No-contact holidays

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We're about to head out for a few days' holiday -- or, as I described it to friends, "self-isolating In the middle of a field" -- and I was calling around to see if campsites were open. Most of them were, and I was particularly taken with the cheery lady at Clover Fields (near Buxton).

"Oh yes", she said, "we're calling it 'no-contact visits'. I've been around the site and worked out the only real place we're vulnerable, which is the entry keypad on the gate, so we'll make sure there are sanitary wipes available there. And for those who need the facilities, we're using an extra layer of bleach in all our cleaning."

They could accept payments over the phone, and send guest information by email as a PDF.

I admired her marketing and told her so. "Two other big sites have already copied and pasted my text from Facebook!", she said.

It made me realise how fortunate we are to be able to go out and still stay pretty much isolated, when most people would find holidays impossible.

But since many of the places we would normally go on such trips -- art galleries, cafes, pubs -- will be closed, and we'll probably be entirely self-catering in a little VW van, we're expecting to do more short trips, rather than a few longer ones, in the coming months!
 
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You make a really good point, it is so important for our mental wellbeing to have time out of our homes. I am waiting for some of my local sites to open which seems to be from the 1st April and then I will having some midweek breaks.

Now that the sites are not paying business rates this year I wonder if they will pass the savings on to encourage more visitors.
 
We are planning trips to isolated places where we’re unlikely to encounter anyone, having a van should be a great way to get out in these difficult times, especially if you can stay off grid.
 
I have a very long list of CL sites throughout the country which are all rural and all of which have very well spaced out pitches, so the only places on these sites where you are likely to touch anything that someone else has touched are the EHU points if you need them (we don't), the fresh water point and of course the waste disposal point which for me isn't a problem as I always wear elbow length gloves when emptying.

Whenever we go away we always start out from home with at least 6 days supply of food and drink, so for the time being all of our trips will be governed by the amount of food we can stash away on-board.

So as I believe it is essential for our minds to keep physically active, until such time as we are instructed not to we will be continuing to go to CL sites just as long as they are large ones (acreage) and are very rural.
 
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Whenever we go away we always start out from home with at least 6 days supply of food and drink, so for the time being all of our trips will be governed by the amount of food we can stash away on-board.

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Is all your food and drink home-produced?
 
Sorry.....am I missing something here? What If you break down or have a problem with your van, have a medical emergency, a road accident etc? You will have to involve other people who may well have to have contact with vulnerable people. I can understand why people want to get away but I struggle to classify any of the trips mentioned above as anything other than "non essential " . Does it need total lockdown for people to stay at home?
 
Sorry.....am I missing something here? ...I struggle to classify any of the trips mentioned above as anything other than "non essential " .

You're right, of course, but I think the key aim of the restriction of non-essential travel is to reduce interaction between closely-packed people in other forms of transport, and to limit geographical spread when people come into contact with each other. I think I could make a good case that the kind of trip we're planning has no more, and probably rather less, of that, than we would have at home. The places we're going will be less crowded, we'll need fewer milk, courier and post deliveries while we're away, etc... We'll be walking in the countryside, and we'll barely talk to another soul.

I wouldn't push my claim too far, and yes, in the event of emergencies, we might still have to interact with people in a different county from our own. But I do think that's a very remote possibility.

That's also part of the reason for only going for a few days. We can survive without even shopping for supplies, if needed.
 
You make a really good point, it is so important for our mental wellbeing to have time out of our homes. I am waiting for some of my local sites to open which seems to be from the 1st April and then I will having some midweek breaks.

Now that the sites are not paying business rates this year I wonder if they will pass the savings on to encourage more visitors.

Is that a pig i`ve just seen flying over, are you drunk, are you on drugs o_O

They`ll just see it as a way to make more money.
 
Sorry.....am I missing something here? What If you break down or have a problem with your van, have a medical emergency, a road accident etc? You will have to involve other people who may well have to have contact with vulnerable people. I can understand why people want to get away but I struggle to classify any of the trips mentioned above as anything other than "non essential " . Does it need total lockdown for people to stay at home?

