Bog | The Game We Play

An Autumn Adventure

I love the autumn. It’s my favourite time of year, what with the crispness of the air, the colours, the anticipation of winter and Christmas, it’s a season of change, and, of course, the leaves that you get to kick up!

This is the view from my living room.

In the distance there are hills (they’re actually closer than they look!). Ever since I moved here, I’ve always wanted to go up one of those hills. A few days ago, I had a free afternoon, so I thought I would finally do just that.

I headed out into the autumn with nothing but a camera. I had no idea what town the hills were in and I didn’t know how to get to them, so I set on my bike and headed in their general direction.

After getting a little lost in a housing estate, I eventually found a footpath that led up, what I hoped, was one of the hills.

I started up it and instantly began to doubt whether I should continue. Mud was everywhere! One of the downsides of autumn. The foot of the hill was one huge boggy mess and I was only wearing canvas shoes. However, I thought ‘I’ve come this far, I’m not turning back now’. So I tried to find a way through the quagmire.

I did finally get onto reasonably dry ground, but I had to take a ridiculous route. I scrambled through a thicket of bracken, had to jump over a small swamp and tread across bog like it was a mine field, looking for solid ground to step on. Unfortunatly, I didn’t make it unscaved. My shoes suffered badly. I couldn’t really tell if it was mud or cow poo covering my feet.

So I was pretty fed up, and I still wasn’t as high as I wanted to be. I looked around and I tried to go across the fields to climb a higher hill that was near by. I had to navigate several more bogs and cow pats, and finally came to the edge of the field that led up to my hill, the one I wanted to climb. Only, my way was blocked by another bog, and I could see no way around this one.

I was SO annoyed. After all I’d gone through, I’d gotten so close but couldn’t actually climb this stupid hill! With darkness closing in, I decided to turn back.

But I was still determined to climb at least one hill. So I climbed the one I was at the base of, even if it was smaller. I actually ran up it out of my frustration. I got to the summit and turned around. I was left speechless by what I saw.