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
|
Trail food |
|
Inside the earthen walls of a massive iron age fort |
Day 7 - Tormarton to Bath - 24 km
The day after reaching bath I took the train to London where I met up with Lisa for four days of touristy things.
Cheers!