Social Conscience

For once I walked in the drizzle, rather than the rain but I could hear thunder as I got home. I have almost reading Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home during this walk. Poetically I was listening to her about walking with a storm on its way whilst a storm was thundering over the Jura.

The rain became heavy just as I got close to home so today I am not drenched to the bone, and in need of a change of clothes like yesterday. I started today’s walk by running for the first two and a half kilometres, using the Guardian’s running podcast week three, for the fourth time. I didn’t run last week and I prefer to give my legs time to acclimate to running before pushing too much.

I’m writing for future generations now. As I looked at the stats for the most recent posts i see that readership is low. I’m tempted to start writing about something else as a result. In two or three weeks if we’re still seeing low numbers of new cases I might.

The biggest change since two days ago is that when I went to the shops I saw that InterDiscount and other places are open. Restaurants are open too. I saw some people in these places but without counting.

The Via Ferrata Season resumes on Monday with La Via Farinetta reopening. This news came via the Via Farinetta Saillon official page, as seen with the Facebook embed below.

Bonne nouvelle! La Via sera ouverte à partir ce lundi 11 mai ?? Néanmoins nous vous rendons attentifs sur les instructions des autorités. N’hésitez pas à nous partager vos photos. Prenez soin de vous!

Posted by Via Farinetta Saillon Officiel on Thursday, 7 May 2020

We’re just days away from Switzerland rebooting in Safe Mode. Rebooting in Safe mode means that children will go back to School on alternating days. Hairdressers and creches are already open. So are flower shops.

When I went to the local shopping the music festival maze to get into the shops was simplified and made more efficient. You don’t need to walk around so much. The doors to the shopping centers are also opening in the normal configuration again. Life is already to return towards safe-mode normal.

Today could be described as a Floating Border bike ride. During the bike ride I saw at least three or four patrols. One of these patrols had stopped a biker and were checking his papers, a second patrol was checking that the barriers were still in place. In a third case it was the Police Municipale driving towards me near Vevey.

It’s the fiftieth day of solitary confinement for me and I have moments when I feel fine and normal, and others where I don’t. I would love to say that I found an excellent way to celebrate the fiftieth day of self-isolation but I didn’t.

During today’s walk I saw calves and their mothers. Their mothers were mooing me away but I was taking video so I didn’t move until one after another started to approach me. By then I had the footage I wanted to have. I had a strong fence fixed with wooden posts and a bush between myself and the cows so I calculated that the risk was low enough not to bolt.

Yesterday I went for a walk in the rain. I walked for two hours, took pictures and listened to Echo Der Zeit and this episode of the Thru-Hiking podcast. Gretel Scarlet was the interviewee. She talked about South Bound (SOBO) hiking the PCT.

It’s interesting to see how different her attitude was to most people’s, how being a dancer, and someone who considers nutrition, speaks differently of food and injuries.

Thanks to the rain most people stayed indoors. This was a good opportunity to walk along routes that I have been avoiding for weeks due to the pandemic. In the process, my trousers and shoes got soaked so I was squelching along. Even cars were not that frequent. I crossed two people during my ten-kilometre walk.

Today the weather was rainy so I had a Zwift session. I decided to cycle the Yorkshire circuit. Cycling indoors is not as exciting as you don’t see as much. I listened to a hiking podcast but I didn’t pay much attention to the Zwift interface for at least the first fifteen minutes or so.

For the first time in 44 days or more I started the car’s engine and went for a drive. I heard the engine making a slightly different noise than usual so I let it warm up a bit and then I drove to the shops taking the long route. By long route I simply mean the walk that I’ve done dozens of times. It’s around 10 kilometres of driving in total. As it’s a diesel car it makes sense to drive far enough to get the engine warmed up and ready for when life returns to “normal”.

Today I was caught outdoors during a thunderstorm but rather than run to shelter or rush home I continued taking a timelapse video of some flowers. According to the apps we were meant to get some rain at 1800 so I expected it to be short lived.

This didn’t stop my clothes or my bag from getting wet but I was wearing hiking trousers and I wasn’t worried about the shoes. I didn’t expect anything to be soaked through and I did prepare to run home if need be. By the time I was ready to run the rain was stopping so I took out the phone and waited, and tried to capture lightning.

Today at around lunchtime we had a few minutes of rain for the first time in weeks but it didn’t last long. By the time I went out for my daily walk the ground was dry, as if it hadn’t rained at all. There was no mud to walk through so I came back as clean as when I left.

The daily walk is a good part of my day because it forces me to have some AFK (Away from Keyboard) time. That’s the thought I had when starting the walk. For two hours a day I spend time looking at the landscape, at how the plants and fields are changing day to day and more. I notice how paths are being worn where they would not be worn in normal times.