A Nice Walk in the Dark

I consider myself a fortunate person. I live in a country where going out at night is mostly safe. The most likely thing to get you is a car that doesn’t stop at red lights. And because it’s so calm, I can also go out and play some Pokemon GO as well. It’s very pleasant.

However, currently, it’s cold, and it gets dark quite early. We are in the middle of winter, after all. But the darkness can be a little depressing. This is where Pokemon GO comes into play, chewing away at my more negative feelings. It’s nice, just walking around catching things. The route I take is circular, I just go in a giant circle mostly. But that circle is about a kilometer, or there about. The path is also mostly well lit too, so I’m not walking completely in the dark.

On this route, I do see quite a few Pokemon. For reasons unknown, they mostly congregate underneath what used to be the only Pokestop in the area, which is now a gym. Thanks to Wayfarer, I now have four gyms and five Pokestops all nearby. Almost all of which were nominated by me. I don’t know why there’s so many gyms, but it makes getting coins a lot easier. The Pokestops are less impressive and more spaced out, unfortunately, but I still go and visit them, in search of decent research tasks. The Pokemon spawns aren’t that amazing either, but I have seen a steady increase of spawns. Not enough to do a community day, not at all. But it’s enough for a spotlight hour.

The exercise is also pretty good for me. Okay, walking isn’t exactly strenuous, but it does get me up and moving. To do some exercise is better than to do none at all. On the plus side, most of the walk is uphill, meaning I’m burning a few extra calories. A whole loop of a walk is about 800m – 1km, and I can do that as many times as I want, since my normal trip is circular. But I can also shorten the path if I want. There’s a few back roads I can do down rather than doing a full loop. According to my daily incense, I walk anywhere between 850 and 1000m. Not sure why it varies, but oh well.

Of course, I still have to be careful. After all, it’s dark and things can happen in the dark. That’s why I always wear something bright and shiny, so I can more easily be seen by passing traffic. By wearing a sparkly jumper or my glittery snuggly jacket, I am much more obvious. The path I walk on doesn’t have pavement the entire way, so I do have to walk along the road a little bit. Luckily the roads here have plenty of space on either side, which is far enough away from the more busy traffic.

Overall though, my walks are very enjoyable. Sure, it’s dark, but that just adds to the ambiance.