That is a very good point, however as other have said when staying in your own home things can break and I am just as likely to have a medical issue at home as when I am away.
As for breaking down, well mine is a self built van and I carry a very comprehensive toolkit along with a whole raft of spare parts and as for having an accident, well it is over 50 years and well over 1,000,000 miles since I last had a RTA of any kind so I am far more likely to trip over at home!

Is all your food and drink home-produced?
We take away raw, frozen meat as well as frozen pre-cooked meals such as curries, spag-boll & chillie and my wife is an utterly brilliant cook who can prepare a superb stir-fry in next to no time out of the ingredients we take away with us.
And even at home we currently have almost 6 months supply of frozen meats in our freezers we obtain fresh from a local industrial trade source.
And as for our alcoholic pleasures, we buy most of them on-line from the likes of Laithwaites and other similar companies.
 
What if you have an emergency at home? Hospital needed, or a burst water pipe etc? You're no more isolated at home, probably less than if you find somewhere in the middle of nowhere to hole up....
Agree but you would be using your own resources. North Wales health services already struggling to cope with an influx of second home and caravan owners. Why even entertain the possibility (however remote) that you could be adding to an already serious problem. Imho we will be in a lockdown position before long precisely because people will ignore advice such as no unnecessary journeys ( and that is what you are doing....no ifs, no buts...you are ignoring the official advice). May not affect you in your circs but DOES have an impact on others. Will you still say the same if ordered to remain at home e.g France, Spain etc ? There is a reason why they have had to take such draconian action.
 
What " own resources" would I use at home? Burst pipe- plumber called to repair, medical emergency- local a&e.... More likely to sort my own issues out when in the bus.
What about all the people abroad who are being brought back here? Is that any more essential than me going out in my bus?
Still say I'd be less strain on the system if I was away in my bus.....
 
Agree but you would be using your own resources. North Wales health services already struggling to cope with an influx of second home and caravan owners. Why even entertain the possibility (however remote) that you could be adding to an already serious problem. Imho we will be in a lockdown position before long precisely because people will ignore advice such as no unnecessary journeys ( and that is what you are doing....no ifs, no buts...you are ignoring the official advice). May not affect you in your circs but DOES have an impact on others. Will you still say the same if ordered to remain at home e.g France, Spain etc ? There is a reason why they have had to take such draconian action.

There are two sides to this argument. If people are relocating to second homes/caravans it is likely that these are in areas of lower population density than they are leaving, thus making the chances of contact with others less likely.
Personally I do not expect to interact with anyone whilst out in my van for a few days, and will have diminished the overall risk of interaction by going somewhere uninhabited. I have sufficient fuel for several months of the type of trips planned and as the weather gets warmer gas will last for weeks too.
In some ways, such as accident for example, risk of interaction is increased but I think that overall by leaving a relatively populated area overall risks to everyone are actually decreased.
 
Until there is a complete lockdown, people will make their own personal decisions as to what journeys are necessary. It may well be that UK campsites are told to close in the future, but for now people can use them if they are well and take the same precautions as if they were at home. I don’t see that example exacerbating the current crisis, even less when a lot of us would use more remote sites and CL’s. Equally there is no presumption against outside activities, indeed we are being encouraged to stay healthy, provided we don’t interact with others in a way that could cause transmission of the virus. I will certainly keep going fishing until I’m told not to, or until someone catches the virus from a trout. Common sense required although I appreciate it can be hard to find amongst all the panic buying.
 
This whole " lockdown" thing is bollocks anyway. I am being told not to travel anywhere unessential & don't mix with anyone. I have a 16 yr old son who is forced to go to school as the powers that be have said schools can stay open for now.
So every day my son gets on a bus full of other people for a 90 minute journey into the centre of Barnsley where he mixes with all the other college students for 6hrs before making a 90 minute bus journey home from Barnsley bus station!
How come I'm such a high risk while my son obviously is neither at risk or causing a risk???
I can't keep him at home either, as because his school is still open I would be breaking the law by not sending him....
 

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