Mud, mud, glorious mud!

As today is our only full day at my son's, he had planned a longish walk. The poor weather forecast meant a change of plan to a walk along The River Ver Trail at St.Albans which he described as "a gentle stroll".

It began well with dry weather and we saw a variety of bird life including Kingfisher, a pair of jays, little egret, red kite and a heron. We walked by the side of the pretty chalk stream, enjoying the scenery and birdlife.

The rain started. When we got part way through a meadow, a pair of very large bulls crossed the stream and began to walk towards us. The rest of the herd were blocking where we needed to go. As we didn't fancy a close encounter of the bull kind we diverted along the field edge which turned into a bog. We hopped from clump to clump of grass and escaped over a stile.

On the other side we had a choice of walking along a dual carriageway or through another field which was the option we chose. This led to the far side of the bull field but away from the bulls. In order to retrace our steps we had to cross a very waterlogged swamp where the cattle had churned it all up. We teetered along then my foot slipped into the mud half way up my leg. As I tried to pull it out, the other foot sank in the mud too. As I tried to pull a foot out, I lost my balance and fell in. As I tried to push myself up, my hand sank into the mud too.

My son tried to pull me out but I still couldn't get up. F pulled my other hand and with a squelch I rose out of the mud. I was reminded of the song Glorious Mud by Flanders and Swann.

I was covered in mud and soaked to the skin up to my waist as my waterproof rode up as I fell in. The insides of my boots were soaked and as I stepped I could feel water sloshing around my feet from the wet insoles.  

Fortunately we all have a sense of humour and laughed about it on the way back. My son did penance by scrubbing all the boots when we got back and the coffee and cake were appreciated too.