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I went to visit my mum for a walk near Pickering. This involves driving up the A64 and on any usual dry sunnyish late spring weekend it would be packed at the 10am when I drove it. Very, very quiet still today. Didn't go anywhere near the coast but I expect it was probably ok looking at the traffic.
The rest of my household went to roundhay park (5 mins from my house l) and it was v. Busy though.
The Peak District.
Yes, ridiculously so. Lots of non-socially-distancing groups.
I live on the edge of the Peak so I stayed at home today. From the pics I'm seeing, I think it was the right call.
Was up Kielder today and it was very busy.
I did what I've been doing for weeks and went running on the downs behind where I live. It's actually got quieter over the last few days at it seems all those that were staying local are now going further afield. I haven't even thought about going down to the beach, that certainly won't be quiet.
Leigh hill tower in Surrey, bus as usual if not more. Social distancing - yesterday’s gig by the look of it and elsewhere.
Being in Scotland, I went to the kitchen a few times, the living room many times and the toilet at least 3 times. All bar the toilet were busy, yes.
No outdoor exercise as I was out yesterday and it’s been pissing down all day. Lockdown is still the expectation here..
Local park, less busy than a normal sunny weekend, but more busy than I’ve seen it for a few weeks.
But then, what did you expect? I’m not sweating it, control your own actions and don’t lose sleep on the actions of others that you can’t control.
Rode through newlands corner (Surrey) and it was the busiest I've ever seen it. And rubbish everywhere.
Local lanes in the Chilterns. More cars but that means less than 10 in an hour with one coming round twice.
We came down from newlands off road towards Albury, car Park at the top was rammed when we skirted it, as were most of the cps we passed over towards peaslake. Quite a few mountain bikers out as well, probably more than we’d stumble across.
Reigate hill very very busy.
A section of the South Downs Way - well it wasn’t empty, but I’ve definitely seen it busier. One of the car parks near Goodwood was pretty packed.
Staveley very quite yesterday loads of parking in the Mill Yard. Kentmere Valley at Kentmere most parking coned off by farmers few spots available.
Went for a drive today parked at Millerground Windermere no one else in there,moved on to top of Kirkstone Pass for lunch pub carpark closed but carpark just down the road open, I was fully self sufficient with food and a toilet on board. Roads in general very quiet. Whilst parked up had a very judgemental cyclist shake his head at me, asked him what his problem was he refused to elaborate!
Rich
Forest of Dean was much quieter than I was expecting. It was nice.
Car parks on the Ridgway around Lambourn and Wantage looked busy but not rammed. Lots of motorbikers out, many in groups, although all were riding pretty steady tbh.
Woburn woods with the family
very busy, car park was chocka, loads of people obviously not in the family +1 group as well
police showed up too
I am in Scotland and I went to all the same places as iainc, except I haven't been to the toilet. I'll need to work something out...
kimbers
police showed up too
They should know better.
2 hour road ride. Lots of groups of men riding together - dozens and dozens of pairs, and a whole load of groups of 8-10 men. I suspect that they're not all cohabiting couples or groups. But I could be wrong.
The Peak District.
Yes, ridiculously so. Lots of non-socially-distancing groups.
You were at the whole of the Peak District were you? Bit greedy. 🙈
No it wasnt ridiculously busy, Ladybower that is, it was no more busy than any other nice Sunday day. So plenty of room for keeping out of others way. The roads round there were full of motorbikes in groups going out for some erm, er, exercise?
Langsett was busy down by the river, standard. Still fairly socially distancing-ish.
Agree with the non-socially distancing groups though. Seems the 1 other person has been taken for 1 other family/couple.
North Downs car parks busiest even seen it.
Have seen pics of Walking Bottom car park, Peaslake. Mega busy. Like normal peak at weekends.
No more busy in the local country park than a normal nice Sunday, but deserted at the play areas and round the closed visitor centre. A few people had obviously met up for a chat but were staying distant. Seemed pretty much within the rules though.
I live on the edge of the Peak so I stayed at home today. From the pics I’m seeing, I think it was the right call.
