When one plans to walk the Cotswold Way for the first time, one can barely even begin to imagine what is in store for them on their 5, 8 or even 10 day journey. Starting off in Chipping Campden, I caught myself often thinking, “wow, this is not at all what I expected,” and that was a phrase that became commonplace for me all the way until Bath today. The experience is absolutely un-real for any adventure seeker—a true once in a lifetime opportunity!

I now can proudly say that I walked the 102 mile Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Bath during the times of June 1 to June 8, 2014. While this isn’t a necessarily rare feat such as reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, *cough, cough, wink, wink*, the completion of the Way means something different and unique to every person that has come before me and all those that will come after me.

For me, completing the Cotswold Way means the continuation of adventure in my life and trying things that I’m not entirely comfortable with. Much as my journey to Japan was an adventure to explore the Orient—a region of the world I knew very little about—the Way was an adventure to explore the physical possibilities of my body. Walking 102 miles in Oklahoma would be pretty much just hot, flat and exhausting. In England, however, walking 102 miles means you will encounter an extremely diverse terrain with different obstacles along the entire route.

I’m thankful to my mom for putting us both to this challenge, while also proud of myself for accepting it and learning to make the most out of even some of the roughest situations.

There’s a quote that came to be on this trip that ties back in nicely to the idea that no one knows what it will be like on the Way until they try it. While we were both expecting to see a lot of sheep and drink a lot of tea during our walks, when you’re climbing the third monstrous hill for the day with soaked socks and blisters on multiple toes, you quickly realize that “it’s not all sheep and tea.” As with anything in life, there are missed expectations, unforeseen outcomes and tough times that will make you rethink everything you’re doing. What’s important to remember is that it’s not sitting down at the bottom of Cleeve Hill, looking for sheep and waiting for tea that will make your situation better. You have to keep trudging on the path laid before you knowing that one fine moment you will reach the top of that hill where the sheep are grazing, take in a spectacular view looking back down the hill you just climbed and just ahead of you, you will see that bed and breakfast where you can most certainly be assured your hostess is waiting with tea. That’s the moment when you realize it was all worth it!

With 6 days of walking complete and 2 remaining, leaving The Bell Inn this morning was met with ease as we’ve become accustomed to this daily routine. The chance of rain was barely even enough to make us hesitate our 9:30 departure and start of the 8 +1 mile trek to Cold Ashton. The aforementioned “+1 mile” comes from the fact that The Bell Inn is deceivingly not on the Cotswold Way, but actually a mile to the west, nearer the town of Chipping Sodbury than Old Sodbury. Nevertheless, we set off!

After a quick stop at Texaco for essentials, the path quickly turned into a soggy muck; much to be expected after the rain the Cotswold region received overnight. Very much to my surprise, however, was that the area we passed through shortly after Old Sodbury happens to be the estate of James Dyson, founder of the Dyson company. I do love me a Dyson bladeless fan, though I am yet to be the proud owner of one. 😛 Not sure if after seeing where he lives I feel more inclined to purchase his products, or less… Stay tuned!

Also along the trail today we came across a message box that held a notebook full of messages and well-wishes from other walkers of the Way. Of course we didn’t pass up the opportunity to leave our mark on the Cotswold Way, and we penned a nice message to anyone who would come behind us that included a reminder to Keep Calm and Carry On ♕

We took our time making our way towards Cold Ashton. Knowing that dinner was up in the air with regard to dining options, we decided that we would wait until Pennsylvania and grab some snacks from the filling station there to carry the last half mile to our B&B. A good plan in theory, and once all said and done a good plan over all, but that last half-mile, trudging through a muddy field and carrying a bag full of snacks ranging from Oreos and sandwiches to a 1.75 Liter bottle of Diet Coke, was brutal. Once at the B&B, however, it was all worth it. The family we are staying with has the nicest backyard where we found a quiet place to sit and eat our dinner/snacks.

I’ve spent the evening planning for what I would like to do while in London. Looks as if I’ve successfully convinced my mum that visiting the Royal Observatory in Greenwich will be well worth the half hour Tube ride and multiple transfers. What really is cooler than straddling the Prime Meridian and having a foot in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres, though?

It’s nearing bed time for me now. We are planning a little earlier start to the day to hopefully allow for more time in Bath after completing the last 10 miles of the Cotswold Way. When I write tomorrow evening, barring everything goes as plans, I’ll be able to say that “I walked the 102 mile Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to Bath.”

Today was a rather long 15 miles from North Nibley to Old Sodbury. It was nothing short of easy due partly to the continuation of the English hillsides which I wrote about earlier in the week. This region is not known for flatness and if someone were to associate flatness with the Cotswolds, that would be a flat-out (if you will) mistake. Today’s walk was also particularly challenging because the only decent sized town came about 2 miles into the walk.  It’s hard to find yourself hungry after gorging on toast and fruit at the Bed & Breakfast just an hour or so before, but knowing that the chance to eat again won’t come for nearly 13 more miles is enough to make you stop by a bakery and grab some lunch to go.

Along the way to Wotton-under-Edge, the lunch-stop town, we climbed up Tyndale Monument—a tower erected to the memory of William Tyndale, a man who worked at translating the New Testament into English and unfortunately was executed for it. This was a neat 120 steps up that gave some incredible views of North Nibley and the surrounding area. After climbing down the tower, it was just a short walk on over to Wotton-under-Edge, another medium sized town like that of Winchcombe, Painswick and Durlsey. There were a lot of neat shops, however. An antique store where my mom couldn’t resist an antique wine box—a box that would now need to be lugged 13 more miles to Old Sodbury—a bakery where we grabbed a few things for lunch, and countless other shops to poke your head in and out of. The plan was to take our lunch on a few more miles and have a picnic. So without spending much more time in Wotton-under-Edge, we set off.

