As we all know the lockdown has forced us to stay at home, so what does this mean for the loft?
We have the team of pigeons in the air and training well around the lofts, generally by now we would have been on the road for about 6 training flights so let us say that we are currently a week behind schedule so what do we stand to do?
We have applied to the government for a concession in partnership with the other olr’s so we can conduct our business, for now we have not received any feedback and realistically I do not think that we will be able to train pigeons for another month at least hopefully I am wrong but let us say that we can only start 4 weeks from now how will this affect the winter 2020 season:
The plan was to have the 160km Kroonstad training on 29 May 2020, and then race 1 from Verkeerdevlei (300km) on 26 June 2020 if the lockdown continues for another 4 weeks and we can only start training the pigeons then, we will just move the race program back by a few weeks. Due to the fact that the kit will be much fitter because they have been training around the loft an extra 3 weeks we will possibly be able to get them to the 200km mark quicker and then onto the races so perhaps we will be able to cut out two weeks of training flights and the race program might just be moved back by 2 weeks, this means we will end the season the first weekend of October, we can also if the pigeon perform well cut out one or two of the “rest weekends” if not we race them till the end of October. But yes for now it is all speculation as we have to wait and hear from the powers that be as to how soon we can get on the road with the pigeons!
This is definitely not an easy time for any of us not for you the entrant and not for us as well as we understand the frustration but we have to be realistic and try and keep a calm head. We also have to keep safe as we wish to race pigeons for a long time to come as well as host the olr so for now we are patient.