Trevor Park

We have now passed the first anniversary of going into lockdown and are now starting the slow, but hopefully irreversible path to a more normal way of living.

So now is a good time for me to reflect on the past 12 months and how being a member of the SCR helped me, in what has been strange times.

When we first entered lockdown it was both a shock and with a sense of trepidation. We were in complete lockdown so I immediately started a daily walk routine and it amazing how many different routes that could be taken from my house, here I'm luck in that can go straight from my house into the Cheshire countryside.

Also it was good to see and hear what other SCR members were achieving with their individual walks, the sense of contact with friends in the SCR group was important to me.

As we moved out of the first lockdown it was great to be able to walk in groups of 6 and meet up with friends again. These informal group walks were very relaxing, enjoyable and complimented by a fabulous summer. Spending time walking and talking in these groups helped me develop a more balanced view of the situation we all found ourselves in.

We then had a period of being able to open up the SCR walks programme albeit on a more ad hoc rolling programme basis. It was impossible to plan into the future and also the group was operating with a limited number of active walk leaders. Unfortunately this meant some members struggled to get onto walks which invariably became fully booked in a very short space of time.


Then we went into a second and third lockdown with a short Christmas break in between!

During this period it was great that I was able to meet up with other ramblers and walk in pairs either revisiting an old walk or doing a recce for a new one. Here the OS app that Steve talked about in a previous blog was a great help. Both for recording and sharing walks, as well as getting you out of trouble if you got lost on a recce.

So as the restrictions are eased we now move forward with caution as we re-start the SCR programme and many of the Covid precautions we take now will stay with us on SCR walks through the year. Limited group size, no car sharing other than in fixed bubbles where they exist. This means limiting the distance we travel to a walk, ensuring adequate parking when we get there and in many instances reducing group size.

Finally as we look forward with more optimism following the success of the vaccination programme and its reported efficacy, individuals can start to think about their own route out of lockdown. I know many members will want to stay in their fixed bubbles and are not ready for group walks. Though if we achieve our target milestones and it is demonstrated that the world is truly becoming a safer place then hopefully more will feel confident about joining walks with the wider community.