Welcome to what we hope is the beginning of our walking season. Obviously in this ever-changing environment what I am about to write is the current situation as of mid-August. I hope you enjoyed some of the descriptions of walks from other parts of the world. I certainly enjoyed reminiscing, but let’s get back to Murcia.
For our new season we have about 130 members and we hope to welcome many of them on our walks as we have a very varied walking programme. We are an international group and we know that some of our members are currently in their country of birth or elsewhere and, depending on the travel rules, may find it more difficult to return to their Spanish homes. We also have people who will be reluctant to join our walks due to either ongoing health concerns, or anxiety about mixing with others. We will be taking it slowly, one step at a time – if you excuse the pun!
The programme has some old favourites for people to enjoy and there are also some new walks. We have some novice walk leaders and a newly-developed four-stage guide to leading a walk to help them, plus about a dozen ‘buddies’ to assist. The season starts on 19th September and we have 23 walks on offer in all corners of the beautiful province of Murcia.
We continue in the ‘new normal’ and at all times walking groups must respond to the directives of Murcia’s government and Public Health authorities. Localised outbreaks might restrict activity and we will have to be ready to respond. We are still thinking about whether we need to restrict numbers on our walks to ensure social distancing.
We have some simple advice for people and although some of it is obvious it is better repeated to avoid confusion:
Do not walk if in the last 14 days you have been unwell or had contact with a known or suspected case of COVID-19.
Continue to maintain good hygiene and regular hand washing.
Wear a mask at all times (except when walking) and carry hand gel.
Meeting at the start of the walk will have to be different.
We are a very friendly group but there will be no kissing and cuddling.
We will have to think about some of our routes and see if it is possible to walk in parallel 1.5 metres apart or in single file.
For at least 4 weeks after each walk we will have to keep contact details of everyone, to assist with contact-tracing in the event a participant becomes unwell.
Our first walks:
Saturday 19th September – Cehegín
Saturday 26th September – Caravaca de la Cruz
Saturday 3rd October – Moratalla
We send details of each next walk to all on our WARM mailing list, normally about a fortnight ahead. If you are interested in joining us on a walk and want to be on our mailing list then contact Norma on Warm2005@gmail.com