You may have noticed I have an unusually close bond with my gumboots. I mean, while ridiculously cute and very practical, they are ultimately just a pair of functional rubber shoes. But these rubber booties and I share a history; we have travelled together, worked together and played together. Though they did get me strip searched once in Dubai, they also saved my life.
It all began one cold, grey day in London. I was in Notting Hill looking around hopefully for a sign of Hugh Grant when a bright patch of colour caught my eye in a nearby shop window. The angels sang and a ray of light illuminated a pair of perfectly spotty gumboots hanging from a wire in the window (okay well maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but I swear it felt like this). My long suffering travel mate gave a shout of joy, I had found my boots and she no longer had to haplessly follow me as I trawled the shops of London looking for the perfect wellington; little did she know, her suffering had just begun. We were on a backpacking trip and since gumboots are rather larger than the average shoe they did not fit in my backpack. This meant every time we travelled to a new port of call I was forced to wear my boots. London to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Marburg to Regensburg to Munich to Geneva to Sanen to Zurich to Dubai and then finally home. In Short I looked ridiculous.
In Dubai they were obviously so confused by the bright spots and my happy Elmo shirt combined with a bright pink snow jacket , they instantly assumed I must be on drugs and proceeded to strip search me. Not a fun experience.
But my boots redeemed themselves in due course. My happy wellingtons accompanied me on a student Wetland filed trip where was working as a demonstrator. Upon arrival I donned the boots to scout our field sites for the students to work on. Crunching along through the thick flood debris on the river bank I suddenly noticed my last step was distinctly uncrunchy, in fact it was rather soft and squishy. I looked down and saw I was standing on a puffadder. The puffadder was understandably unhappy with the situation and had latched onto the side of my left boot in an attempt to eat me (well okay... maybe just to bite me).
AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I Screamed and jumped about one metre upwards and two metres forwards shaking the snake free as I did. The poor girl behind me got such a fright she launched herself backwards and managed to entangle herself in an Acacia thorn tree. Thanks to my beloved gumboots I was fine, not a scratch on me, and while my boots may not be entirely waterproof anymore, fang marks will do that, they survived too. My friend who encountered the thorn tree was not so lucky and ended up in hospital getting pieces of thorn surgically removed from her hand.
My gumboots have come to festivals, we have jumped gleefully in puddles together, they have saved me from gross, sewage and even been to the beach with me. So you see you really should never leave home without a pair (especially if they are as cute as mine).
*** Pick 'n Pay Clothing currently has a great selection of funky gumboots for ladies!
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