Essential Wayfaring
Wayfaring during Pandemic/Lockdown
Essential Wayfaring is a way back onto the footpath, for journeys beyond the mandated ‘hour of exercise’, during the Covid19 pandemic/lockdown.
Essential Wayfaring is travel by footpath for “essential purposes” (like buying food).
If you feel the loss of freedom, and long for more time on the footpath, Essential Wayfaring offers a legitimate way to achieve this. Under lockdown, walking is tightly controlled as a form of exercise or leisure. But Essential Wayfaring is walking as transport, not leisure, which makes valid our footpath journeys of whatever distance is required to achieve essential purposes.
Freedom remains viable if we choose to claim it and are willing to meet its demands. It is only the convenience of long distance motorised travel that remains locked-down. If you are willing to let go of that convenience, Britain’s footpaths remain open for essential travel, with no limits on distance or duration.
Choose freedom. Take footpaths. Go Essential Wayfaring. (And help beat the Pandemic!)
The Five Principles of Essential Wayfaring:
Make your journey essential.
If you are permitted to drive there by car, you can walk there by footpath. Choose an essential purpose, such as shopping, and choose a valid destination. Don’t use Essential Wayfaring to go further than you normally would by car. This is not a loophole, but a recognition of true choice and basic freedom.
Start and end at home.
Walk there and back again. This is a deeply authentic and wholesome journey tradition. It is the full form of traditional pilgrimage that so few modern pilgrims choose.
Follow footpaths.
Plot your route to avoid roads. Keep safe, and protect the NHS.
Stay outside.
Minimise Covid transmission risk. Bring all you need for the whole journey.
Carry a Staff.
For social distancing and injury prevention. And because it’s still Wayfaring.
Essential Wayfaring is healthy
Essential Wayfaring benefits our physical, mental, social, ecological and economic health, all of which boost our resilience to help us thrive amid pandemic.
Essential Wayfaring is safer
During a pandemic, avoiding hospital is the best policy. For injury risk and Covid transmission risk, footpath travel is far safer than road travel. Walking avoids Covid hotspots like garages and train stations.
Essential Wayfaring works
The UK’s 140,000 miles of public footpaths are open to all and free to use, 24/7/365. Plus we have the world’s best civilian mapping, on paper or phone. You can find an off-road path to most essential destinations.
Essential Wayfaring is ancient
Combining walking with shopping transforms both activities and connects you to a very deep tradition. Ever since humanity began to farm, we have walked to the market for food. Before this, our nomadic forebears were constantly walking for food. Essential Wayfaring is a rewardingly authentic human experience. Walking from home and back might appear to be a limit on freedom, but it is the form of history’s greatest travel adventures. Join the lineage.
How to go Essential Wayfaring
Choose your Essential Destination.
Be sure your journey is essential. A good rule of thumb is to ask: ‘would it be alright to drive there?’. If yes, assume you can also walk there.
A significant consideration is time. Ask Google maps how far your destination is by car (don’t look at the walking part, it can’t be trusted). Take the Google mileage, and double it (as you’ll have to walk back again). I recommend planning for 2.5 mph. Do the basic sums, and work out how long you’ll need. Is it feasible? Are you able to safely Coldharbour if it is over a single day’s journey?
If you are choosing a food shop during the pandemic/lockdown, aim for the healthiest one you know, for immunity and health. Also try for less busy shops, to prevent transmission risks.
Also, be sure to walk to the nearest shop that fits your essential needs. Your best bet is to use shops you would normally use. You could justify longer Essential Wayfaring journeys to outdoor markets, as these offer a further reduction of transmission risk.
Plot your Route.
Get an Ordnance Survey Map, in 1:25k or 1:50k scale. Find your home, and your essential destination on the map. To look online, OS mapping is free on Bing Maps. Follow the dotted red/green ‘Public Footpath’ lines. Aim to keep on these, and avoid roads as much as possible. Detour widely to avoid road walking. If you have to walk along a road, check on Google Maps Streetview to judge its safety. Look for a pavement or verge to walk safely. If not, change your route. Or your destination. Don’t take risks and walk along a dangerous road, especially during a pandemic. Better trespass in an adjoining field than risk burdening the NHS.
When returning home, you may wish to walk a different path. This is a very old hunters’ principle.
Pack Your Bag
Essential Wayfaring helps fight the pandemic by reducing Covid exposure risk. So this is undone if while Essential Wayfaring, you go indoors at places a drive would avoid. Plan to stay outside throughout!
This means bringing with you everything else you’ll need to remain safe and comfortable outdoors. Carry sufficient food, snacks and water. Wear the right shoes, and bring extra clothes and basic rain protection. Carry HSG (Hat, Scarf, Gloves) for temperature adaptability. Take a small first aid kit, and an outdoor toilet kit, just in case. Ensure your phone is charged, and bring an external battery and cable.
If your essential journey is to buy food from a shop, your backpack will need to be big enough to carry your shopping home. Be sure it has a hip belt, to ease the load. Bring a freezer bag if needed. And be mindful of the weight of liquids.
Walk Safely & Well
Walk. Go via the best places you can. Avoid as many roads as possible. Don’t go indoors. Follow the Countryside Code, and Leave No Trace.
If you meet other people, be sure to keep safe distance, but also be sure to offer cordial greetings. If a path is too narrow to pass safely, do your best to make room.
Carry a staff to avoid injury and to walk well.
Go slowly to notice yourself, other people, and the land. Listen to birdsong, and try to sing along. As well as the physical health benefits, a great advantage of Essential Wayfaring is its mental health support, which is largely gained through contact with Nature. So take the time to make the most of this opportunity while journeying off-road, and boost your pandemic resilience. Stop often. Stretch and practice silence.
Be sure to tell someone where you’re going, and your route.
Return Home
You may wish to walk back a different way than you came.
If your essential destination is too far to walk there and back from home in a day, you will have to take Wayfarers’ accommodation. To minimise the risk of Covid transmission, and follow the ‘Stay Outside’ rule, the only appropriate accommodation is Coldharbour. So be sure to carry Coldharbouring kit (mat, sleeping bag, shelter). Follow all normal Coldharbouring guidance - settle late and rise early, and sleep within a stone’s throw of the footpath. Take away any sign that you were ever there. Then rise and complete your journey home!
