A 30 minute walk - the two great Danes

 A 30 minute walk and the two Great Danes


A 30 minute walk is 15 minutes walk away from the house and then 15 minutes back. my son, who is 10, suggested I go under the bridge and turn right, as he and his friends have been that way, and that I could walk for 15 minutes and then turn back on myself, so completing my 30 minute walk

This I did. I walk down the road under the bridge, turn right and for 15 minutes I followed the Footpath. after three minutes I checked my watch. I realised it said the same time as last time I checked it, so I had checked my watch twice within one minute. the walk is a narrow, secluded, isolated footpath that goes around the edge of the quarry and I didn’t feel safe.

I know that I can’t tell my son why I don’t feel safe and I’m glad that he has so much innocence that he recommended the walk to me but there I was walking alone in an isolated spot, going against all the advice ever given to women not to walk alone, not to walk alone in isolated places, and I started to wonder about the types of people that work at the quarry and I start to think about how the word rape has been diluted over the years. I understand that if a woman does not consent, and a man has sex with her anyway that is rape, and it is wrong And terrible. but I know that it is different to when six-men break into a house and gang rape an 11-year-old girl who is home alone because her parents are at work.

The walk happened to take exactly 15 minutes to where it effectively endS in a ploughed field. I presume dedicated Ramblers would continue across the ploughed field but as it happens I only wanted 15 minutes and I wasn’t about to cross any ploughed fields  - which was currently being ploughed by the farmer and his tractor. it was actually a glorious site and I do wish I could enjoy such a glorious rural, agricultural vision without thinking that I really shouldn’t be here and should hurry home. I’ve been looking at my watch every few seconds counting down the last moment until I can stop walking and turn back because I don’t like being here and I don’t feel safe so I stand for a moment and watch the tractor and enjoy the view And then I turn back. 

As I begin walking home I’m disappointed to see a man approaching coming towards me and he is walking his dog. this is a regular dog walkers place so it’s not unexpected but at this point I had hoped to get home without meeting anyone and could just get back. As I get closer I can see that it’s quite a big dog and of course it’s a very narrow path but I’m okay I’m going to carry on walking I think, ‘this man is not out to attack me’ - I’m telling myself this man is not out to use his dogs to attack me; I’m telling myself that but I’m not actually thinking that emotionally. I’m telling myself that intellectually. The dog gets to me first and it’s not just a big dog it’s a great Dane, a fully grown great Dane about the size of a horse. I walk past the dog keeping my gaze fixed on the ground I can see the dogs breath pouring out of its mouth as it stands there panting it’s rather like the hell hounds in hounds of the Baskervilles and it’s not a cold day, it’s a lovely warm day today. So the breath is despite that fact, not because it’s a cold morning and then the man continued to approach and he has a second dog with him and it is also a Great Dane, a second fully grown Great Dane the size of a horse. I continue to walk and ignore the dogs and preparing to say ‘morning’ to the man as that is only polite despite my faint terror. and then the dog decides to start nudging at me and I ignore it, but he nudges more and I Scream. 

The man does not say hello, the man does not say good morning. I don’t say good morning. I carry on walking. the man calls after his dogs.

I am thinking that it’s so lovely but my child is so innocent that he could recommend this walk and now I can tell him I won’t walk the walk because of the great Danes I don’t need to tell him about rapists and all the terrible things that make women afraid to ever be someone so beautiful as this is a lovely walk but cannot be enjoyed.


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