test
test
According to my watch, and farmers, a storm is coming. That’s why they are busy trying to harvest all the grain before it hits.
At this time of year you can watch the combine harvesters harvesting all the fields and collecting grain. You can then see tractors following up and gathering what they leave on the fields and making plenty of bails.
I can’t focus so I’m cutting this post short.
It has been at least four or five years since my last meetup. A few years ago I went to meetups with people from Geneva and before that to Glocals events with people from Lausanne and Geneva. I stopped meeting people from Lausanne because I was working night shifts as a deicer and I stopped going to meetups with the Geneva meetup groups because of my broken arm. The pandemic then happened and I went for years without going to meetups.
Since then people have chosen to live with the risk of COVID rather than masking and getting to COVID zero so I have had no choice but to compromise on my values by doing things with people in the physical world once again. Of course I will only do outdoor things. I am not going to go indoors when there are constant flare ups of COVID, especially when the pandemic is not tracked, to sell the lie that the pandemic is not over.
Having said this going to a meetup event, to be with people, after five years of social isolation felt good. I didn’t feel any different than when I was being social in person two to three days a week for years in the pre-deicing and pandemic days. I couldn’t be social when working as a deicer because I was working night shifts and people were heading out just as I tried to go to sleep before waking at 2am for a 4am shift start.
I arrived half an hour early, and had time to park with ease, and wait for the group. In the process I heard church bells ringing for many minutes before eventually stopping. The group arrived in one or two cars, and a train. We did the walk but it was far busier than when I did it solo. When I did it solo it was almost rainy and foggy. I walked up and reached the clearing and saw bouquetins.
The conditions were overcast and rain threatened but did not fall. We had plenty of wind instead. The views were slightly less spectacular than the last time I went, because of the clouds and lack of contrast.
I spotted some yellow rock where a recent rock fall had happened. I don’t know how recent it was. The beauty of the Creux Du Van is that it’s a semi-circular cliff. You walk up from one side and then you walk along it. As you walk you see different portions of the cliff. Both times I have been I have done the walk from the same direction. Next time I would like to do this walk in the reverse direction, and I would like to walk to the base of the cliff.
When I walked this walk alone I didn’t go down to the Gorge de L’Areuse because I was worried that it would add too much distance to the walk when I was already tired. In reality I think it’s the same distance via both routes.
According to the Suunto Peak 5 this was a 5hr44 walk covering a distance of 16.9km, made up of 27,380 steps, for me. We ascended 906m and descended 873. It was 2hrs 20 of climb and 1hr58 of descent, with time for a snack at the top. My recovery time is about 26hrs. I am down to 7hrs left, to recover, now.
I like this walk and I will do it again.
Most people go and take pictures from the front rather than from the back of sunflowers. I like to be different because it’s more interesting. Taking pictures from the front is easy now. All phone makers have made it easy.
It’s good to do things differently and to stay creative. I took this during the daily bike ride.
Before the pandemic, when life was normal, I would go to three or four events per week organised via websites. These days, on meetup.com things are organised every two weeks, and for just 15 people at a time. This means that if you’re not first to sign up you’re on a waiting list and you could be social once every few weeks, rather than three times per week. This frustrates me.
There is a simple solution. There is a demand for events to be organised. I recently bought fresh Via Ferrata stuff and may start doing them regularly once again. I want to accertain that I am comfortable with the sport after such a long break, and once this is done I can create my own via ferrata and walking group. I would organise things at least once per week, maybe more.
The biggest nuissance with Meetup.com is that it requires a monthly fee for having a group. The result is that groups are created, run for a bit, and then destroyed to avoid paying for longer. The alternative is to use Facebook but I absolutely hate what Facebook is and what it represents. Every time it abuses of peoples’ trust it and gets caught it never apologises.
I have car and I have three seats. Like I used to do before the pandemic I can pick people up in Nyon, drive them to and from the activity, and when it comes time to say goodbye they can contribute towards petrol and the cost of having a group.
I would never charge people a fee to participate in an activity because that goes against my ethos, but having people pay a fair share towards petrol is the right thing to do. If you don’t charge people for the petrol used, they abuse of our kindness as drivers.
There is an added benefit. The problem with group activities is that when they end people rush to the train, without saying goodbye and I find this really strange. Before the pandemic there would be a stop at a bar to have a drink, and then drive home. In the Pandemic age that stop no longer occurs. I find this to be a shame. At least by driving from Nyon to the via ferrata or hiking location there is a moment for conversation before and after the journey.
I could be like others, and take the same trains as they take but that would increase my costs for participating in events. It also doubles or triples the journey time.
Last week I walked an extra eight kilometres rather than take a train, so it isn’t that I want to use the car. I have spent five or six years doing almost all of my bike rides and walks from home. The point of the car is to expand my range, once again.
As I got to the end of this post I noticed that I am included in the hike that I thought was overbooked, and I see that other people are doing a VF at the same time on the same day and now I am torn about which one to do. The beautiful irony.
The old paradox is back. Nothing to do for the entire week, and then two activities to do at the same time.