I'll be riding a full 11 miles from my house tonight, on a hill I've never rode before, so couldn't possibly comment.
“Ride well within your limits – only ride on trails that are that you have ridden before and you are very confident you will be able to ride safely and within your ability”
Good advice.
Care to dish it out too my 15 year old who fell on a flat corner last night, goofing up his arm with gravel rash from wrist to elbow last night?
Moments after his brother had said 'oooh, slow down, this corners as loose as....'
Hardly any cases round here and A&E docs/nurses are basically scratching their arses so I'm quite content to go back to riding whatever passed as Gnar for me prior to lockdown.
Hmmm, might give the Golfie a burl.
Can ride my bike but not my bird, lol:cry
Shouldn't have sold that Bird Zero as I am getting zero bird right now.
Lol @ YGH!
Lovely ride tonight exploring the locals, found a gorgeous climb too, on perfectly dry grassy doubletrack.
FC guidance is
Stick to low impact activities such as walking, jogging or low-level cycling. Our mountain bike trails remain closed.
Matt - trust your 15yr-old is OK.
Plenty of slow-speed accidents happening at the moment and FVR is happy to treat them. (Not forgetting the MTBer who degloved his arm on gravel at Logie Kirk - requiring an ambulance to be called out. Yuk!)
Surely the whole point about the no travel is that there are no facilities open . If you can't get there and back without a piss - don't do it (based on Scottish CMO radio interview last Saturday)
Although another more appropriate marker might be - will I end up in my home hospital if things go wrong?
@StirlingCrispin - he's all good. Happened above Witches, just above Logie Kirk 🤔
Not as bad as the initial amount of claret suggested.
I think we're going to see rural communities pushing back against visitors for the summer. Stirling council have scrolling signs up reminding folk not to travel, that car parks are closed and generally 'go away' messages on busier roads into the Trossachs.
Many local communities are keeping car parks and honey pots taped off.
I can see the start of July being very challenging, I'm almost hoping for sh*t weather...
If you can’t get there and back without a piss – don’t do it (based on Scottish CMO radio interview last Saturday)
I heard that, and still struggle to see the big danger in that. I was out for 3.5hrs last night, never took a piss, but had a wee bottle of hand gel with me if I did, even if I didn't have that hand gel, I'm touching nothing but my bike whilst out.
think we’re going to see rural communities pushing back against visitors for the summer
I think rural communities will be pretty divided on that given the extent to which they rely on tourism.
I really dislike this rural/urban them/us thing that has developed. It's a false dichotomy.
I heard that, and still struggle to see the big danger in that. I was out for 3.5hrs last night, never took a piss, but had a wee bottle of hand gel with me if I did, even if I didn’t have that hand gel, I’m touching nothing but my bike whilst out.
And there's a significant difference between doing a piss against someone's garden wall in Balloch Vs against a tree in the middle of a forest
I think rural communities will be pretty divided on that given the extent to which they rely on tourism.
I really dislike this rural/urban them/us thing that has developed. It’s a false dichotomy.
I also find it slightly hypocritical. Plenty of activity in the urban environment to provide goods and services to rural communities during the lockdown, all raising the risk of transmission there. Seems only balanced that this is reciprocated when risk is lower.
To be fair as we try to emerge from lockdown we'll all need to try to see how the lockdown has been for others. I've worked right through it and live in a fairly remote area. My son has worked right through it but lives in Glasgow had a different experience. My daughter lives in a really remote spot has sometimes gone over a week without seeing anyone.
Absolutely Spin, the folks that have lived there for years will understand the value of the visitor, the folk that have moved there and see it as their wee twee place, less so.
Couple of points:
1 - more people need to learn how to poop outside since there aren't toilets available.
2 - now that we are actually allowed to travel for exercise, maybe the councils should start opening some car parks. All you get now is folk parked along the verges. They can't pretend that people aren't driving to the Pentlands etc - almost all of Edinburgh is within 5 miles of them. And maybe, with that, start working on opening up some toilets - or at least portable urinals (like at a festival)
Well you did say “IMHO, it’s unfair to expect them to rescue poorly equipped folk that have traveled a long way in the current circumstances.” Not sure what that could mean other than that you don’t think they should be expected to rescue certain people.
