Hmm. I've now studied the detail of the government's four-stage Road Map out of the lockdown - you can download a long PDF document - and although caravanning is nowhere specifically mentioned, it does seem clear that staying away overnight on holiday will not be permitted before 12th April, even though travel away from home will be allowed from 29th March. So far as I can see, it'll be fine to drive off on a long day trip from 29th March to 11th April, but one must return home in the evening.
I need to know what the Caravan and Motorhome Club have to say on this asap. But I expect I'll now have to drastically curtail my first bookings for 2021 - not just shift them back - pushing the away-from-home dates well into the second half of April. But I can't push them too far, because I want to have a clear two weeks at home before setting off for Scotland in early May.
So it looks as if half my late March/early April trip to the West Country will have to be binned. This is disappointing, but I really can't complain. So many people will have to wait until the summer or even the autumn before getting the foreign holiday break they yearn for - if they can book anything at all. It would be extremely selfish of me to pout and moan. Besides, I am determined to support the government's plan. And in any case, my holiday activities in Scotland now look safe, following Nicola Sturgeon's statement today on how the lockdown in Scotland will be eased. That's actually a big consolation, as it is an important holiday.
Still, shifting the now cut-down West Country jaunt into the second half of April, and having only a short gap between that and the Scottish adventure, has consequences for other important things in my diary.
Among them, the date for Fiona's annual service and MOT. That's definitely got to be before I go to Scotland. I'm confident - of course - that Fiona would have no problems; but wisdom demands that one should avoid spending a month far from home - with plenty of heavy-duty caravan-hauling thrown in - without first ensuring that one's locomotive device is in tip-top condition, and all potential faults identified and dealt with. So the service date will now have to be moved forward. In fact, to late March or early April. I'd better get on with booking that: 'late March' is only a month away!
All this is a great improvement on last year's situation. And there is the glorious prospect of that 'return to normality'. How nice that will be when it comes!
I feel however that the collective experience of the pandemic has altered perceptions, expectations, ways of thinking, and values, quite a bit. Everyone has been inconvenienced. Everyone has felt frustrated. But everyone has also had a chance to consider what is important to them, what matters the most. I would be surprised if there is a sustained return to blind spend-spend-spend mass-consumerism as a way of life. I have some catch-up spending on clothes and shoes to attend to, but beyond that I just want to see people and do things in their company. I have weathered this pandemic with ease; indeed, in many respects it has suited my temperament rather well; but I have missed the meetups and social get-togethers I used to have. Well, not for too much longer!
Footnote
Fiona is now booked in for her annual service and MOT. And I've just heard (today, 25th February) that the Caravan and Motorhome Club is reopening its sites in England from 12th April. And that all Scottish bookings from 25th April are safe. Excellent. Now do I take the High Road or the Low Road to Bonny Scotland? (The A1 from Berwick-upon Tweed, actually)
