medway footprints 2010

witness report:  So here goes. some 5 winters ago I was out early walking my dog before work, at about 5.45am. I took her our usual route which takes in a large field on the edge of massive urban development and countryside for several miles. Next to a moderate sized wood above the river medway. It had been snowing heavily during the night and was well below freezing. It was dark still (it being December and all). We came to the field we usually circuit which as you can see is hemmed in by a large housing estate. And got about half way round when I saw in the torchlight coming from my right a set of foot prints in the snow that looked like bare feet. The snow was still virgin apart from the usual rabbit and fox tracks. The foot prints continued across the field from right to left. Now my dog was snuffling them and showing an usual interest and was casting about and going a little mental. The really strange bit is that the foot prints started on the edge of a massive barricade of bramble and no sign of any pathways apart from a small fox/rabbit run. No snow looked to have been knocked off the top of the bramble thicket. And no other human footprints save mine. I followed the very clear trail across the width of the field. I am 6ft 5 and have size 13 feet. These prints looked a little bigger than mine say 13.5/14 and I tried to copy the stride which was equal roughly to my own. They where broader and very deep but obviously bare foot with the toes being quite obvious. They then went down the snow covered rubble slope that is an entrance to bydews wood. My dog was still acting very excitable and following a scent she found different. I took stock and followed the trail about 20 feet into the wood where it became impossible to find.
Now the problem I have is the size and stride of the foot steps are certainly within human range, tall like me but not outlandish. Why would some one try walking across a field barefooted and leave to trail leading up to the tracks? Like I said it is an impenetrable barrier of thorns and brambles backing onto a housing estate. The photo show the field (the brown bit) and the others show the context in respect to surrounding environs. The trail started from the right of the copse in the middle skirted round it and into the woods on the left. Like I said they just sort of started on the edge with no sign of disturbance around.


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