They Stole My Shoes!

by Natasha Brooker, Gloucester

On an incredibly foggy October morning, a few friends and I were on DofE in the Forest of Dean, when we entered a field with 30-40 cows. At first it seemed that there were only a few, but they kept appearing out of the fog in their numbers! We remained as quiet as possible and tried not to look at them, but the stile was right next to this muddy pit which many were in, and as we approached the stile they completely surrounded us, blocked the stile and we had no other choice but to go through the pit. However, unlike the cows, we couldn't walk in their without sinking, so we were completely stuck! Eventually, I managed to get myself out by holding onto a branch and pulling myself out, but not without taking my feet out of my shoes which are likely still in at muddy pit today.

We were all fine in the end, but as a couple of my friends really struggled to get out (it didn't help that we had our giant backpacks for DofE), the cows were getting more and more angry as they observed from the top of the pit - it felt that it wouldn't have been much longer before they came in and trampled. I had ran off onto the road to find a signal to call our teacher before they all had got out, so I was terrified that something would happen to my friends and I had no idea what was going on.
The owner of the field was absolutely lovely, and did everything she could to get my shoes out but it wasn't meant to be, however ever since that experience the thought of walking through a field of cows fills me dread (and as a regular walker my routes get diverted by miles rather often just not to have to walk through a field of cows).

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