Didn’t venture in to the Peak proper yesterday, went past Ringinglow and Lady Cannings though and as busy as a bank holiday with cars parked on verges and Norfolk Arms lay-by full. Combine that with groups of youths loitering drinking cider and playing footy and I decided to spend today in the garden. /grump
The FE car park at our little woods is still closed, but the verges near the entrance had maybe 3/4 of a non-lockdown spring Sunday cohort parked on them. Trails were busiest I've seen them since March, mostly soloists and obvious family groups but from appearances a few groups probably not following guidelines and/or common sense. Lots of walkers out too.
I did a walking trail at gisburn forest early but as we left it was getting really busy and full of loads of motorbikers, all congregating in the main walkers car park. Loads of them
They either co habit in the largest hippy commune in North West or were basically not arsed at all about social distancing
It seems to be a thing this weekend with bikers, is it something to do with being at a loose end as IOM TT was called off?
Peak road ride for me. Padley and Surprise car parks full, Fox house had cars parked on both sides of the road. Only saw pairs of cyclists and cars mainly behaved them selves, but wtf was going on with the motorbikes? I’ve never seen so many riding so fast, often in groups of 10+. The group that passed me into Hathersage were definitely doing well in excess of 100mph, my right ear is still ringing. I really, really doubt most of them were heading to work, exercise or the shops on their motorbikes.
I went to Cragg Quarry. There were a couple of small groups of bikers and hoards of MX'ers making a real nuisance of themselves. They'd driven across from Liverpool to do it, too.
Arseholes.
Walk along NCN7 from Prestwick to Troon, which has been a tad busy recently, but it was wet today (the reason we went that way as it'd be quiet) so looks like our new exercisers don't like a wee spit of rain.
My touristy North Yorkshire town on the Nidd is back to being rammed. All bar one of the cafes are still closed, so the one ropey place that's open is cleaning up (except for their litter).
Sensible social distancing? Fine. Sitting on my front step to eat your ice-cream while your dog takes a dump in the entrance to the garage? Not so much. May have been a bit rude.
All of the closed NRW car parks on my local loop above Cardiff have had the entrances blocked with parked cars, all layby's parked in and people queuing to get in at points most days since the beginning of the month. What had changed on the weekend was people parking across the entrances to bridleways and even sometimes up them a little bit, enough for one person with a red Mercedes to block the entrance completely. Judging by the amount of scratches the car now has down it's side I'm guessing people decided to just get past it anyway. To their credit though the police and NRW Rangers were out ticketing the really stupid parkers and turning some people away from full areas.
The North Cotswolds was like a cross between the IOM TT and the Tour de France, I have never seen so many people on two wheels, most were socially distancing, the biggest group I saw was 3, so potentially cohabiting.
Most of the powered bikes seemed to be behaving to me.
I didn't visit any of our local tourist attractions.
I rode thru Edinburgh city centre at 7pm saturday evening. It was like a ghost town
I took a days holiday on Friday to get out - went for a nice long (relatively) ride up and down the North Downs.
Saw a few folk out, but not huge numbers. I suspect the same route on Saturday or Sunday would have been a nightmare.
Drove 10 mins to the beach with the kids on Sunday morning, first time the car has moved in 2 months. We were quite early (9.30) but I'd say it was quieter than it would be normally. Loads of free parking on the road and the main car parks are all still closed.
The fact no chip shops / arcades / pubs / ice cream shops are open probably does a good job of deterring the mouth breathers.
The local forest was quite busy on Saturday, especially with families who had obviously made a special effort to get out with the kids which was nice to see. It's hard to judge because a lot of the council car parks and NP car parks are still closed, which probably pushes people to park up near my house and walk from there.
Went our early yesterday for a road ride Buxton > Manc. Went for a walk at Grinlow early with kids. It was pretty quiet but getting busier when we left around 10:30. Lots of room and everyone social distancing happily.
Riding back was an experience, hundreds of motorbikers, lots stopped and not distancing. Close passing me on small roads etc. Bunch of total pricks the lot of them. Didn’t see them doing much exercise when they arrived at their layby of choice.
Definitely a lot of bikers out today. Not sure where that sits with guidelines - you can drive to sit in the park?
A former Police officer friend was posting on FB about her husband's fantastic 2 hour ride on his Suzuki. Given how rabid she was about lockdown breakers last month I found that interesting.
Up in Scotland too. My local loop involves a couple of miles on the roads to get to the trails nearby. The roads are much busier than a week ago, they were pretty much at normal weekend levels.
