Today we completed our 5th day of quarantine and became eligible to take advantage of the Day5 Early Release Scheme. Madeline drove us into town (the first time we’ve been out of her home and back garden) for the administered Swab. The results are expected between 3am and 8am tomorrow.
Allison at the Day5 administration pharmacy.
In expectation of a negative result, we’ve booked our bus ticket to London for the morning. The excitement is mounting.
Tonight we’re being treated to a proper Fish and Chips dinner. The excitement is mounting for this as well!
As I said, just a quick post today. Tomorrow should be an eventful day!
I’m just trying this out so, let’s see what happens. This link is our intended route out of London for Day 1 of our pilgrimage.
It departs from Southwark (pronounced Suthuck) and travels along the Thames past the Tower of London and tower Bridge among other wonderful iconic sites. Next you’ll see the path turning briefly away at Greenwich where we will cross into the Eastern Hemisphere. From there we make our way a bit further East ending in the suburbs of Woolwich.
It’s a short day to kick off a very long walk.
But mainly I’m just trying this Gaia link out to see how it looks on the blog. 🙂
Today is Tuesday and day 3 of our required down time. I am sure you are wondering what we do to entertain ourselves.
Besides completing crossword and sudoku puzzles, route planning for our hike, eating and sleeping, we do exercise. But creativity is key! So here is little clip of what has become one of our daily habits.
We really had to find a way to stay in shape! Aaaaaand Action:
Mark is getting really good at plotting our journey too. The GPS map of one of walks should give you some idea of what we’re going through. It’s kind of funny.
Well, just a brief report about life in quarantine.
We spent days 1 and 2 of quarantine getting used to our surrounds and being quite pampered by my 2nd cousin Madeline and her husband Mark who are hosting us. Because of the isolation rules we feel a little helpless at times and wish we could do more to help.
Madeline’s Neighbor has an interesting shrub.
It’s a bottle brush plant.
We’ve attempted to do a few hundred laps around the back garden and Allison spent some time making a game of it as we walked in multiple patterns one afternoon and then hand in hand the next. It’s been quiet and fun in that regard.
We did have the opportunity to be part of the hype – albeit virtually – of the England v Italy European Cup Championship. Disappointingly, the Three Lions club weren’t victorious but they played a good match and the game went into and through extra time and was finally settled by free kicks.
Today I was given a much requested assignment. Mark asked if I could design and build a workbench for his shop. This, of course, was eagerly agreed to and now with the design drawn up I’m looking forward to building something.
In the meantime Allison and I (mostly Allison) have gotten some lodging research completed for the first few stages in France.
Allison being productive in planning
Last of all, we took and posted our mandatory Day2 Covid swabs. These mark the beginning of the end of our quarantine. Assuming these are negative we would only await a similar result from the Day5 early-release test.
So, there’s our report. Thanks for following along and being patient. Know that we are as eager as you (likely more so) to get moving and get the quarantine faze over and done with.
More later…likely as we await or get our Day5 tests or perhaps an update on the workbench to pass the time.
There will be little to write about for the next few days as we’ve now made it safely to our quarantine home in Christchurch UK. Thank you again Madeline and Mark!
Masked up and ready to fly
The journey was uneventful overall. Our daughter Sarah drove us to the airport in Greensboro, NC and we were able to take off before the thunderstorms and landed just before flights were temporarily held at Dulles Airport due to lightning. We were quite late leaving Dulles but flew across the pond and landed only about an hour delayed.
The lightening passed, we await our gate-checked bags at Dulles.
Immigration was a breeze and we made it to our bus to Bournemouth and train to Christchurch like the traveling pro’s that we are.
Allison jet lagged but happy
The sky’s were stereotypically English grey and there were fits of rain as we approached our destination but fortunately stopped as we walked the short distance to our temporary home. But the cool seaside air was lovely and the sound of seagulls occasionally breaks the stillness. Everything is so green and growing.
Bournemouth Station
Madeline met us and showed us to our room right off the back garden and we met the family including Molly the Spainerpoo. As we sat in the back garden the clouds broke and the sun turned the cool air quite warm. It was so warm in fact that even a nice cup of tea wasn’t enough to hold back the sun and jet lag induced haze. Sleep was about to overcome me. A short nap was in order.
Roses in the back garden
Anyone who has done this route knows that the best way to overcome jet lag is to hold-out past supper time before lying down. But since we literally have no plans for the next several days we are in no hurry to get on the right clock. Still we both kept our nap short (about 45min….I think).
In order not to bore you we won’t be posting very often for the next few days. Quarantine life will undoubtedly be slow and unchanging…a welcome respite after the hectic nature of planning and training over the last several weeks. But you’ll hear from us soon with at least an update regarding our Day2 and Day5 Covid PCR tests and any other fun items that come up.
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