On Friday I made the catastrophic error of walking the 30minutes into work wearing brand new trainers. About halfway in I realised I had made a terrible mistake, with my heels in agony, but was the same distance between work and my car (which didn’t have alternative footwear inside anyway) so struggled on. By the time I got to work, I couldn’t walk another step and had blood literally streaming from both sore heels, with saturated socks and a sense of total annoyance. I have new hiking boots to wear in and a walking holiday to Switzerland coming up shortly, so the timing couldn’t be worse.
I raided the internal First Aid box and patched myself up enough to be able to hobble into town and buy what felt like half the contents of the dressing supplies aisle in Boots: Compeed, antiseptic wound dressings, waterproof plasters…you name it, I bought it – just in case.
That evening I had planned to walk 3miles around the village in my new boots to wear them in, and was determined to proceed. So, using as much dressing as possible plus two pairs of socks, I set off with mum and little sister. And it was completely fine! Very comfortable, in fact: the boots are light but sturdy and my heels were well protected.
The next day my sister suggested a walk around Bewl Water Reservoir, which is just 5minutes up the road from our house and amazingly scenic and peaceful. We meandered for a few miles, taking in the surroundings and ducking into trees when it started drizzling – later leading to a stunning double-rainbow! A lovely way to end a lovely walk, and again my heels were well protected with no pain or discomfort.
Disaster avoided – for now! My boots are perfect, my heels are healing, and I’m confident that hiking around Switzerland will be an incredible adventure. 11 days to go!!
Laura's footprints 