Close encounter with a load of bull
Angry cow with horns
As avid walkers, geocachers and general outdoorsy type of people, there is nothing we love more than to head out to the countryside and hunt around for tupperware boxes! On one such long walks on a cold January day in the dark depths of Cornwall, we had a rather close encounter. Here is our account of the moment!
Half way through a very long geocaching trip, wet feet, tired, hungry and looking forward to a Cornish pasty, we eventually found our 8th geocache of the day. It was made that much more interesting by the 50-or-so cows that were in the field and were rather interested in what we were up to. Dee + pack stayed behind the stile, whilst James, very bravely decided to jump over and shoo the cows (not recommended!) and retrieve the cache. He tossed it over to Dee, who signed the log and tossed the cache back to James who then replaced it and quickly jumped back over the fence.
At this point we were faced with a decision. Do we backtrack and go to a different field / find our way onto the trail somehow around or. . . . . go straight through the cow field!!!
Stupidly (or bravely?) we decided we could control the two young sheep dogs whilst keeping the herd of cows away from us. After all - this is a footpath marked clearly on our map and we have a geocache calling from the other side! We all jumped over a stile and Dee was running with the dogs whilst James was shooing the cows away. All of a sudden, a bull appears, interested in what is bothering his girlfriends. . . and was not overly pleased to see us. . . He started to prance around with his big horns pointing at us!!
Half way through a very long geocaching trip, wet feet, tired, hungry and looking forward to a Cornish pasty, we eventually found our 8th geocache of the day. It was made that much more interesting by the 50-or-so cows that were in the field and were rather interested in what we were up to. Dee + pack stayed behind the stile, whilst James, very bravely decided to jump over and shoo the cows (not recommended!) and retrieve the cache. He tossed it over to Dee, who signed the log and tossed the cache back to James who then replaced it and quickly jumped back over the fence.
At this point we were faced with a decision. Do we backtrack and go to a different field / find our way onto the trail somehow around or. . . . . go straight through the cow field!!!
Stupidly (or bravely?) we decided we could control the two young sheep dogs whilst keeping the herd of cows away from us. After all - this is a footpath marked clearly on our map and we have a geocache calling from the other side! We all jumped over a stile and Dee was running with the dogs whilst James was shooing the cows away. All of a sudden, a bull appears, interested in what is bothering his girlfriends. . . and was not overly pleased to see us. . . He started to prance around with his big horns pointing at us!!
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We were left with little choice than to jump over the thorny brambly hedge with barbed wire fence, dragging two puppies with us - but it was a rather more appealing scenario than trying to reason with an angry bull!
Scratched and scared we hoped we could get to the cache from the field we were now on, but were greeted by a muddy stream. We tried to go into the stream hoping we could follow it around the cow field, but after getting soaking wet feet, realised that this was a no go. Choice #2 was to go back to the cow field. |
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Luckily, the cows had moved on to the other end, no longer bothered by our presence so it was a good chance to scramble our way back over the thorny barbed wire wall into the cow field again, throw our two dogs over and run to the stile, which marked both the end of our terrifying bull field experience and the find of a nicely hidden cache.
Cornwall - if there aren't "Private" and "Keep out" signs nearby, someone places angry bulls in a field which should have a right of way to ramblers and geocachers.
What an unforgettable experience. . . . BULLS!
