Boris Walking: A Practical Guide

At the time of writing, it is still legal to take exercise in the form of going for a walk. To check the current rules in more detail, see here. Here's some suggestions about doing it in a safe and pleasant way.

To keep at least 2m away from other people (as you should), then you probably want less crowded places. So, if you're used to getting out into the great outdoors, think about the places you've been before. Are they often crowded? Is there a large car park, nice cafe, public toilets, etc? Give these places a miss. If there's hardly ever anyone around your favourite place, that could be a better choice.

With places you don't know, you're probably best off with places you've never heard of before.  If a place is famous (EG: The Pennine Way), don't go there. Some of the unknown places have great scenery and if they don't, at least they're empty of people and therefore safer.

Another good trick is to go for a walk at a quiet time. It's recently been established that you can drive to get to a walking place as long as you spend more time walking than driving. If you live in a populated area, driving a few miles out into the countryside could be both safer and legal. The main challenge may be finding somewhere to park that's safe and not full of other people.

To help you find places to go, look at Bing Maps and select "Ordnance Survey"

You should get something like this

This map has loads of clues for Boris Walking. The green dotted lines are public rights of way on foot but they're not all equal - for example:

The green dotted line with a diamond is a way-marked long-distance path - the Wysis Way. Although they're easy to follow, they may be well known and thus  crowded so perhaps better to avoid them

Here's some more ordinary footpaths but you'll notice than the East-West path has black lines down each side. This indicates a hedge, fence or wall so these paths are very narrow making it difficult to pass other people without getting close. If you can't easily avoid them, here's some tactics for risk reduction

• Before entering a narrow section, look along the path to see if there's anyone coming the other way. If there is, consider waiting for them to get clear.
• Wear bright clothing so that other people can see you coming from a distance and may wait for you to get clear
• Once you start walking a narrow path, keep going if you possibly can. If you stop for a rest, you become a blockage for others
• If you need to stop, try to do it at a junction (as in the middle of the example above) It's easier to pull off out of the way of other people there.

Although it's called "social distancing" you don't have to be unsociable. I've found that it's quite possible to initiate and continue a conversation from 4-5m away. So I quite often cross a lane to put distance between me and an oncoming walker, but I say "Good Afternoon!" too.

One worry is that you'll catch the virus  from a stile or gate that's been touched by an infected person. It could happen so I have a set of 5 washable gloves that I rotate between walks. I got a set of 3 fabric gloves from Wilko for £1.25