Friendship Trails and the Impact of COVID-19 on World Network Trails
The Friendship Trails project is an initiative of the World Trails Network, whereby trails in different countries team up in the name of partnership, mutual publicity and international cooperation. It is hoped the concept of Friendship Trails will spread internationally to promote the culture of walking and boost tourism. This will promote the sharing of information regarding building and maintenance of trails and management of trail organisations. The Bibbulmun Track Foundation aims to identify nine international trails to pair with each of the nine sections of our Track.
Friendship Trails.
We have established two Friendship Trails with the Bruce Trail in Canada (Balingup to DRV section)
and the Jeju Olle in South Korea (Denmark to Albany section).
An agreement has been signed with the Transcarioca Trail in Brazil (Kalamunda to Dwellingup), but progress has been delayed due to COVID-19. A fourth agreement is being established with the El Camino de Costa Rica (DRV to Pemberton section).
Impact of COVID-19 on World Network Trails.
COVID-19 affected all trails world-wide, including our partners…
Jeju Olle, South Korea
“We are still asked to refrain from big gatherings, but small gatherings are now allowed, with the condition of wearing masks at all times. As such, we have resumed our programs and outdoor events.”
“In Korea, we had seen rapid decrease in cases until couple weeks ago; however, we have just had group infections which could lead to a wider spread than the first wave in Korea. Consequently, Korea now has stage two social distance rules which limits gathering to 50 people at indoor events and 100 people at outdoor events.”
Bruce Trail Conservancy, Canada
“We have resumed our hiking program with restrictions on group sizes. The hikes must maintain social distance, there is no carpooling or organised overnight trips allowed We also have not resumed our larger events and are taking a very cautious approach to fully reopening. Most of our staff are working from home and our region is requiring masks in all indoor public spaces. Outdoor gatherings are limited to 100, with social distancing measures.”
…and others
The Thousand Miles Trail Association, Taiwan
“The Thousand Miles Trail Association (TMI Trail) has been back to normal since May, with restrictions on public gatherings lifted. However, people still have to give their names and contact details at gatherings and events, practice good personal hygiene and wear face masks if they cannot keep a safe distance from others or when using public transportation. All our events that were postponed from February to April have resumed and people are eager to get outdoors”
Cotswold Way National Trail
“All activities stopped on March 23rd and staff are still working from home. Our volunteers continued to walk as part of the Governments exercise outdoors allowance in the first few months, but with restrictions lifted they are now walking the Trail as before, avoiding busy times and carrying hand sanitizers! We have not restarted our guided walks. Our work parties only restarted in early July with maximum groups of six. The countryside has been extremely busy and we have seen more people out walking and picnicking than ever before.”
Paths of Greece
“We went into lockdown soon after the first cases, and this helped our country to have very low numbers of infections. The price to pay was the impossibility to go outdoors, especially for city dwellers. During lockdown, the amazing thing was that Greeks – for the first time in history—started walking like crazy in the cities! In late May, restrictions were lifted and people started exploring our trails again. However, due to closed borders we lost the spring hiking season. Now in summer, the pandemic seems uncontrollable and almost all of our trails are closed.”
Bibbulmun Track
The Bibbulmun Track Foundation is doing well. The Western Australian border is closed, and COVID-19 cases have remained manageable. The Track is very busy with people who would normally go overseas looking at alternatives. Our Marketing Manager has been encouraging people to get out into our beautiful outdoors and our membership has shown a small but steady increase. We cancelled or postponed many of our events but are now running them again.
To all our Friendship partners, the BTF hopes everyone is able to keep well throughout this challenging time and that it won’t be long before we can visit each other’s countries again.
