Chasing Cows (Again)

I spend a lot of time in fields and I've had a few moments with cows that have been fairly uncomfortable and occasionally downright dangerous but today was the first time when I've been caught with no exit route at all.

I was having a fine run and feeling (literally) on top of the world. This is one of the highest points for miles around.

(Check out the perspective of the fly in this picture, it's either huge and a long way away or really close and it's not clear which.)

It's lovely up here with a warm wind and nobody else around.

There's rarely any traffic meaning even the single track lanes are no hassle to be running down.

This isn't one of my pictures but it does give an indication of how seriously cars are taken here!  The road goes through the centre of the cricket pitch (the only flat bit of land anywhere near here) and any cars have to wait for the cricket not the other way around.

Any-hoo, I pick up the canal not too far from here and start the run homeward bound.




About 8k from home I see this lovely lady:

And she was as unhappy to see me as I was to see her.

After an unpleasant stand off I managed to encourage them to start moving in the other direction. I think that large lump on her side is a calf!

I was in a no win situation, you should never approach a cow from behind, it's their blind spot and it makes them jumpy and these types of cow have a 2 metre flight area which means once you are closer than that they will run.  They are also really skittish if they are separated from the herd, which was in the other direction behind me, on the other side of the hedge.

As I followed, I realised I could have ended up 'herding' them all the way home.

But she put an end to it.  She suddenly turned, put her head down and gave me 'that look'.

It was a bit hard to know what to do then, canal water one side, hawthorn the other and I can't run as fast as a cow for the distance back to the last bridge.

I opted for hawthorn, I backed off to a semi gap in it, pushed through, went over a barbed wire fence and into the field.

From nowhere 2 dogs appeared!  Seriously, I wondered if it could get any worse.  2 dogs and no owner, I waited a bit thinking a walker might be around and give me a clue how to get out of this area but no one came. The dogs charged off to the end of the field with the rest of the cows in, presumably to stir them up a bit, ready for my departure *sigh*

It's ok I can think on my trail runners!  I got a stick and poked it through the hedge towards the backside of the cows, I rattled it around a bit and asked them nicely to go back down the other way.  And slowly they did.  Each time they moved I pushed the stick through further down the hedge and did the same again until they were past the point I had climbed over.

So back over the barbed wire fence I went.  It was higher from the field side, so I had to partially try to get a foot up a tree to give me enough lift *sigh*  Push back through the hawthorn, peel myself off the thorns and then I simply had to run another 8k home *sigh*

Did I mention how lovely it is around here?!!!!!