continue, and I hope that this blog might be able to return to its original purpose, placing walking tales ahead of commentary on an unprecedented global health crisis, but right now, I'm not going to make any projections, as the social acid tests continue.


Walks: Morley Social Distancing Circuit - Trainspotting Variant. Walked: 25/5
2.5 miles, via Valley Mills, White Rose, Broad Oaks, and Daisy Hill.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4418 miles
2020 Total: 151.5 miles
Up Country Total: 3955 miles
Solo Total: 4103.8 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3011.8 miles

Next Up: Another local Short Circuit, to the East.