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Athens One Challenge


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Coronavirus: UK to open up European holidays from 6 July https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53199089

Countries likely to be accessible are:  Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Turkey, Germany and Norway 

Edited by robert_parker
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Whether or not any particular country is accessible or not is one thing; the fact that there has been but little progress in terms of tackling this virus, and its potentially catastrophic effects is another.  I hate to be Sammy Sceptic but I doubt there'll be a definitive answer, such as a vaccine, by October.

Some of us might be clinically vulnerable, others might be vulnerable by virtue of age and other personal characteristics, which will lead to us all making our own personal risk assessments of a trip like this.  And at present, as we know, air travellers are required to wear masks for pretty much the entire period of the air travel 'experience', and certainly in the cabin.  All other factors aside, there's no way I'd submit to a ~4 hour flight from UK to Athens wearing a face mask, but that's just me. 

Perhaps taking your Beemer is not such a bad idea Robert!

So as things stand at present, I doubt that I'll be making the trip to Greece this year. And that makes me sad because I'll miss the friendship and fun of the One Challenge enormously.

 

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I largely agree with John.  I haven't decided either way yet and, for me, all the holes need to line up before I'll be ready to commit but it's too early to do that just yet in my opinion.  I'm still keen to go to Athens for the One Challenge in principle.

The easing of travel restrictions and removal of mandatory isolation on return are massive steps forward from where we've been over the past weeks but the risk of becoming infected (or unwittingly infecting others) in Greece or en route is still higher than I'm comfortable with so I hope that as October approaches the apparent risks subside to a level I would be comfortable with.  We shall see.

Pete.

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We abandoned our efforts to take Izzy to breed in the Netherlands in March to avoid being locked down abroad and avoided that by two days. If at all possible we may revisit the idea when she comes into season again, late September/early October but if it doesn’t look safe enough to do so we shall leave it until next year. Either way, we shall not be going to Athens in October and, if it takes place, we shall of course miss everyone that goes.

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Like so many, I cannot make my mind up about going to Athens in October. I would like to go for the companionship of the weekend but don't like the idea of travelling and taking the associated risks. On the other hand, to delay until next October seems an awfully long time to wait in order to meet friends again.

I would like to suggest that we consider not putting the event off for a full year, but think about delaying it until next Spring. Who knows, we could even consider having two challenges next year, one in Spring and the second in the traditional October.

Just a thought.

https://photographybytomlane.com

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We won’t be going to Athens this year either, regardless of being allowed to or not. 


And if Tom (I live in an aeroplane) Lane doesn’t fancy it, then...

 

Ann has been working with colleagues who have had the virus and patients who are getting over it. She’s seen what it can do to people. She doesn’t want to get it and, frankly, neither do I. 
 

I was thinking that if things are a bit better we could have a parallel Challenge in London (or other UK city of choice). Many of us obviously come from this side of La Manche, so I will throw that into the mix. Anyone on the forum who could arrange to meet with other members, socially distanced of course, could also do the same.
 

And if some lucky folk get to Athens, then brilliant. They can recce the city’s restaurants for the rest of us for next year 😊

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Personally, I would be flexible to change target cities in the framework of travel restrictions, if this would support the Challenge. Anyhow, I'm sure we will work something out; the Challenge has shown quite some resilence so far; I guess it helps having a proven framework and being otherwise mostly self-organized by experienced travellers. We will certainly meet again.

Until then, stay safe everyone

Stefan

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4 hours ago, andybarton said:

We won’t be going to Athens this year either, regardless of being allowed to or not. 


And if Tom (I live in an aeroplane) Lane doesn’t fancy it, then...

 

Ann has been working with colleagues who have had the virus and patients who are getting over it. She’s seen what it can do to people. She doesn’t want to get it and, frankly, neither do I. 
 

