No photos for this one unfortunately. It was just a quick outing to the moors for a bit of exploration.
I headed out to my usual spot, donned an old hoodie, my Vass PVC safety chest waders and a pair of long yellow rubber gloves and made my way in.
After the recent hot weather and lack of rain, my main bogs had dried up. Still sinkable but much thicker mud now and really hard work to get through.
I sank waste deep into one that I hadn’t been in for a while. It was so sticky and thick. But picking up a handful of the mud and squishing it in my hands made the most wonderful sound.
Then trying to get back out of the bog was a real struggle. Feet were completely suctioned in. After a lot of digging with my gloved hands and pulling I eventually got one foot free, then the other.
I try to avoid disturbing bogs too much this time of year unless it’s wet and rainy. Churning up fresh moist mud to the air just increases the rate of drying out.
I thought to myself “there must be other bogs around here”. I currently have 3 main locations all nearby each other and f the conditions are right to create those then there must be more.
A bit of looking and exploring more than I normally would and I wasn’t disappointed. I noticed an area that was still visibly wet with small pools of water. I made my way towards it and as i did I started to sink into thick mud again.
Not wanted to get stuck this time, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled across the ground to the wet spot.
I sat up and pushed my feet through the surface. Deeper and deeper – thigh deep before I felt anything solid. Nice.
So I stood up and pushed forward feeling the ground with my feet to see if it dropped away towards the middle of the bog. Jackpot! It did. The next step I couldn’t feel solid ground any more.
I held on to a branch above me as I tried to lower my foot down while keeping the other on a solid piece of ground. Down and down and eventually felt something solid again.
By this point I was chest deep – only a coupe of inches from the top of my waders, in smooth moist mud. No too wet but not dry and sticky like the other bogs. Perfect.
With it being a fresh bog, it’s going to take a bit of work to get in shape. They always need churning / loosening up to be at their best. It’s deep, wet, secluded and easy to access. Just perfect.
I’ll return here with my camera and probably in my wading suit so I can explore even deeper.
I will keep you updated.
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