Sleeping in a cowshed
Just about the worst night I have ever had was in a cowshed in a farm in Derbyshire in the UK. We were on a long distance hike and sleeping rough, which meant sleeping wherever we could find any shelter. It was part of a training mission and we were carrying full backpacks and a rifle. The going had been tough as the weather was baking hot and we were all sweating so much that we were soaked through. The flies would not leave us alone but swarmed around us wherever we went. To make matters more difficult, there were a number of single prop aeroplanes searching for us. If we were spotted then we would lose points, so we were trying to keep under cover when possible and diving for cover if we heard an aeroplane engine.
In the evening there were thunderstorms and torrential rain. We all just stripped off and ran around naked in the storm letting the rain wash our aching bodies of all the sweat and dust of the day. We needed to find shelter for the night and desperately wanted a bed but there was nothing around apart from a few lone trees which did not seem a great choice in a thunderstorm with lightening flashing all around us. A little reconnaissance established that there was a farmhouse nearby, so we dried ourselves as best we could, pulled on some clothes went to find the occupants. The kindly old farmer offered us his cowshed, and we were grateful.
We shared the cowshed with his herd, and slept on clean straw. Cows at night are very noisy and extremely smelly. I guess that after the day we had experienced we did not smell too sweet ourselves, which is maybe what upset the cows. Anyway I was so exhausted that I fell asleep without difficulty. I woke up suddenly with a searing pain in my abdomen and face. A calf that had been penned up in one corner had got free and was running around frantically. It had trampled over my sleeping body causing bruising and lacerations that looked far worse than they were. That was the last night of the exercise, and the following night we were back on our own fine beds for a really good nights sleeps; bliss.
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From the Snoring relief articles weblog
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