My 52 Ways to Walk book, Annabel Streets, has muddy walking as its topic this week. There is no shortage of mud in the fields and paths at the moment. It’s been the wettest January in years.
I can’t quite get my head around some of the science offered for the benefits of walking in mud. There is talk of Geosmin being released by bacterial activity in wet soil. Apparently, we can detect its earthy odour in minute amounts. It is supposed to improve our mood. Certainly, the smell of rain on dry ground, Petrichor, is pleasant and is partially due to Geosmin.
I don’t think mud does anything for me. But out of curiosity, I have to don my boots, Wellingtons would have been better, and walk through it, where normally I would try to avoid it. There is a corner of the fell where mud is ever present. I tramp around in it, gradually getting wetter and wetter. Yes, there is Geosmin or something in the air, but it doesn’t improve my mood. Not a very scientific experiment, I admit. My mood generally improves when I am outdoors: walking, climbing, gardening, birdwatching, or whatever. There must be multiple factors at play – I’m just not sure mud is one of them. The only benefit is for my balance as I try not to nose-dive into all that mud.
As an aside, I find a large carrier bag hidden behind a wall on the fell. It contains half a dozen large canisters of nitrous oxide, so called laughing gas. They seem heavy, but I’m not sure whether used or full. Have they been dumped after a ‘session’, or are they hidden for pick up later? At the end of my muddy walk, I collect the carried bag and its contents and take them to our local waste disposal site. The men there are used to this – “we get loads”. They have a special locked enclosure for them. I do worry about the health of our children in these modern times and the availability of this dangerous substance, along with all the others. What a simpler childhood I enjoyed all those years ago.
I’ll leave the mud wallowing to you and the hippos BC. One reason why I rarely go on walks during the winter months, I find encountering mud of any sort to be a particularly unpleasant experience. I remember hearing the song played on the radio when I was a child.
I try to get outside most days, even in Winter. I’m not a gym person.
Is it ever going to stop?
Not this week.
Nor next looking at the forecast.
Did you not fancy some barefoot mud walking for your arthritis?
No there’s a thought. And mud’s brilliant for beautiful skin.
I went to the gym for a while. I think it was to train fro the GR10. I got fed up with all the banter, and then I suddenly came to the conclusion that the best training for walking is walking, but certainly none of that business of huffing and puffing with a rucksack full of bricks- just get out there and enjoy it.
I’m’ with you there. I’ve never been to a gym, if you exclude climbing walls.
On the subject of the Pyrennies, when I was ‘training’ for our Haute Route I went up and down Parlick with a heavy sac – and ended up with a hernia. Postponed the trip for a year!
I think that you are supposed to rub the mud all over your body or at least the face. Maybe I’m wrong but might be worth trying.
I’m ignoring that comment.
My face could probably do with a mud pack!
I shall never look at mud the same way! That book is quite an education. I’ve never heard of Geosmin. I’m sure inhaling it is infinitely better for you though than laughing gas, especially in such industrial quantity.
Wouldn’t it be good if we could buy Geosmin in a can.
Have you tried Amazon?
Ha Ha.
It’s against my principles to use Amazon.
I see these empty nitrous oxide containers, some very large, all over the place in quiet locations. We know this stuff is bad news and, in my view, should be banned (puffed up catering cream is not an essential product) or substituted with a less harmful substance.
I wondered their use in the Catering Industry.
Surely they could be licensed, all though there is a way round most things. We so often fail to grasp the nettle in this country.
You’ll be familiar of its use as an anaesthetic, I’m sure. In the past, in my consultancy days, we used to sometimes monitor for it in maternity units to check exposure of midwives and other staff.
What a laugh.
Definitely a gas. But also a possible teratogen.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9vl21wpgpo
Love that song, if not the sentiment – can’t say I’m much of an enthusiast for mud. The book sounds intriguing though.
On an almost completely unrelated note – I think I remember that you expressed an interest in touring the Mawson Garden at Grey Walls in Silverdale. The friends group do do tours now and then – I stumbled across their facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/FOMGS/events, so I thought I’d share it here in case I remembered right (not always the case these days sadly!).
Thanks for that link, will keep it in mind for this year.