Did a big run on the road bike yesterday, a fair number of riders out and about, the strong winds and cooler temps seem to be keeping most of the recent converts at home or elsewhere. I did see lots of motorbikes out on group runs around the lanes in Northumberland.
The OH and daughter had a walk down to the Quayside in Newcastle Sunday afternoon they found it busy and some folk not respecting the 'rules' on distancing and not even making an effort. Quite a few masks in evidence though.
Saturday teatime I hit my local MTB routes and found it great fun, not so many folk around so for the first time in weeks I managed to have some fun.
Rural Aberdeenshire here... plenty of cars parked on the roads, in front of the logs that have been placed to close the car parks.
Idiots.
Few hours out on mixed roads and trails around Bakewell, Hassop, Curber and the Chatsworth estate yesterday and whilst there was an noticeable increase in cars on the road it didn't seem to translate to folk on the trails. Most folk I saw seemed quite sensible regarding social distancing. Overall it was still more quiet than a standard decent weather weekday. I imagine once Chatsworth opens it's car parks again things will change.
Police have dealt with hundreds of breaches of coronavirus restrictions in North Yorkshire over the weekend as people flocked to national parks.
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan said officers dealt with 360 incidents by Saturday evening.
In the Yorkshire Dales, officers fined a group of eight people from six households who had travelled from West Yorkshire to go wild camping.
BBC
I went to Cannock Chase yesterday. Stayed away from the trail center end as a conscious decision. I also rode there as I usually do (been doing this for a long time as I live fairly close)
Lots of people walking and family bike rides. I was seeing people in places where you normally wouldn't. Family bike ride down some hidden off piste trails anyone? No care for social distancing. There were groups who clearly didn't even know each other walking in bunches...basically a family of 4 with a pushchair & a youngster being absorbed into to a larger family group headed up by a rather over enthusiastic father in his full outdoor regalia whilst another group with a couple of dogs come the other way. Massive clusterf*ck.
To be honest though, I started off the ride annoyed at people for being out but can you blame people? The government message was so vague that it can easily be interpreted as 'Right-ho, lockdown's over carry on' which is what a lot of people are doing (rightly or wrongly). I also saw a lot over tattooed overweight motor bike rider out exercising their motorbikes. Pubs weren't open so just sit in the gateway instead...great idea.
Anyway, my key take away from my ride was never mind what others are doing, you can't change it. Take responsibility for your own actions and the other, don't ride in a tourist honey pot at peak time on a Sunday and be surprised to see lots of stupid (that's all on me, I should've got up earlier!)
Haven't visited any honeypots and from the pictures I've seen it was the right call.
Some of my kids' friends jumped in the car and went off to said honeypots. One was 'taking the dog for a walk somewhere different' (we live in a rural village with loads of options) and another was going for a picnic.
I'm not sure how 'unlimited outdoor exercise' translates as 'putting a rug on the ground and eating floppy sarnies and cocktail sausages that have been left to go too warm and so smell like beer farts' or am I missing something?
Local country parks were a free for all. One in particular had to call in police to deal with the hoards that showed up, were told car parks were full and ended up parking across verges, pavements, driveways etc.
A few twunts posting on social media that distancing was being observed (despite funneling hundreds through three entrances to make sure they relieved them of the right amount of cash). These were immediately shot down in flames by a picture of a normal (ie not at all distanced) queue for the ice cream van in the car park. ****ing idiots all. Stupid parks trying to grab as much cash as possible as quickly as possible and stupid sheep turning up.
Brilliant ****ing use of police time.
In the Yorkshire Dales, officers fined a group of eight people from six households who had travelled from West Yorkshire to go wild camping.
They couldn't even be bothered to walk five minutes away from Surrender Bridge to find somewhere quieter. Turds.
probably does a good job of deterring the mouth breathers.
Person going somewhere calls out others that might want to go to the same place?
Down by the River Wey in Surrey was as busy as I've ever seen it. Fortunately this means that there were some people rather than no people, and as I was in the canoe, no problems. I had expected the modest parking area I use to be busy, so went early, but it never filled up and most people appeared to be arriving on foot.
There are a few local destinations that have filled up with the car parks re-opening, so I'm avoiding those.
Generally, my local walks have become slightly quieter as people now drive out of town (probably to the Surrey Hills as mentioned by others!). The roads have become busy enough to be unappealing for walking or cycling; not so busy that people can only drive at a safe speed as they normally are, but busy enough that drivers flying round blind corners has become a real issue. I'm no longer doing one of my local walking routes for that reason as there is a short road section that has become pretty unpleasant in the last week. So I too end up in the car...
