Six weeks ago I wrote:
Still, whatever the minor irritations of our immediate surroundings it has been good to escape Buxton for a few days. However, what we really need is to exit the entire country for a while. Our planned big escape in the Autumn has been scaled down in stages. Plan A, head back to Greece - weeks ago we concluded it involved crossing too many borders; plan B, a tour around Sardinia - though that only involves two borders, French and Italian if you use the Frejus tunnel, we decided that Italy can be difficult to negotiate at the best of times and might be even trickier right now; our conclusion - ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, only one national border and Spain is the easiest going place we know, the roads are great, the people friendly and accommodating. So, September 15th off we go.I think the reason that the UK is driving me nuts right now is that by the time we leave in mid September we will have been stuck here for over six months.
What this proves is that the only certain thing about the present moment is that it is difficult to be certain about anything. Making plans is a futile business. It makes life particularly tricky from a personal perspective, as I am one of the least spontaneous people you are ever likely to meet; my enthusiasm for pre-planning is probably borderline OCD. An autumn trip to Spain made perfect sense two months ago, Covid cases were in decline throughout the country; with a lower population density than France or, Italy, and direct ferry connectioms from the UK - it seemed ideally placed for an Autumn trip to the sunny south.
Wrong! Since then cases in Spain have spiked running at almost four times the daily rate of the UK, and France seems to be heading in a similar direction. Both these countries have been removed from the Foreign Office 'safe' list, and just to add to our uncertainty, last week Brittany Ferries mothballed half its fleet. The sailing we are booked on has disappeared from their published schedule but we are completely in the dark as to what they intend to do about it as they only communicate with customers due to sail within the next two weeks. Presumably they will get in touch in a week or so offering an alternative sailing swapping us from Portsmouth to Plymouth as they have one boat a week running to Spain from there. We are hoping they will offer a refund or a voucher as really, in the current circumstances, we do not want to tour around Spain. If we have no choice we'll head straight for Portugal which is now on the F.O. 'safe list' and seems to have Covid under some measure of control.
In fact, given we tend to stick to fairly remote places on our travels, avoid cities and don't eat out much, even with virus 'spiking' in Spain the risk of infection is probably quite low. As for having to quarantine for two weeks on our return, that seems an acceptable price to pay for two months of travel in the sunny south. The key issue for us is to do with travel insurance. Until the end of the year UK citizens are still covered by the EU's 'EHIC' card. However, it only covers you for basic healthcare provision which differs from country to country; not all offer an NHS style universal health service, and using the EHIC card means having to deal with the bureaucratic complexities of whatever country you happen to fall sick in. Consequently, ever since we started to travel long term in 2014 we have taken out annual health insurance cover - at present using 'Insure and Go'.
Looking at Insure and Go's website it was less than clear how cover for international road travel was affected by the current situation, particularly regarding Foriegn Office guidelines. In one respect the advice online was clear, our policy would be invalidated if we ignored Foreign Office advice. What I was interested in is how that would apply if you crossed a territory currently suspended from the FO approved list in order to reach one that was included, for example, headed through Spain to reach Portugal or drove across France on the way to Germany or Italy. Would entering a country in contravention of FO guidelines as invalidate your insurance for the entire trip, or only for the time you spent places currently removed from the approved list?
Fortuitously the renewal reminder arrived from Insure and Go. I phoned them to arrange cover for the coming year and took the opportunity to pose the question about cross border travel. The advisor was unsure saying it was not a question that she had been asked before - it struck me that both government policy and travel insurance risk assessments are shaped by the requirements of air travel, the fact that millions of people visit Europe by road and rail is a secondary concern. Anyway, the very pleasant and helpful adviser put me on hold for a while while she talked to her manager. She came back with positive news. The policy would only be invalid for claims relating to time spent in countries missing from the approved list, as soon as you entered an 'approved country' cover would be reinstated. Immediately I began to dream-up alternative plans - if we are stuck with the booking to Santander with Brittany Ferries, head towards Portugal as fast possible; if we get a re-fund, then book the tunnel.
The plan moved from alternative to actual sooner than anticipated. The email arrived from Brittany Ferries offering a full refund.. We mulled over the options for about a minute and a half, then decided to book a tunnel crossing for September 15th. Plan A- head quickly to Italy aiming to find some early autumn warmth on the Ligurian coast and Elba; plan B, to go somewhere, anywhere - Denmark, Norway, Holland - some place in Europe where our health insurance was valid. Of course there is no certainty about any of this, the epidemic could 'spike' here and travelling anywhere stymied.
The prospect of being cooped-up here for months to come I find difficult to countenance. We managed through the weeks of lockdown as well as we could, like everyone else. Looking back, perhaps the very peculiarity of the situation helped make it tolerable, so odd it was bearable.
Then over the past 10 weeks we have been busy with out house re-build. This,
became this
Involving lots of this in the process...
At times exhausting and challenging, but never boring - so much physical work that I have lost almost a stone without trying. We are delighted with the end result. The garden is a bit of a quagmire, but we'll fix that over the coming months.
Without the excitement of the refurbishment the prospect of being stuck in Buxton for the foreseeable future is almost intolerable. What months of being grounded has made me realise is that for me travel is not a hobby or a pastime but some kind of psychological imperative. I am drawn towards the anonymity that travel brings, the opportunity to simply disappear into a crowd or find empty places that allow me to be alone with my thoughts. It's not that I find sociability a struggle, simply that quite often it feels like an effort. The thing that I missed during lockdown was not social interaction but strangers to observe, luckily the uncanny quietness filled the garden with birds, we watched those instead and were happy enough.
Also, home versus abroad is a false dichotomy to me. We are more familiar with Spain than Scotland, and the welcome we have found as travellers in Iberia is often warmer that you get here. In comparison Britain is an inhospitable place, wary of strangers, courtesies so often edged by sarcasm. Of course not speaking the language does mean you can never be truly at home abroad, though it is fair to say, if you have travelled in the US or Australia, you soon realise that sharing a language does not necessarily mean you share a culture. At times encounters in Scotland, Yorkshire and the Northeast have led me to reflect sometimes this is true even in Britain. This sense of being a foreigner in my own land grows stronger by the year. One of the delights of being in Lisbon, Seville, Bologna or Corinth is you are highly unlikely to be surrounded by Tories. This feels like a blessing.
Still, it remains touch and go whether we can escape, as the virus makes a rampant come-back in France and Spain and daily cases here rise too. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile all three of our kids have arrived for a kitchen warming party. The remodelled, open plan design proved to be as great a social space as we hoped. It's rare outside of the Christmas holidays for all of us to be together - it was great.
So few things feel great right now, it makes the occasional good moments extra special.