Lessons of confinement
One of the main things this lockdown has done is given us food for thought and to revaluate our lives. Everything has stopped – like a game of musical chairs.
We take the simple things for granted, such as going out for a walk… probably the main thing that virtually everyone has missed.
The ability to walk freely is something we have I bet, all assumed we can do, whenever we wished and it isn’t until you cannot do it, that you realise how lucky we are.
We are now coming up to week 4 of lockdown… with at the moment at least, another 2 to go. However, as we all know, it could easily change and be further extended. So we may end up spending 6 plus weeks confined in our relatively comfortable homes.
Lockdown here is strict unlike in the UK, where we watch, aghast at the flagrant disregard by many of the advice to stay in.
Why oh why is it so difficult, especially when it is very well broadcast the devastation that it is causing in Italy and here in Spain.
A few months of inconvenience… Think, Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, most of them isolated on Robben Island off the coast of South Africa. He spent the first 18 of his 27 years confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing. Terry Waite was kidnapped as he tried to negotiate the release of four hostages in Beirut and held captive for five years, the first four years of which were spent in solitary confinement… yet some are struggling to stay indoors for a matter of weeks, months!
One of my favourite places where I really do enjoy walking to is the El Faro lighthouse in Albir – me along with thousands of others that is and where I can’t wait to go back. Every time I have visitors it is one of the places I always take them – the scenery and views are just spectacular. The path is in the natural park of the Serra Gelada which is a protected zone. There are several picnic benches at the beginning and where families often take a picnic, especially at the weekend.
There are various marked out routes which you can take - the most popular is the "easy" path heading straight up to the lighthouse. When I say straight it isnt´ in reality as it follows the contours of the mountain. You can see the lighthouse across the way and think you are nearly there, then as you turn one bend there are another half a dozen in front of you!
There are several information boards along the route giving facts and information - which are in both Spanish and English and designated view points for photo opportunities.
There are always plenty of people of all nationalities walking and you can also ride your bike along the route – though this is a bone of contention with many, me included as most just ring their bells and carry on barging through at great speed. I am surprised that they don’t have cycle times for those that insist on cycling up… the paths really aren’t wide enough to accommodate all at busy times.
In total the route up is about 2.5 km to the top which takes me around 30 minutes, walking fairly briskly. At the top there is an information and exhibition centre which is open Monday to Friday from 9am until 2pm and at the weekends from 10am until 1.30pm. There are some amazing old black & white photographs which have been blown up, showing the very first lighthouse keeper and his family, with information about them and how they used to live up there, remotely and isolated. The view from the top is absolutely stunning and certainly worth the trek up. There is a telescope around the back – free and it has been known that dolphins have been spotted out at sea. Unfortunately, I haven’t been lucky enough to spot them – yet! On a beautifully sunny day there is nothing to beat going up… the simple free things are often the most under rated but most fulfilling. To all the millionaires and billionaires… what is their money worth now – nothing.
If this lockdown has taught us nothing else except to appreciate those simple things we take for granted, then I’d say we’ve done well. It has also taught us that we don’t need to buy things just because we can – we are currently only able to buy essentials such as food, mainly because only supermarkets are open and all managing to survive. We are eating better on the whole as are having to cook rather than eating out or getting a take away. I am certainly baking a lot … only problem is, I am also eating it! For many, lockdown has separated families – I like many do not know when I will be able to travel back to London to see my mother. On the plus side, we are all probably in more contact now with friends, picking up the phone, whatsapping or face timing each other which is a positive. www.benidormallyearround.com