by regedmunds » Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:08 pm
During my hiking 'career' I've had a few problems with cows. Once on the Pennine Way, when I was walking alongside a stone wall at the bottom of a sloping field, 15 or so cows from the top of the field came charging down at me at full speed!!! I'm well practised, I just dropped my rucksack and quickly ran to the stile. I genuinley thought at the time that their weight and momentum would send them crashing into the wall. I was wrong they quickly pulled up and just started grazing. I just wandered back, picked up my rucksack and carried on.
I even had a few cows get very touchy-feely with me on the north fields as I walked away from Hadrians Wall. They were not aggressive but boy did I get nudged and pushed a few times!
In July 2015 (I was 70 and in April my cancerous Prostate was removed) I hiked and camped from Hendaye, France, on the Bay of Biscay, across the whole length of the Pyrenees to Banyuls Sur Mere on the Med (took me 50 days) and on day 24 I was attacked by a cow! I had walked quietly, well away from her but I didn't see her calf behind a boulder. He saw me however, panicked and ran. Mum turned to me, bellowed and charged and hit me full in the chest. I left the ground and 'flew' down a bank landing like a turtle on my back! I skurried away so quickly! When I looked around she had just resumed grazing! I had a couple of bruises, nothing problematic.
Then a few days later, whilst wild camping on top of a grassy hill, in pouring rain and thick mist, I heard grunting all around me at dawn! I thought it was wild boar but in fact in the dark I had wandered unknowingly into a free range domestic pig area and 5 of them tried to get in my tent with me! I had to use my hiking sticks to fight them off!
They demolished my tent, it was still raining and by the time they left everything I owned (except my sleeping quilt, it was double wrapped) was wet through! I wandered on miserable and wet and decided to book into a hotel for the night and to dry everything. I decided to have a shower and lo and behold I suddenly discovered I had a hernia!
I walked on for another three days, now knowing that I had a hernia but luckily on a camp site the young english speaking French receptionist helped me out. I explained my problem, she phoned around and discovered a medical warehouse about 50km from me. The following day I hitchiked there, bought a truss, got back to my tent and spent the next few weeks walking with a truss always on to the end. I was repaired about two weeks after getting back home.