Randy's Wanderings: Cotswold Way

After our via Francigena walk ended in Rome Lisa went to Croatia to send a week with an old friend of hers there. I flew back to Gatwick then trained to the little town of Chipping Campden in the central UK where I started my seven day, 165 km walk on the Cotswold Way to Bath.

Overall I would recommend this walk. Not terribly difficult. Very pretty. Good accommodation.

Day 1 - Chipping Campden to Broadway 10 km

Spent last night in the Volunteer Inn (B&B with pub) and they also organizeday the baggage transfer. I decided to opt for this luxury because I was a little tired after the VF where we did carry our full packs and for the CW I had pretty long stretches each day. Except today because I was unable to get a room in the village of Stanton which is about 20 km down the road so only walking 10 km to Broadway. This will make the next day a long one. The upside is that Broadway is a larger village with an assortment of shops and cafes to check out.

The full english!

Market hall in Chipping Campden

Official starting point of Cotswold Way

Fans

Tea and Cake break

My digs in Broadway

Day 2 - Broadway to Cleeve Hill 26 km

Stanton

Just cows

Love these giant elms

Golfers mixing it up with sheep on Cleeve Hill

Day 3 - Cleeve Hill to Birdip 23 km

Day 4 - Birdip to King Stanley's 27 km

Roman Villa excavations

Looking down the very steep cheese rolling competition hill

Tea stop at Painswick

Painswick

Sid and Sue from Alaska

Crossing the canal at Stroud

Dinner at King Stanley's Inn

Day 5 - King Stanley to Wotten-Under-Edge 24km

Started off the day blissfully walking into the variant of the CW and getting myself kms and a couple of hours off route. Retraced and with help from locals managed to get back on track