I was on a research trip, investigating the bogs and swamps of the Midlands. It was the height of summer, and it was so hot that I was sweating before I even got out of the car.
My job as a research student means that I have to get up close and personal with bogs. I find the spot I need to look at, then I change into a wetsuit, put on a snorkel and plunge in. My specialty is the various kinds of aquatic algae that live in the highly acidic water of bogs. But to be honest, the main reason I went for the job is that I just like bogsurfing – wallowing around in the slimy ooze of a good swamp.
I walked down to the particular area I had been told about. A friend of mine, a fellow researcher, had told me that there was something strange about the place that she couldn’t put her finger on. “I don’t know what it was,” she had said in the bar the previous night. “It was just something in the air…I felt like I was being watched. Weird.” It looked fairly normal to me – a shallow depression containing the bog proper, ringed by moss. The air was hot and humid, with a lot of midges flittering over the ground. The only unusual thing was a short, thick, twisted tree on the lip of the bog, covered in ivy and vines. That made no sense – how could a tree grow in this acid soil? I decided to investigate.
It was such a hot day that I didn’t look forward to putting on the wetsuit. I knew I would get very sweaty in it, plus I had never enjoyed the whole rigmarole of putting it on and taking it off. I considered for a moment, looked around, and decided that I wouldn’t bother with it – I would go into the bog in just my swimming trunks and a snorkel mask. I stripped off my exterior clothes; I was wearing my reliable old red Speedos under my combat trousers. I took the snorkel mask from my bag, put it on and stepped into the bog.
It was only about waist deep, and refreshingly cool. The sun was beating down on my bare head and chest as I waded into the middle of the bog, looking for anything unusual. Nothing so far. I leaned forward and put my face under the surface; still nothing. There was a curious sweet scent in the air, faintly intoxicating. I waded further on and realised that it seemed to be coming from the tree. I went on, wiping the bog ooze off my forehead, and soon I had reached the opposite lip of the bog, where the tree stood. I climbed out and walked towards it.