Travel in the Time of Coronavirus? Really?

Hiya Internet! I still have not detailed the return trip from my Thai adventure last year, nor have I told you about a little local trip I made in February, and I will get to finishing those posts as soon as I can manage. Right now, I want to talk about life under coronavirus lockdown back home in South Africa. No, I am not travelling right now and will not do so during lockdown or any continued at-risk time period. I am obeying South African law and all health recommendations. #flattenthecurve #stayhome #staysafe and any other relevant hashtags or whatever little aphorisms are floating about. But do I intend to travel again when this pandemic is over and I can afford to do so again? Absolutely!

Okay let me address the very click-baitey title, I will once again reiterate that I would not flout the law nor engage in reckless behaviour like travel at this time, but I could not resist a riff on the book title “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Now I have not read this specific Marquez book, but loved “One Hundred Years of Solitude” immensely, so I am adding it to my lockdown list of books to read. However, putting aside pun-ny titles and click-bait, thinking about travel and obviously this concept (which has been the backbone of this blog thus far) is still in my mind even amidst this global pandemic. Because while we are all trying to get through the current crisis and actually survive this pandemic, it is becoming clear that the knock-on effect of this disease, social distancing and lockdowns will be changing the world we all live in. So, the question then becomes what will we go back to and what will be abandoned as irrelevant in this new future. For me travel will be part of my life when all of this has calmed down, I will see more of the world when safety and finances allow. What I will leave behind, that is still to be determined…

Now let’s talk about being in lockdown. South Africa is in the middle of a 21-day lockdown (this is for an initial period, as has been seen in other countries, this may well be extended) to try and flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic in this country. Unlike other countries, the conditions of the lockdown are not suggestions, like they are elsewhere, here they are law. People are not allowed to leave their homes and properties unless they work in essential services (healthcare, banking, police, you get the idea) or are going to buy food, medicine, again, you know what they mean. You can’t go outside for any other reason, so no outside walkies, no walking your pooch, no jogging, no solo drives, nothing of the kind. And the government are really serious, the police and army are out to enforce the rules. This has gone about as well as could be imagined, basically not well would be an understatement. Citizens break the lockdown, the boys (and girls) in blue and cammo react and in some really bad cases overreact, the results have not been pretty. So, running out of fresh fruit and vegetables about a week into lockdown? Yeah, that’s okay, cans, frozen and dried goods are my friends.

So, what does my typical day look like under lockdown? I have been waking up early most mornings to run around outside, but within the property to get exercise. I know I am in a fortunate position to be able to do this, as most people don’t have this opportunity and most people in this country live in places where they cannot safely practice social distancing. But I can do this and I will because exercise keeps me healthy and I need to try and keep it up. I have been doing about 10 to 11 kilometres a day. This may sound impressive, but it isn’t really, I am quite slow. I have been on an extra fitness kick since last year, I usually exercise most days, but really ramped it up at the end of last year and then decided in January to start running again. I started running 6 days a week. This is quite an achievement, not because I work out 6 days a week, but because it is 6 days a week of running. Why is that a thing? Because I hate running. I hate it so much! Which is exactly why I like to challenge myself with something I can’t stand and am not very good at every so often. So, I got to the point of managing 10 to 12 kilometres a morning by March by varying my routes and pushing through. Now, if I want to maintain my fitness, I have to do a tiny, tiny circuit more than one hundred times each morning to manage my daily kilometres. This is truly my lockdown challenge. How did I do my first week? Five days of early morning runs, some fitness videos and then 50 minutes on an elliptical machine. Have I mentioned how much I miss the gym?

Okay, enough already about my fitness tedium. What does the rest of my day in lockdown look like? After all my admittedly excessive exercise, I start work via phone, computer and whatever I can do to get things done. I am also spending a lot of “downtime” on chores and cleaning. This is taking up much more of my day than you would think. I am grateful. Let’s put it this way, unlike many out there trying to find ways to alleviate boredom, tedium (other than in my runs, oh my word, the endless circuits…) is not one of my problems. In fact, there are still just not enough hours in the day.

I am also keeping in touch with friends and family on the phone. How do you manage tense times like these? Forwarding ridiculous videos and amusing memes around your family groups, your friends and around the world. This is the twenty-first century after all, we might not be able to save the almost 8 billion people on the planet from a new virus, but we sure can make them laugh about it.  

Like most people I would say I am catching up on my reading. I got a stack of books out of the library before lockdown, gathered up all my unread books and got all the unread books on my e-reader queued up and ready to read. Will I be more well-read by the time this is all over? Sure, if I read the “War and Peace”, various Bronte books, Ulysses, Steinbeck, all unread sitting on my e-reader or re-read “Crime and Punishment”, Eliot, Bernard Shaw, Wilde, all still waiting for me. But who am I kidding? I am going to finish the Sergei Lukyanenko Watch books I took out of the library and read the other genre tree and e-books I have floating about. Who knows, if this lockdown lasts long enough, I may make it through “War and Peace”, “Love in the Time of Cholera” and a whole host more. Scary stuff actually.

Am I bingeing movies and TV shows like the rest of the world? The short answer is not really. Am I watching things? You bet, but not significantly more than I usually do. I am being entirely unhealthy and eating almost every meal in front of the goggle box or watching YouTube videos on my phone. But these are crazy times and I give myself some credit for my exercise.

So that’s some of what a typical day of mine looks like under lockdown. I am going to continue blogging when I have the time and will keep updating what little I might be up to during the lockdown. I will finally get to finishing my outstanding blogposts. Certainly, I am keeping busy, no boredom here, and being a responsible citizen, like we should all be, I won’t be going anywhere else until it safe to do so. Besides I am managing to clock up at least 10 kilometres a day, sure I am not going anywhere, but still doing it. Stay safe out there, keep away from people as if they are plague carriers (because they could be), stay healthy and most importantly stay sane and kind!