Blog @ Work

Surviving the bog

Prompt: June 29 is International Mud Day. This is the day to get down, get dirty and have fun in the mud. Almost everyone has mud memories about playing in the mud. Write a story or poem about mud in celebration of International Mud Day. (BCoFs)

Mud…mud…MUD?! .

I have to go a long way into memory lane to come up with two separate occasions involving MUD. Both events are not so much about playing in the mud, as they are about SURVIVING the mud. Let me explain.

Back in the years I used to hike a lot in my vacations. I went to Wales and Ireland for days on end to hike and hobble around the moors, sucking up nature and enjoying new scenery. In contrast to the present I got places back when. I traveled a lot, had enough money to do so, and was making it back home alive every time but one. Almost.

This one time I was in a hiking group up on the Wicklow Way near Dublin, with some marvelous people of whom I remember two: a couple who was almost blind. They had very poor vision, walked both with a stick, but were able to be in balance coping with the world, since they got each other. A sweet young couple.

We were in a group of ten or twelve walking on a lovely walk up to Scarr mountain returning via Lough Dan. In addition to the great views, Lough Dan is entirely car-free (the only “road” along the Lough is a dirt track) and so it feels remarkably peaceful. We had a fairly easy walk in great scenery between Lough Tay and Lough Dan. There are no roads and the area has a great feeling of quietness. Shame the name of the hill is such a mouthful ! Knocknacloghoge (Lough Dan) itself also seems to be a little off the beaten path, so it’s much quieter than other hills around Lough Tay. They told us to be careful just in case and keep an eye on the person ahead of you because there were also some swamps.

While I was walking for 6 hours alone on the moors, (some walked in front of me, other walked behind), I suddenly felt my legs being pulled down. It was a really weird sensation since it was very sudden and very frightening to lose balance and sink into the mud. I got trapped in a swamp! Up unto my hips in the slush!

I was thinking to myself…I am not going to make it; I will be swallowed by this swamp, nobody around but the blind couple 100 meters behind me. But they can’t see me! What should I do? I didn’t panic, but my heart was up my throat.

I knew instantly (I think I heard that on National Geographic ) not to wiggle my legs in an attempt to pull myself out. That way the mud would pull me down even harder. So I just went limp from the waist down, did not move my legs, but instead focused on my arms and chest. I swung my upper body as high as I could and crawled back out of the pulling sludge. I was free! The rest of the group, including the blind couple, was far away and had not noticed my struggle on life and death.

What a lousy way to die, all by myself and nobody knows this is happening. It was a short but very unpleasant moment in my life.

The second meet with scary mud was years later. I was working at a community center at the time. One morning I arrived at the center to find one of my clients, a young mother of two, stuck in the mud at a building site near the center. Her oldest, a boy of twelve years old, was screaming that his mother was stuck in the mud. Apparently she was walking the dog, the dog got stuck in the mud, she trying to release him got stuck herself, deep down in the muddy terrain and trying to wiggle her way out. I went out there, helped her by giving instructions on how to get above ground and got her back on the road.Pfff.

The dog of course was nowhere to be seen, he went home. I was the hero of the day, with flowers and a newspaper article and all. Just glad to be of help that day. .

Mud can be dangerous, outside in the countryside in the swamps or inside the city!