End of an era

It’s always a sad moment when something comes to the end of it’s life and so it was on Saturday afternoon as I arrived back at the car following a walk around the Dales.

They’ve been with me almost since the beginning of my walking career, four years ago, and they have always been reliable and trustworthy. They’ve outlasted 3 pairs of boots and countless other items that have had to be discarded along the way.

They have been declining visibly over the past few weeks and although it was with great sadness that I resigned them to the bin, it was not completely unexpected. The final nail in their coffin was the mud that caked the lower half of my left leg, after stepping in an unexpectedly deep puddle.

I’m referring of course to my laces. These are the laces that came on my first pair of walking boots – the Asolo boots I bought in the outdoor supermarket without any expert advice. The boots died about a year later after ripping them somehow. The laces, however, were then transplanted into my new Scarpa boots after noticing significant fraying of their supplied laces after only 3 weeks use. I also used them in my “lightweight” Hi-Tec boots and they were then transferred to my new Scarpa’s which replaced the old pair after they fell apart.

The mud crusted onto the boots on Saturday had soaked into the laces and they broke as I was trying to tug the knot loose. I brought them home and buried them in the garden. I’ve been out at lunchtime and bought some nice new Brasher laces for £2. I bet they don’t last four years!

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