Even where it has been busy, most people are being good with distancing, and I haven't seen many obvious groups other than a few teenagers.
I still don't quite understand why there wasn't a distance limit put on the revised restrictions, but actually here I don't think its working out too badly. Some areas are hotspots, but outside the risk does seem to be much reduced.
I went into the dales on the road bike yesterday and it was quieter than I expected. Parked cars in lay-bys but their occupants seemed to have gone for walks rather than milling around congregating. The busiest place was eccup reservoir on the way back into Leeds.
I went past the rock houses at kinver yesterday lunchtime, the parking area was rammed and the ice cream van seemed to be doing a healthy trade.
Not many people up the sheepwalks though.
Local country parks were a free for all. One in particular had to call in police to deal with the hoards that showed up, were told car parks were full and ended up parking across verges, pavements, driveways etc.
A few twunts posting on social media that distancing was being observed (despite funneling hundreds through three entrances to make sure they relieved them of the right amount of cash). These were immediately shot down in flames by a picture of a normal (ie not at all distanced) queue for the ice cream van in the car park. **** idiots all. Stupid parks trying to grab as much cash as possible as quickly as possible and stupid sheep turning up.
Leicestershire's biggest deer based tourist attraction?
That's the one.
But to give it your original full title:
Leicestershire’s biggest deer based tourist attraction and Public Dog Toilet.
They've also had the cheek to ask for £180k as a 'loan' from the County Coincil. They could just stop paying out a million quid a year to have jumped up parkies riding around in their shiny vehicles imposing stupid petty rules and solve the problem there and then.
The fact the police had to be called in to deal with the effects of their stupid, money grabbing decision is just ludicrous.
We didn't go anywhere this weekend as thought it would be busy. We live on the edge of the peaks. I have a couple of days off next week so hoping to go for a couple of quiet walks next week with the 6 year old and wife but need to find somewhere quiet.
I also get the feeling that the people who are now essentially breaking the lockdown (no social distancing in groups etc) will also be the same people who don't want to go back to work or send their kids to school.
Generally, my local walks have become slightly quieter as people now drive out of town
I've been avoiding the Wey and Basingstoke canals as far too busy but am hoping it might be quieter now they bog off in cars.
Have taken advantage to head into London a couple of times over the last 3 weeks early on a Sunday, rode from Twickenham up to Hampstead yesterday with a mate (no drafting!!) and there was a definite increase in traffic. Still pretty quiet though (especially more centrally). Tower Bridge pic taken at 8am.
Our charter market was back on this weekend. Only food stalls on but easily enough room and capacity controlled. Far less busy than normal, think it will ramp up now people have seen it being well managed. Much better than Supermarket shopping - I have Guinea Fowl, Chevre Pyrenees and some outrageously good pate 😉
I also get the feeling that the people who are now essentially breaking the lockdown (no social distancing in groups etc) will also be the same people who don’t want to go back to work or send their kids to school.
It normally is.
@johndo
Person going somewhere calls out others that might want to go to the same place?
No I was saying the mouth breathers didn't want to go to the beach because there are no facilities open. Once the chippy and pubs open it'll be rammed.
The fact the police had to be called in to deal with the effects of their stupid, money grabbing decision is just ludicrous.
Yeah but they are best friends with the Charnwood 5-0 who have been absolutely loving this as it's a chance to justify their existence.
Yeah but they are best friends with the Charnwood 5-0 who have been absolutely loving this as it’s a chance to justify their existence.
The police haven't looked too stressed when they've been sat in their cars in the sun in the car parks etc now you mention it...
But calling them out to deal with a parking situation of their own making? Bradgate are taking the piss there and they deserve a flaming for it.
Went for a walk with the family at the top of the Chilterns, generally very quiet and most folks cheery
Got a takeaway fish and chips on the way home and sat in the van overlooking Dunstable Downs (car park closed) to eat it with the family. Got moved on by the police when they turned up, lots of cars parked up all along the road. In fairness it was a double yellow line, on a relatively quiet road and not in the way. We were sitting in the van eating (only there for the view) so moving on was easy. Lots of other cars parked up with no one inside, looked like they were writing reg numbers down but not sure quite what they were going to do with them