Mind the electric fence

Very cold day today, so ideal for a cross country walk with all of the mud frozen solid. Or so I thought.

We walked from home to a footpath and followed it across the fields. 

Lovely views and a well marked path. Also long lines of electric fencing and notices about cows in fields, although I was pleased that we didn't see a single one. 

The mud wasn't actually completely frozen, but we made good progress, although it was a bit difficult at times. 

We made it to the halfway point and then followed a main road for a while before finding a different path to take us back. We had to go under the main train line and the puddle was extremely deep. Fortunately we both managed to cling to the side wall and got through to the other side. 

Shortly after this excitement we had to make the choice of either the right or left hand field, and there was a big hedge between them. I looked at the map on my phone and said right, but actually I found out later that I had the map upside down and should have said left. 

We realised my mistake when we got to the dead end of our field and could see the path continuing on the other side of the hedge. Then we noticed that there was a very deep stream to jump across to get to the path. 

Darren jumped first, making it inelegantly across. My jump wasn't quite so good, and I slipped down to the edge of the stream. I saved myself from a dunking by frantically crawling out. It was then that I headbutted the electric fence - good news - it wasn't turned on, but I don't recommend this method of testing it. 

Back home for some hot coffee and homemade apple crumble.