30.07.2020 These boots are made for walking!

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Thursday 30th 55-66F. Bright start but cloudy. Fast moving from the west. It is expected to be breezy again today. I woke up early dripping with sweat. Very unusual for me. Fortunately I haven't [completely] lost my sense of smell. Yesterday's headache has gone too. I probably shouldn't spend time on the field tracks after spraying. But that's also true for my walking, or cycling, down the roads between the fields.

There really is no escape if the toxins are airborne. We both spend hours outside in the garden each day. Surrounded by grain fields in every direction for miles. We were warned not to drink the well water early on.

It was cloudy so I spent some time loading the trailer with vicious hedge clippings. Then twice unloading them again at the recycling yard. Which has a large concreted area open all the time for dumping garden waste.

My replacement boots have arrived in the post. The next size up from the first pair. Which were far too tight in the toes area despite being my normal boot size. Now in a previously, unheard of, size 47. I was still given a nice discount because the 46s, on special offer, were too small.The picture is badly posed. They really are not that much bigger than the Eccos.Though they are deeper in the body of the shoe.

The new pair were so immediately comfortable that I took them for an after dinner walk for nearly an hour. Even climbing the hill of the newly harvested field to get some elevation for different viewpoints. I wanted to exercise them a bit more than simply clomping along the smooth road. With its fairly gentle slopes.

I am very pleased with the comfort levels so far. The previous Eccos crippled me from the first trial! I was clamping the folds of the ridiculously thick, leather tongues in G-cramps in a desperate bid to flatten them! The Scarpa boots have a thin, bellows tongue. Which gave no problems at all.

The Eccos squeaked all the time and have now cracked across the base of the toe caps. They never did settle down to provide the desired level of unnoticed comfort. Though they remained completely waterproof to the bitter end. Which was better than both pairs of Salomon Discovery GTX. Very comfortable in the foot. Though the first pair were replaced under guarantee when they became leaky. The second pair soon lost their waterproofness too. Even when just crossing the dew covered lawn. This is at odds with many of the reviews. Which praise them for their Goretex GTX waterproofing.

If you think my choice of walking boots is overkill then you haven't seen the steep and branch littered fire breaks I regularly climb and descend in the forest. Nor all the untamed, marshy tracks, where the weeds often reach up to my knees and beyond. My boots are worn [almost] every single day of the year. So I am lucky to get a couple of years out of a pair of boots.

Most boots are only exercised at weekends. Or much less often if the owner likes the distant mountains. Better to ask those who literally work in their boots. Rather than the once a year, signposted, gravel trail walker. The same goes for clothing. Nobody willingly works all day in a tailored, bin bag. Which is what many man-made waterproof jackets and trousers represent. Proofed cotton breathes out your sweat even when wet on the outside. It also survives being dragged through scratchy forests and brambles.

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