By: Blonde One
On the most recent Blonde Bimble I made the mistake of saying that we were clear of the mud after Blonde Two commented on the squadgy nature of the path. It took me approximately 3 seconds to fall into a bog and get my left foot stuck! Serves me right! Thank goodness for gaiters. Much laughter followed and I eventually freed my foot with my boot still on it: believe me when I say that this bit was tricky.
What followed was a very interesting conversation (probably only interesting to us though) about boots, waterproof socks and bogs. Here’s how it went …
I had decided that because this walk was probably going to be muddy and it wasn’t going to rain, I would wear my old boots. This meant that I wouldn’t need to clean them when I got home. It did mean that I would need to wear my waterproof socks. The boots have a hole in them that would definitely let in water, which would be fine with the addition of lovely Sealskinz socks. After my bog dipping activity I spent a great deal of time stream splashing to try to get rid of the smelly mud plastered up my legs! We began to wonder if my feet and trouser legs would remain free from mud and dry. When we returned to the car it was with some surprise that we discovered that my trouser legs under my gaiters were indeed clean and dry. My socks were wet but my feet were dry. This experiment must surely invite the question: why bother to buy new boots? In order to have an accurate and fair test we decided that next time I should wear one old boot and one new! So if you see a couple of Blondes out and about with odd boots on – it’s probably us!4
If you both take the same size you could make the experiment slightly more scientific by each wearing odd pairs?
In very wet conditions I suppose we are all familiar with caution during the first half of the walk avoiding puddles and rivulet paths, and then on the second half, when water has seeped down through socks into the supposedly waterproof boots, and tiredness is taking control, we find ourselves sort of irresponsibly wading through all deep puddles and streams with a slight feeling of guilt, mixed with pleasure, from being slightly naughty. Or is that just me?
We do have the same size feet (obviously!). I will make the suggestion today.
You are so right about the second half of the walk feeling. It is a lovely feeling of abandon!
I just mended a hole in a pair of shoes using MOULDABLE GLUE, which lovely stuff I got on the internet. So far, the repair has held!
Shoes/boots being so expensive, it was worth a try.