You are in:
Outdoors - August 2009
After an impressive bout of swine flu, I've actually been doing more quality walking than probably ever before, and the benefits of a decent pair of boots comes home to me with each walk. After the loss of my symptoms, my thoughtful wife took me on the coastal walk from Borth to Aberystwyth; a week or so later, and more locally, we walked up Caradoc in the Stretton Hills, steep side first; then we did Nordy Bank, taking an off-path route back to the car park and feeling the benefit of a good Gore Tex-lined pair of boots as my terrain-reading ability led us through waterlog after waterlog.
I thought we were following a sheep path, but even they had the sense to avoid the route I found. Eventually, we did find a real sheep path, but I'm glad my boots got a bit of a workout; it feels odd wearing them sometimes, because one might be on a simple path where walking boots feel like... Overdressing, I think. Like wearing a dinner jacket to a kebab shop. Nothing wrong with kebabs, you understand. But then, on a walk, wearing good boots allows you to go further, to go places where regular shoes can't take you. Like ankle deep in a mini-bog on a Shropshire hill.
And for that, I am eternally grateful. Thank you, boots.
Jon Bruford, Editor
SGB Outdoor
01584 877177