I was thinking that if things are a bit better we could have a parallel Challenge in London (or other UK city of choice). Many of us obviously come from this side of La Manche, so I will throw that into the mix. Anyone on the forum who could arrange to meet with other members, socially distanced of course, could also do the same.
 

And if some lucky folk get to Athens, then brilliant. They can recce the city’s restaurants for the rest of us for next year 😊

I won't be travelling abroad this year regardless of the air corridors or whatever. Much as I'd love to travel, the risks are just too high.

Significant numbers of people are still dying from Covid each week, things have improved for sure, but it hasn't gone away and indeed some countries are seeing increases.

If you do travel and are unfortunate to come down with Covid whilst away, you will be stuck wherever you are - travel insurance will not cover you for anything Corona Virus related - no repatriation, no medical costs etc. etc. which is a huge financial risk to consider. 

So no, I won't be going to Athens.

I do like Andy's idea of a more 'local' challenge for those of us in the UK however.

 

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6 hours ago, andybarton said:

nd if some lucky folk get to Athens, then brilliant. They can recce the city’s restaurants for the rest of us for next year 😊

...given that the decision is taken (by the forum members) not to proceed this year (might be Cleethorpes 2021.... 😷)

Edited by robert_parker
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I also prefer to skip the October 2020 Challenge in Athens, but support the idea from Tom to have an additional spring event.

I also like the idea from Andy to have a parallel meet in London on the same weekend as the Athens Challenge would have taken place, but for some of us Germans it would still mean traveling by plane......

So as most of the One Challenge participants are coming from UK and Germany, in addition I would like to offer the idea to have 2 parallel local Challenges, one in UK and one in Germany. Same rules as normally would apply, we could submit our best pics that were taken on a trust basis on that Saturday afternoon following thee same One Challenge rules and have a winner.

Just curious to hear what your opinion would be.

 

 

Cheers

 

John

 

Edited by satijntje
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Well, I like the idea of a continental One; just to throw more options in the ring (out of self-interest, since I get Germany all over the year :) ), Nice is nice in October, if you excuse the not-so-original pun and a two-day car-drive or a one-very-long-day train ride from Hamburg. Would be very close for Philippe, though, in case he is interested to join a conti-one. Similar for Marseille. Switzerland would be close for Ravi.

Hotels and rental cars can be had on pretty short notice; this combination would allow to take the final decision when the situation looks still good even early October.

Unfortunately, the Hamburg-Harwich ferry was discontinued some years ago.

Stefan
 

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2 hours ago, StS said:

Well, I like the idea of a continental One; just to throw more options in the ring (out of self-interest, since I get Germany all over the year :) ), Nice is nice in October, if you excuse the not-so-original pun and a two-day car-drive or a one-very-long-day train ride from Hamburg. Would be very close for Philippe, though, in case he is interested to join a conti-one. Similar for Marseille. Switzerland would be close for Ravi.

Hotels and rental cars can be had on pretty short notice; this combination would allow to take the final decision when the situation looks still good even early October.

Unfortunately, the Hamburg-Harwich ferry was discontinued some years ago.

Stefan
 

Depending on the hotel situation and the infection rate I wouldn’t mind going to Nice, or anywhere in Europe that’s driveable. 

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You just have to start early, if you come with the Landrover :) (apologies, I think we used this line before).

I went to Nice very spontaneously in October years ago, I had no reservation (this was before internet booking) just took the rental car to the city and the second hotel had a room.

Stefan

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1 hour ago, farnz said:

... assuming Philippe is in Cannes and not China of course, Stefan. 🤔

Pete.

Don't tempt me, in other times, if we would keep the pattern (2015 Kyoto, 2017 Melbourne and 2019 NY), the next long distance challenge would be due in 2021. Although, if we go Chinese, my suggestion would be Hong Kong or Taiwan, firstly, because the visum is much easier (you just fill in a form at arrival) and secondly, I have organized a workshop once in Taipei and twice in HK and could contribute enough local knowledge for the organization.

But alas, we are currently living in other times...

Stefan

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