Caving under the ?new normal? how will we know when ?

[alastairgott]

What you can do in the way of caving may very well depend on where you live in relation to caving areas.  There is a difference in being able to cycle or drive for, say, an hour and go down a cave (or even walk there), as opposed to living 4 or 5 hours drive away, which makes it impractical to do even day trips. 

We?ll have to have caver post for cavers then if I live an hour away and someone else lives two hours away, well then, I?ll have to give them a lift.

I wonder how far you could stretch that round the country. Maybe even hiring coaches, sorry, got carried away maybe not allowed coaches in social distancing times.

 

[Duck ditch]

I think the travelling is going to b3 the hardest bit when the lockdown is relaxed.  You could argue that you are socially distancing in the cave, except digging.  But car sharing just can?t be done at a 2 metre distance. 

 

[cavemanmike]

Irelands lock down plan is by the 18th of May outdoors sports will be allowed

 

[al]

Irelands lock down plan is by the 18th of May outdoors sports will be allowed

  Where does it say that? Do you mean the "up-to-four from different households" can meet outdoors?

 

[Kenilworth]

I don't know how US cavers generally have reacted to the current sociopolitical/health dilemma, nor do I know what local governments allow or forbid, but I have carried on caving as normal.

 

[mikem]

Are you near a state boundary?

 

[Kenilworth]

Are you near a state boundary?

Me? I live in two states and keep the road hot between them. I do most of my regular caving in six states.

 

[alastairgott]

Woweee, sounds like a great life. 3 of the 6 must be TAG.

hmm if you're a cave diver then Florida as well?

 

[Kenilworth]

Woweee, sounds like a great life. 3 of the 6 must be TAG.

hmm if you're a cave diver then Florida as well?

No TAG, only TN. I live in Ohio and Virginia and cave there plus West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. These are the places I have active survey projects.

 

[yrammy]

There must be a way................

 

[JasonC]

The severity of the lockdown has been to protect the NHS from breaking under a wave of very sick people.  In the main, this has been successful, though I appreciate it must have been (and still is) hellish for a lot of health workers.
Quite soon (a week or two?) there will be more confidence that the curve has been flattened, the NHS will survive and has some spare capacity for doing non-Covid work.
At that point, there will be increasing pressure to start lifting the lockdown - gradually - presumably starting with low-risk activities.

To my mind, a small group of cavers, travelling separately, doing a familiar trip in good weather, foregoing a trip to the pub (alas!) and going home - this is about as low-risk as you can get, probably more so than cycling, as others have pointed out.

Caving - a responsible way to preserve physical and mental health!

 

[JoshW]

I would imagine that the BCA will put a statement out, combining advice from various sources including BCRC, effectively following suit of BMC, just like they did when lockdown came into effect.

 

[Ian P]

Fingers crossed that something favourable comes from this Sundays announcement.

Currently we have:

The government saying No
The BCA  (and CNCC) saying no
MRT?s and CRO saying No
A number of rural locals not wanting  ?visitors? or ?outsiders? to visit the areas.

We will need very clear guidance from first 3 to help with the forth.

Anyway in the big picture not caving is hardly a problem and from a ?freedom? point of view we have had a relatively ?relaxed? lockdown compared to some other countries.

No doubt we will have the wettest 6 months on record once we can go again 

 

[Jenny P]

I would imagine that the BCA will put a statement out, combining advice from various sources including BCRC, effectively following suit of BMC, just like they did when lockdown came into effect.

Actually the latest BMC Newsletter is extremely informative on the subject of the lockdown and also what it means for Club Huts.  They do have a professional staff to deal with all this sort of stuff and put out factual information which is very helpful.

 

[JoshW]

I would imagine that the BCA will put a statement out, combining advice from various sources including BCRC, effectively following suit of BMC, just like they did when lockdown came into effect.

Actually the latest BMC Newsletter is extremely informative on the subject of the lockdown and also what it means for Club Huts.  They do have a professional staff to deal with all this sort of stuff and put out factual information which is very helpful.

Don't get me wrong, I think the BMC have come out and handled it well.

 

[Pitlamp]

No doubt we will have the wettest 6 months on record once we can go again 

Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Of course rivers are right down now, whilst we can't make use of the opportunity! Here's Clapham Beck outside the CRO depot today.

 

[Fjell]

Still Superdry.

 

[Benfool]

Sob sob sob

Stop torturing me!

No doubt we will have the wettest 6 months on record once we can go again 

Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Of course rivers are right down now, whilst we can't make use of the opportunity! Here's Clapham Beck outside the CRO depot today.

 

[Pitlamp]

Don't worry mate, I'm suffering just as much. 

 

[Ian P]

A very interesting document from the BMC regarding ?their?  activities and proposals to reintroduce them.

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/Handlers/DownloadHandler.ashx?id=1901&_ga=2.99259294.1475690427.1588876062-1133326949.1588876062