Why is Important to Go Outdoors in Social Isolation and How to Do It

We are entering the 5th week of isolation.

What was said to be the two weeks, now turned in to well over a month and probably we are facing at least one more month of it. We are lucky, they say.

I must admit that for me things didn't change much. I liked staying at home and spending time with my boys well before this coronavirus threat.

Nevertheless, things changed for our family. Now there are five of us at home. Constantly. We are used to be together a lot, but now our home has turned into the office (hubby works from home most of the time, luckily I am still on my maternity leave) and school (the school year continues and boys get school work by email; still better than going to school, they say, but staying in all the time isn't something that they are too happy about). We also cook a lot more now that we are home during the day, every day, and clean, which is not my favourite chore. At all.
First, as almost everywhere in the world, a public gathering was cancelled and prohibited. Then we were advised to stay home. Even after that everything apart from grocery stores has closed up. The last restriction came a fourth night ago when we were limited only on the area of the Municipality we live in.

With the warm and sunny weather we are having (Is there someone mocking us?!!!) it seems like nature has its agenda with us, humans. Or it just needs to heal?

So, now we are supposed to carry on with our normal lives between the four walls. As said work, teach, learn, exercise, create and I don't know what else. The day hasn't got as many hours as we would need to do everything that is thrown at us.

And staying inside all the time is just not possible. Or healthy. The boys need to move, get their legs stretched out. We all need to break the tension that gets pilled up during the day.

So what do we do?

Apart from the common small courtyard, that we share with four more households, we do not have outdoor space. Therefore, we need to make use of the outdoors to get fresh air and get moving.

There are places, where we can go outside and encounter a very few or no people.

Fortunately, we have some nice hills in the surroundings to choose from. Few of them won't be accessible for a while, due to new restrictions (Municipality only), but still, we have quite a choice. And we make sure that we stay away from the most visited paths and to run into as little people as possible.


Šmarjetna gora

Practical because of its accessibility. We can access it on foot from the house not needing to drive to the foothills. It is one of more favourite hills for the locals but there are more paths available.


Jamnik

A well-known hiking and cycling spot, that you can access by less-visited paths. Still, within our Municipality, Jamnik is picture-perfect with the church on top offers a splendid view on the surrounding tops of neighbouring hills.

Špičast hrib (Spiky Hill)

Most of the hikers would opt for the Sv. Jošt hill. The starting point to ... is the same as for Saint Jošt's. Some before the top you just take a different path and continue to ... The hike is not difficult and if lucky, there will be only you and the birds.

How do you cope with isolation? Do you go outside?