24 May 2008: Winchcombe to Cleeve Hill

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Walking distance: 5.6 miles
Walking time: about 3.25 hours including picnic break.
Weather: Sunny and warm, very windy on the hill tops of Cleeve Common.

Way point: Historic (restored) long barrow Belas Knap.

This was one of our shorter walks. We decided to do it on a Saturday afternoon, when we'd have a chance of using public transport. It was a good hour's drive from home to the destination of the walk, a walkers' car park in a disused quarry near the Cleeve Hill golf club. We left the car behind and walked into Cleeve Hill to the nearest "listed" bus stop (there were closer ones as we found out on the way).

Then we got on the 606 bus at 12:15, and arrived at Winchcombe around 12:30. From there we picked up the Cotswold Way where we finished three weeks earlier. Even though it was not a long walk mileage-wise it was quite challenging with lots of up and down bits. We arrived back at the Cleeve Hill golf course car park around 4:00pm and felt like we had done a proper walking day.

More details of the third stage of the walk are in this photo album:

CotswoldWayIII - click on the picture to open the album

4 May 2008: Broadway to Winchcombe

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Walking distance: 12 miles
Walking time: about 6.75 hours including breaks.
Weather: Overcast, some drizzle and other types of rain, still fairly warm.

After a good night's sleep and an "Award winning" breakfast we set off for a full day of walking. The weather had changed a bit over night, but in the end we were grateful for the bits of rain that kept us cool on this walk. Way points were: Stanton, Stanway House, Wood Stanway, and Hailes Abbey,

We left the B&B at about 10:00 and had to almost immediately climb up the first hill of the day. The walk was still well sign-posted and it was also fun following the route in the guide book while walking. We had our own picnic lunch for the day, only finding the right spot for it proved a bit difficult: It was either raining, or there were other walkers using the few benches available, or there was nothing to sit down and be a bit sheltered. In the end we found a nice big tree just after we left Wood Stanway and we could fuel up for the next hill to climb over.

We reached our destination - Winchcombe - around 16:45, just in time to still be served a nice cream tea. After that it wasn't long until our pre-ordered taxi arrived to take us back to Broadway (no public transport on a Sunday!). From there it was an hour's drive back home and thanks to it being the Bank Holiday weekend we had still the Monday off to recover from this great walking adventure, the start to our Cotswold Way walk!

More details of the second stage of the walk are in this photo album:

CotswoldWayII - click on the picture to open the album

3 May 2008: Chipping Campden to Broadway

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Walking distance: 6 miles
Walking time: about 3.5 hours including breaks.
Weather: Dry, sunny, quite hot towards the end.

We started our Cotswold Way walk on the May Day Bank holiday weekend. To get started we booked an overnight stay in a nice B&B in Broadway and made this a full-on walking weekend.

On the first day we drove to Broadway and checked in to our B&B just before 12:00. Then we picked up the bus No. 21 from Broadway High Street and arrived in Chipping Campden just after 13:00. So this first stage was "only" a half day walking back to Broadway. Way points were: Dover's Hill, Fish Hill, and Broadway Tower.

Details of the walk are captured in the photo album.

CotswoldWayI - click on the picture to open the album

We arrived back in Broadway around 17:00, had an ice cream to cool down and a rest in our B&B. Once we regained some energy we walked to the Crown & Trumpet pub for a well earned dinner.

Introduction

I set up this blog to document us walking the Cotswold Way National Trail. It's the first long distance walk that we wanted to walk all the way through, but not in one go. We don't live far from the Cotwolds so we decided to do this National Trail in stages, i.e. as day trips or the odd weekend away. This approach limits the amount of gear we have to carry, but it can be a bit tricky to work out how to get to the respective starting and end points of the individual walks. Public transport is limited around the Cotswold Way, especially on weekends!

We are walking the Cotswold Way from North to South, starting in Chipping Campden and finishing (hopefully!) in Bath. The whole trail is 102 miles long, and in 2008 we managed to walk about a third of it in 4 days. Each stage is described in one of the following blog posts, and I've also created a photo album and a map for each day.

Enjoy walking the Cotswold Way with us!