When the first national lockdown started in March this year, and our reasons for leaving the house were limited to shopping and an hour’s exercise each day, Val and I took to walking through Eastbrookend Country Park and The Chase, the areas of open space that are practically on our doorstep. [1]
Pretty soon we worked out a route that took just over an
hour to complete, and we have been walking it on almost every day since.
Calling this blog “Back to The Chase” is a piece of poetic licence, since we’ve
rarely stopped walking the course we devised a few months ago.
The seasons have wrought a few changes of course. When we
started walking The Chase the ground was soft from the winter’s rains;
gradually it firmed up as the summer sun did its work, and now large areas of
it have become a quagmire as autumn has brought more rain.
As the hours of daylight shorten, we’ve adapted the time of
our walk. It was our habit, back in the late spring and summer, to go out in
the afternoon, when the heat was abating, and catch the last of the afternoon
sun. Now, with the sun setting shortly after four o’clock, we have changed our
hours and leave the house shortly after first light. Apart from the contrast in
the colours of the leaves, and with the ground now appreciably softer, the
light is very different too.
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There has always been something appealing to me about the
light of an autumn morning. There are the days when the sun reflects off a
heavy dew, or days when it is watered down behind a layer of mist, or peeps
thinly through the trees, or best of all, the crisp, bright mornings when your
breath condenses and the sights are pin sharp in the early sun. And as the sun
rises the contrast between the russet and golden leaves against the deepening
blue of the sky is a wonder.
As pleasant as a morning walk through The Chase is, there is
little that is pleasurable about wet feet, and my shoes have sprung a leak.
Squelching home, I have sometimes felt that I must be at risk of trench foot.
“Get some waterproof socks,” suggested Val. Waterproof socks? I scoffed, sounds
a bit gimmicky (for which read, expensive and no damn use). Having seen a
YouTube video of someone extolling their virtues, I bought a pair (from Amazon,
naturally since all the shops selling such ‘non-essentials’ are closed thanks
to Lockdown #2). Just the one pair, at £20 a go, it’s a lot to splash out on a
pair of socks that may not actually do the business.
The socks - SealSkinz Hydrostop Ankle Waterproof MTB Socks –
turned up in a couple of days after ordering them. Going by the size chart, I
ordered medium and they are a bit on the tight side, but I have to say, they do
what it says on the tin; they are completely waterproof, so yomping through the
mud and puddles is now a much nicer experience than it was.
If there has been any upside to the original lockdown and
now the new one, it has to have been the opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy
what is on our doorstep. The Chase has plenty of wildlife, remarkably so for
somewhere as close to a built-up area. We’ve
heard (but not seen) cuckoos, seen
pheasants and herons, multitudes of parakeets and rabbits galore, loads of
waterfowl, even a carp that leapt out of the water.
There is a calming element to being out in the country park.
There’s a woodland area – Black Poplar Wood – that is too swampy to navigate at
present, but which was beautiful during the summer. Walking through the trees
with the sunlight dappling between them is relaxing and rejuvenating. There are
credible health benefits to be gained from walking through wooded areas,
reducing stress, making your brain work better, even boosting your immune
system.[2]
And supplementing our walks through the country park have
been the BBC programmes Springwatch, and Autumnwatch, which I have watched in
the past, but which have gained a lot more relevance this year. Val and I once
met Chris Packham, the host of both these shows, many years ago on a cruise,
not that we knew who he was at the time. He joined our quiz team one evening,
but made no mention of the fact that he was a presenter of BBC TV’s wildlife
programme, The Really Wild Show and was on board giving a series of
presentations. We only found out who he was later in the cruise.
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| Chris Packham |
The other day someone asked me how I was doing during this second lockdown, and I had to answer that in all honesty there’s not only no difference for me between the first one and this one. In fact, just about the only difference between the lockdowns and the period between them is that from mid-August to late October I was able to go to watch Romford FC’s football matches.
One key difference between the March and November lockdowns
is the prevalence of mask wearing. Back in March there were few circumstances
under which wearing a mask was mandatory; now, we are required to wear one on
public transport, in pubs and restaurants (not that either are open at
present), and in shops (unless an exemption applies). Although such things have
been reported in the media, I’ve yet to see anyone throwing a tantrum about
being required to wear a mask, although I have seen plenty of people not
wearing them, and many not wearing them properly.
Sadly, I have also seen many discarded masks. On a recent
walk into town, I counted more than twenty masks that had been simply dumped on
the pavement, including ten in a stretch of about a hundred yards just outside
our local hospital. And there are plenty dumped in The Chase too, so much so
that Val has taken to carrying a bag to collect them in so that she can dispose
of them properly (she uses a stick or suchlike to pick them up by the loops in
case you are wondering). Criminally, we have seen some dumped just a few feet
from litter bins. It makes one wonder what goes through the minds of people who
think this is acceptable behaviour.
Although there’s been little or no difference between
lockdowns for me personally, a key difference is that whereas the March
lockdown had no definitive end – it was reviewed periodically until
restrictions began to be lifted – this one has a supposed end date of 2nd
December, although Michael Gove, speaking on The Andrew Marr Show at the
beginning of November hinted that it could be extended. No doubt our Prime
Minister would not want that as it would spoil the “Boris Saves Christmas”
headlines that would result from lockdown ending.
This week’s hopeful news about a vaccine (let’s not get
carried away, but it’s nice to see something positive in the news), and
lockdown’s end couldn’t come at a better time for our beleaguered Prime
Minister, although a stampede to the shops at the start of December as Britain
does its Christmas shopping could set us back and result in the third part of
the Lockdown Trilogy.
We aren’t out of the woods yet, and neither am I, I’ll be back over The Chase in the morning, and tramping through Black Poplar Wood as soon as it dries out a bit
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