Or, you know... the other option that the people shouldn't have been there to need rescuing.
Absolutely Spin, the folks that have lived there for years will understand the value of the visitor, the folk that have moved there and see it as their wee twee place, less so.
tosh
Yeah, I don't think it is that clear cut. Locally, many of the loudest voices in favour of a quick resumption of tourism are those who have moved to the area to run B&Bs, cafes, gift shops, galleries etc. and, of course, all the holiday home owners, even though many don't even live here.
Obviously there's exceptions, but in general, every moaning faced roaster you hear whining about the amount of tourists blocking the road to their highland retreats are quite obviously not from that area.
I have no idea if their names are Tosh.
If you can’t get there and back without a piss
This is surely about keeping visits shorter, reducing fatigue, remoteness and risk, rather than transmission risk?
but in general, every moaning faced roaster you hear whining about the amount of tourists blocking the road to their highland retreats are quite obviously not from that area.
I have not seen any of this, do you have an example? what I do see back in the highlands is a lot of remote areas with little local health care and elderly populations worried about the imminent wave of mouth breathers dropping litter and corona everywhere. And if it makes you happier most of them are Scottish 😉
what I do see back in the highlands is a lot of remote areas with little local health care and elderly populations worried about the imminent wave of mouth breathers dropping litter and corona everywhere.
I suspect most of them are quite happy to make use of the nearest urban area for their shopping and healthcare needs so I'm afraid that worried or not they don't get to pull up the drawbridge.
I'm not sure that's entirely fair, healthcare has become massively centralised in the past 30 years. As for shopping, round here at least it seems everyone is buying as local as possible or just going mail order.
On the Lewis Buchanan thing, seems fair enough to me, I've ridden those trails and though they were hard that was because I was riding them blind, they were sopping wet, I was on a massively inappropriate (but fun) hardtail and most importantly I'm nowhere near as good a rider as he is. It's all relative and without an official risk assessment matrix it's all down to personal interpretation.
I suspect most of them are quite happy to make use of the nearest urban area for their shopping and healthcare needs
Or they don't have a choice to use urban areas?
The village I live in is not that remote, we're lucky enough to have a small minor injuries unit (with a handful of beds) and a small Co-Op.
I've been using some local farm shops but weekly shopping for me is a 25 minute drive away. Nearest large hospital is 50 minutes drive.
If the virus was widespread in this community, local services would very quickly become overwhelmed. That's one of the reasons for the restriction on travelling.
What Scotroutes said +1.
Spin I think most folk in the town nearest me, Fort William feel broadly the same about visitors as folk in the outlying villages. Yes we need to start cautiously opening up again. Having been so quiet, with people off work on furlough etc, and having made such strenuous efforts to observe the lockdown there was a bit of a jarring note last weekend when the roads were suddenly busy again. Sure some of that was locals but a lot was not.
With all local tourist businesses still shut (perhaps excepting 1 or 2 sleekit ones letting cottages etc ) even some car parks are shut, there's little or no financial benefit to the local community at this point
Also I lwould like to have services provided reasonably close to where I live Scotland has become over centralised.
Latest from my NHS contacts is the Aberdeen Royal infirmary is very quiet. 2 cases in intensive care, they’re doing outpatient treatments but not many overnights. A&E quite. Looks like it has never been quieter.
Doesn’t mean we have to increase the spread of COVID but it does kill the argument about doing low risk activities to avoid putting extra load on the health service.
I have not seen any of this, do you have an example?
IIRC you live in Denmark? if that's correct, I'm not surprised you haven't seen much of it. Perhaps I wasn't clear, I was not referring to the current crisis per se, I'm talking generally, the annual summer en masse migration to the NC550 brings them onto Radio Scotland on a regular basis.
And if it makes you happier most of them are Scottish 😉
I never said anything about them not being Scots, don't you be putting anti-English words in my mouth, I said they never had local accents, which is entirely different. Same as the borderers that moan about the likes of Tweedlove events, not many of them will have the mother tongue.
Anyway, we're way off topic now, as ever.
