I got into Muddy Waters at Glastonbury. Photograph: Oginia Tabisz
To be honest, describing my experience as "my Glas-toe purgatory" would already be outrageous hyperbole.
I was surprised today to read in the Guardian that many people have been affected by trench foot since this year's exceptionally muddy Glastonbury festival. Are we to understand that they've only just realised? The festival was at the end of June - do these people care nothing for the well-being of their mortal soles?
Glastonbury organisers say the best way to avoid trench foot is to wear "sensible footwear", but it seems festivalgoers are engaged in lively debate about what that means: wellies, or hiking boots?
I opted for hiking boots again this year, and regretted it again, but there are obvious downsides to wellies too. The mud this year was high enough to clear the rims of many people's size 9s, and that's without accounting for the way wellies get sucked into the muddy vacuum, leaving one standing like Lot's wife fleeing the horrors of Gomorrah. (Or, as is more likely, those of Kasabian.)
I got through this year's festival with nothing worse than a few blisters, caused by having to wrench my feet out of the stickier mud - I wager the blisters would have been a lot worse had I worn wellies.
As for fighting off foot infections, I followed an age-old remedy handed down through generations. I carefully washed and dried my feet every night before going to sleep, and wore a fresh pair of clean, dry socks every day. Admittedly I had the luxury of a tent that survived the first night ...
