A field too far

Never let it be said that I allow experience to get in the way of stupidity.

Due to an unexpected absence of internet connection meaning that virtually all computer-related tasks were put on hold, I decided I’d indulge a little photo session.

It’d been quite a murky day, overcast and with a definite dampness in the air, so the lighting conditions seemed quite interesting.
And there’s a little public footpath a bit off the beaten track that I’d promised myself I’d explore with a camera at some point.

So, pack my kit up (couple of cameras, tripod, spare batteries, spare memory cards, lens-cleaning kit, hat, gloves, waterproofs – everything bar the kitchen sink practically) and off wandering.

This particular public footpath runs alongside some fields; in fact, its actually part of the fields.
And quite clearly its not used very much by those for whom it was intended as the local farmer has encroached quite extensively upon its width with his ploughing etc.

Now farmland has a tendency to get a bit muddy, particularly in wet weather. And we’ve had quite a few rainy days here recently.

You’d think that with my experience of fields (gleaned from a) having been born and raised in the country, and b) having camped out for days at a time in quite a few fields all over the country, and not always in the best of weather), I’d make all the right connections (fields + rain = mud) wouldn’t you?

Wrong!

So off I traipse up this narrow trackway that’s getting increasingly muddy the further I walk, in pursuit of things worth snapping that, it has to be said, seem few and far between.

Then, about a half-mile into the walk it all runs out – the track, every sign of anything in the least bit inspiring, and all suggestion of solid ground.

And in the homeward walk I’m reminded of something else that experience should in fact have warned me about – mud sticks! Especially to boots.

Still harbouring depression over loss of internet connection, this is now compounded by precious few photos to show for my expedition and spending the next hour or so cleaning half-a-ton of mud off my boots.

Dammit! I really should have known better.