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In case you missed it, the LDWA's National Committee has now achieved the go-ahead from Sport England and the LDWA insurance broker to allow attendances of up to 30 on social walks. This doesn't mean, of course, that we're bouncing back into a pre-Covid world. It's up to leaders to decide how many they can deal with on a walk - and rightly so, considering that extra attendees means extra admin.
Are only primary members allowed on walks now numbers have increased? Not necessarily - again, it's for the walk leader to manage numbers and whether associate or non-members can attend. Primary members must take priority if social walks are over-subscribed. But while we're not yet returning to the good old times of just clicking onto the walks programme or flipping through Strider for something that takes your fancy and then just turning up on the day, maybe we are what you might call seeing light at the end of the tunnel (while hoping - here comes the ancient joke - that it's not that of an oncoming train).
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Light at the end of the tunnel?
Corinne Thompson snapped this during a walk with friends that included Knowle Park
Group Focus - London Group photos wanted!
London Group will be featuring in Group Focus in the next issue of Strider, with a wonderful and informative article written by Colin Saunders. Do you have any photos, not just recent, of social walks and/or group activities that would make a good accompaniment? If so, please could you mail them to me at juliewelch@btinternet.com .They would need to be at least 1Mb in file size and preferably larger. And if they're from before the days when everyone had a camera on their mobile, I'd be most awfully grateful if you would go to the bother of scanning them and, again, sending them to the email address above.
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Help! When and where was this taken, and by whom? If you've got the original large file size photo, I'd love to have it
Here's another photo I'd like to put a date and a credit to. I suspect it's one of Ron Williamson's Tarmac Walkers Club enterprises and that this might be Crystal Palace Park. Ideas, anyone?
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Ad hoc path closures
London Group member Steve Garnsey writes:
'I recently encountered a bridleway blocked off by the owners of the land it went over on the grounds of coronavirus. The following day I saw a polite sign near a property asking walkers to keep their distance and not touch or stand on a gate to a horse paddock, for fear of spreading the virus through surfaces. So that’s made me wonder if such closures and requests are happening further afield?
'The blocked path, by the way, was near Hindhead and the route of the Surrey group’s Punchbowl Marathon. The notice said the highway authority (Surrey County Council) was aware of blockage. There were pleasant alternative routes for horseriders, cyclists and walkers. I was able to speak (amicably, I hasten to add) with the landowners and they said the reason was to protect three vulnerable people aged 70 and over who live beside the path. The closure will only be for the duration of the Covid-19, they said. Maybe some tolerant give-and-take has to be accepted these days given the nature of coronavirus.
'But … reading between the lines in what I see through my job as an international business journalist and listening to what scientists are saying in news interviews, I think we can expect some form of restrictions for a good while to come. Companies are beginning to state they’ll aim to operate as closely to normal as possible with Covid-19 protocols in place for however long it takes. Given the time it’ll take for the majority of the population to have had a coronavirus vaccine, if one’s developed, I take it that we’ll have 18 more months of restrictions at least before any return to a pre-coronavirus lifestyle is possible.
'Are ad hoc path closures one of the consequences?
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Steve was also interested to see last week's photo, taken by Bola Baruwa, of the ‘German’ plane hanging from a tree in the Abinger area.
'I first saw it early in 2013 when my wife and I retraced parts of the London 100. It was looking worse for wear then, obviously having been out for a winter or two. It was looking much worse when I went past on the Founder’s Challenge last October. Yet it’s not yet "crash landed", judging by Bola’s picture. Amazing.'
Amazing, indeed. Could it, in its way, become as recognisable a landmark on the Founders Challenge route as the Peaslake Post Office or Tanners Hatch?
Memory lane
Trawling through my photo collection recently, I happened on this one, taken some seventeen years ago. At the time, the LDWA was still struggling to rebuild its membership base after the hiatus caused by the Foot & Mouth outbreak, and the National Committee booked a stall at the Outdoors Show in Birmingham. As I recall, it wasn't money very well spent - we probably notched up two new joiners, despite giving away an enormous number of free Striders. But it's a great reminder of Ann Sayer's dedication to working for the cause.
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Ann Sayer helping to spread the word at the Outdoors Show
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