R
Rooney
Guest
Just got back from a short night walk - 2 hrs 45 mins, 6.5 miles of
woods and footpaths and lanes in Cheshire. It's a stormy night here,
with intermittent but torrential hail showers. The car thermometer had
said 0 degrees C, but I felt warm in between the hail. I took no map
or compass or GPS, figuring that I could not get lost in this familiar
territory, even in the dark, and carried no bag - nice and light. I
used the headtorch hardly at all - only for the first twenty minutes
when there was risk to life and limb while I was ascending the hill.
After that I could pick my way along the paths without it, and the
half moon emerging occasionally from behind the clouds helped light up
the wet and muddy ground. Leaving the paths from time to time to take
shortcuts through the woods, I had to go quite slow and keep a hand in
front of my face to prevent twigs poking me in the eye. I didn't do
too badly - although I occasionally teetered on the steep, muddy leaf
mould, I never once went on my ar*e.
Much as I have shunned them in the past (like headtorches!), I wore
mini-gaiters as I knew that otherwise the mud would go over the top of
my boots. Fiddly things, but they did the job.
I stopped for a smoke at midnight on the lee side of the woods,
listening to the groaning trees and a tawny owl, and flushed a
roosting buzzard which I glimpsed for a moment in silhouette a few
feet above my head. Nothing else stirred - not even a fox to be seen
in an area where they are very common, and no other deranged humans
whatever.
There's something really nice about being on a hilltop in the dark
with the hail lashing around you while you remain completely dry and
warm.
Then back home to a second helping of this evening's roast dinner.
Excellent.
--
R
o
o
n
e
y
woods and footpaths and lanes in Cheshire. It's a stormy night here,
with intermittent but torrential hail showers. The car thermometer had
said 0 degrees C, but I felt warm in between the hail. I took no map
or compass or GPS, figuring that I could not get lost in this familiar
territory, even in the dark, and carried no bag - nice and light. I
used the headtorch hardly at all - only for the first twenty minutes
when there was risk to life and limb while I was ascending the hill.
After that I could pick my way along the paths without it, and the
half moon emerging occasionally from behind the clouds helped light up
the wet and muddy ground. Leaving the paths from time to time to take
shortcuts through the woods, I had to go quite slow and keep a hand in
front of my face to prevent twigs poking me in the eye. I didn't do
too badly - although I occasionally teetered on the steep, muddy leaf
mould, I never once went on my ar*e.
Much as I have shunned them in the past (like headtorches!), I wore
mini-gaiters as I knew that otherwise the mud would go over the top of
my boots. Fiddly things, but they did the job.
I stopped for a smoke at midnight on the lee side of the woods,
listening to the groaning trees and a tawny owl, and flushed a
roosting buzzard which I glimpsed for a moment in silhouette a few
feet above my head. Nothing else stirred - not even a fox to be seen
in an area where they are very common, and no other deranged humans
whatever.
There's something really nice about being on a hilltop in the dark
with the hail lashing around you while you remain completely dry and
warm.
Then back home to a second helping of this evening's roast dinner.
Excellent.
--
R
o
o
n
e
y
