The truth of it was though, it had no connection with our river at all. I always made sure I kept the trees in sight as I made my way through a completely white landscape littered with big tussocks of grass and heather. Every single footstep had to be planned but still I slipped, tripped and stumbled. I can only guess now at how many times I had to pick myself up out of the ever deepening snow. The going was tortuous and exhausting, there were many cooling off periods. I had no idea how far I travelled. For the most part the trees were growing in a thin strip along the edge of the river but as darkness began to fall they spread out to form more of a woodland area. Instead of continuing to skirt the edge of the trees I decided to stay close to the river bank. There was less snow under the trees but it was no easier to travel. gone where the tussocks to be replaced by roots and branches and every time I brushed against anything it showered me in great heaps of snow. I was getting to the end of my tether by now and I was just wondering how I was going to spend the night when once again my foot caught in something unseen and I went head first into the snow hitting my head on something as I went down.
I rolled over on to my back cursing. Each time I fell it was harder to get back on to my feet. I lay there on my back, an occasional snow flake landing softly on my face. I tried to sit up but as I did something across my chest stopped me. I reached out to find I was laid under what felt like a metal cable. Following it with my hand I discovered that it was going from the ground upwards at an angle where it must be attached to something. This discovery gave me a new lease of life. I dragged myself out from under the cable and when standing saw that there were actually two of these cables side by side about two meters apart. I must have tripped over one and ended up under the other. These cables were the start of a bridge crossing the river which was now thundering down a narrow gorge. To me at this point it meant that I must be on a track of some kind, I mean, surely they wouldn't just build a bridge for no reason.
I had a problem now, which way to go? Presumably a path led from the bridge through the trees but as I could see no real evidence of this I decided to cross the bridge, also ever since I came upon the river I always had this feeling that I need to be on the other side of it, although I was never sure why. I must confess to not being at all comfortable with setting foot on the bridge as I'd been on one of these bridges before and it was well dodgy. I hate the way they move around when you walk on them. I set off very aware that the wooden boards would be slippery so every step I tried to clear some of the snow off. All the time my hands were clenched around the metal ropes on either side, ready to save me from slipping into the raging waters below. Soon they became cold but I still hung on tightly to the ropes as I crossed the black void. Once the middle was reached without incident I became a little more confident so the journey up the other side didn't seen so bad and I was soon breathing a huge sigh of relief on the firm ground on the other side.
As I stood there recovering and trying to work out which way the path from the bridge went, I noticed in front and to the left a little, there was a very faint glow of light. Because it seemed to be up in the sky I thought at first the weather was clearing a little and it was the moon but then I heard a noise that I recognised instantly as that of a chicken. I sometimes had to look after the chickens back at the house so there was no doubt in my mind what it was, and so if there were chickens there would be people not far away. So, maybe what I assumed was the moon was actually an electric light to a property. Off I set now with renewed vigour towards the very faint distant glow and almost immediately walked in to a wire netting fence. Even though I could see the brightness the actual visibility situation was still almost zero. I felt my way carefully along the fence until I reached a corner. I was now able to make my way directly towards the glow which became more obvious the closer I got to it. I had to climb up a bit of a hill which is why the light looked like it was coming from the sky when I was down at the hen run. As the slope levelled out I came up on a stone field wall which I climbed up one side, slipped and fell - AGAIN - down the other. I fell with quite a thud this time and although I didn't realise it straight away I hurt my hand/wrist somehow. I didn't dwell on this at all as now I was excited to be able to clearly see what was causing the brightness that had beckoned me towards it from afar. I passed between the barns that had been shielding the light directly from me and as I did so a cat jumped out from somewhere and ran across in front of me almost causing me to have a heart attack. I thought about going to find somewhere to rest up in one of the barns but I didn't think about it for long. After all I had nothing to hide so carried on into the yard.
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