Doesn’t mean we have to increase the spread of COVID but it does kill the argument about doing low risk activities to avoid putting extra load on the health service.
Aye, here too, Ayrshire - with a population of nigh on 400,000 currently has less than 20 people in hospital (Not ICU, in hospital) all in.
(Current lack of) pressure on EDs isn't really the issue and shouldn't be used as an indicator of whether it's ok to risk putting more load onto the system.
The issue is the pressure and flow downstream from ED: do you have to go into a bed or a critical care bed. Bed capacity is limited given that capacity and appropriate levels of surge capacity must be allocated to Red covid wards
Edit: this is a reply to the comment that Aberdeen RI ED is quiet
Latest from my NHS contacts is the Aberdeen Royal infirmary is very quiet. 2 cases in intensive care, they’re doing outpatient treatments but not many overnights. A&E quite. Looks like it has never been quieter.Doesn’t mean we have to increase the spread of COVID but it does kill the argument about doing low risk activities to avoid putting extra load on the health service.
Same story in Dundee. According to my doctoring brother the shitstorm never really happened here, he's never seen the hospital so quiet.
Fwiw I started paragliding again last weekend, as I don't see that I'll be causing any hospital capacity issues if I brain myself.
Yeah Matt, they are going to keep that in place all year until the proles can get back to Benidorm.
Aye, here too, Ayrshire – with a population of nigh on 400,000 currently has less than 20 people in hospital (Not ICU, in hospital) all in.
Do you have a source to hand for that?
I was in Perth Royal all day yesterday and it’s quite quiet however as the staff were saying it’s actually more that the first wave has passed so now it’s working out how to manage the micro waves that will start to appear.
Lothian have passe the peak of the first wave. the focus now is on getting things open again without causing a spike in infections. An awful lot of work behind the scenes on infection control and ensuring safety of staff and patients. This takes time but is not obvious work.
It’s not actually as quiet as I thought in ARI. 66 COVID patients 4 in ITU. The virus is still going strong.
Overall the hospital is quiet. It’s a big place.
Yes, it is much more than just how to manage the micro waves. It is about how to manage that, but also how to manage the pent up Urgent and Urgent Suspicion of Cancer demand that stayed away for weeks or even two months (and are now higher risk), and within the context of infection control and limited capacity. And then how to manage the non-Urgent elective patients who were on the waiting list previously and their longer waiting times will start to become a factor in their outcome.
'Quiet' EDs play little into this.
Do you have a source to hand for that?
It was at the bottom if a BBC webpage, I recall reading it on thu night, as I read it out to mrs nobeer (She's a nurse in Ayr hosp) but it's gone now, sorry.
Daily data by health board:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
Talking to a guy that works at a track and trace call centre in Selkirk. 50 folk working there and they've had 3 cases. They just sacked some folk and are standing down shifts. They'd just been sent home.half way through. There's just nothing happening.
Daily data by health board:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland//blockquote >
My wife is one of the small team of people (about ten of them) that produces that data, she's pretty stoked that it's made the heady heights of STW.
I've seen their graphs every day for the past two and a half months. The number of cases is falling so slowly that we haven't changed anything about how we act other than having one set of friends in our gardens per day at the weekend (if my wife isn't on the weekend data team). We don't travel to exercise, don't take risks and have only being going to the shop once a month.
Our friends have said we seem to have taken it more strictly than other people they know but the data that my wife has been looking at has probably given us a bigger driver to avoid it than others. It's not over by any means.
For whoever was saying it up there, the Pentlands car parks are now open and exactly what Nicola was trying to avoid is happening.
We hadn't realised they'd opened so we're doing a spin up by Glencorse which has been quiet for weeks. Now there's loads of families walking four abreast, now social distancing when they meet other groups going the other way and pairs of middle aged men sitting in fishing boats about a metre from each other. Shame really, I thought the Scottish public had been doing a better job at being trustworthy during the pandemic.
Shame really, I thought the Scottish public had been doing a better job at being trustworthy during the pandemic.
As ever, the majority have.
A minor percentage break rule No.1, however even a minor percentage is quite a few folks honeypotting to the well known haunts.
So which is more likely to spread the virus?