Taking a break for lunch around 12:30, all was progressing nicely. Our pace was quick, cows in the fields were being cooperative and not blocking our trail too much and the weather was nicer than even necessary for a solid day of walking. We didn’t dally too long eating lunch as we knew there were quite a few miles between us and the next B&B. Really, after lunch, we didn’t stop again until our 18:30 arrival at our B&B besides the occasional minute or so water break or 30 second “catch your breath” break. That was a long haul and by the time we did finally arrive at our resting point, our feet, legs and every other part of the body that’s being used by this walk could feel the strain.

This B&B is quite a bit different than the rest. It has a pub on the first floor and half a dozen rooms on the second. When we first walked in, it felt nearly like the hotel that the Griswolds walked into in the beginning of their European vacation. I almost thought I was going to have to tell the bartender/receptionist that I was the winner of the Pig In The Poke. 😛 Dinner was obvisouly down stairs in the Pub this evening and it was fantastic as all the other meals on this trip have been.

Tomorrow looks a little dodgy as far as the weather goes. We may get a little wet during the first part of the day, but hopefully will have dried out by Cold Ashton—only a short 8 miles from Old Sodbury! Here’s what we’re looking at tomorrow (Saturday) weather wise:

The final thing for today is something I’ve been meaning to do the other nights as well. Here is a map showing our progression of the Way thus far. Only two days remaining and around 18 miles total to Bath!

Costswold Way progression as of Friday, June 6.

With a much better weather day, the 13 mile walk from Middleyard to North Nibley was a walk in the park—or shall I say, a walk in the Cotwsolds. We started it off right with a lovely breakfast from our hostess, Pam, then made our way on. It was nice to regather ourselves and get our bearings straights after a solid day in the rain yesterday.

The main point of attraction today was Dursley—a medium size town with plenty of shops and restaurants to check out. Since we made such great time on the first part of the walk today, we spent a good amount of time relaxing outside a bakery and enjoying the neat English town. (We also may have dropped some cards in the Post, so be on the lookout.)

After resting up in Dursley, the last part of the walk was a breeze. Most of the shady areas today were relatively soggy still from the rain, but nothing too crazy or more difficult than just being mindful of where we stepped.

The B&B we’re staying in tonight is a very old home called Nibley House. It’s been in this family’s hands for generations and the lady currently running the operation is more than twenty years invested. There’s a neat photo of it on my photo stream, so be sure to check that out.

Tomorrow’s walk will take us about another 13 miles to Old Sodbury. It looks to be another great weather day tomorrow, and that is definitely something to smile about 🙂

I haven’t written much about the weather we’ve been experiencing over here because, to date, it’s been quite lovely. Temperatures in the mid-60s to upper-70s, partly cloudy to mostly sunny days, and not a drop of rain to be felt.

Our luck changed today, however, after I checked the forecast at breakfast and saw a 90% chance of rain for the entire day. The meteorological probability was just too great, and sure enough, it rained 90% of the time we were on our 16 mile walk that took nearly 9 hours. The 10% of that time that it didn’t rain was the time that we spent indoors at a restaurant for lunch in Painswick and a quick stop at a pharmacy for essentials.

There was a neat progression throughout the day in regard to care for our shoes. We started off being very cautious about where and how we stepped across puddles and questionable areas of soft ground, to, by the last few hours of the walk, tromping through standing water, mud and knee high grass that was soaked with rain with little care to how wet or dirty we may have gotten. Once your socks are wet, they’re wet.

Another interesting aspect of getting soaked while walking is how much I actually hoped it didn’t stop raining…or at least that it wouldn’t get hot and sunny. Today was the coolest day of the walk temperature wise, and I can only imagine how miserable things would have become if the sun had come out following the rain and created a most probably unbearable humidity. It’s the lesser of the two evils. I was already wet, so let the rain pour!

Tomorrow’s forecast looks smashing. Temperatures creep back up and the rain is moving out as I type this. It might be another muddy day, but we basically became experts at traversing mud on this most recent walk, so it shouldn’t be too problematic.

Dinner tonight was different than usual. Instead of going back out and getting soaked walking to a Pub, we ordered takeout Chinese food at the recommendation of our hostess. She was even kind enough to go pick it up for us! 🙂

All is well that ends well, and today has definitely ended well despite the slowness of walking in the rain and very unkindly state the trails take on when they receive copious amounts of water.

Less than half way left to get to Bath now. That’s four more days of walking that I’m sure will fly by as it’s hard to believe the first four have come and gone as quickly as they have!

After a great night’s rest at the Malvern View B&B, the day started off rough with a hike out the B&B’s back gate right up the face of Cleeve Hill. Luckily, this climb was the worst of any we would experience for the remainder of the day. Cleeve Hill is the highest point in all of the Cotswolds, beating Broadway Tower by just a few meters. The views were absolutely incredible.

Today’s roughest, yet neatest, aspect was that we didn’t pass through any towns after leaving Cleeve Hill. Today was spent entirely on the trail which afforded us a couple of neat opportunities that a town would not have. The first was a drink break at the home of a couple who live on the Cotswold Way. As we came into a clearing after a “tunnel of trees” (as our trail guide explained it), we found a home with a sign on the front gate to “ring bell and proceed, but watch for free chickens running about.” The man of the home greeted us and showed us to a table in his front yard where he presented us with a menu. This was the neatest experience having Diet Coke on the front lawn of a complete stranger’s home while they tell you about their dog and the 20 years they spent running their home as a bed and breakfast.

The second of the neat opportunities was the mobile food vehicle we happened upon for lunch. Just as breakfast really began to wear off, there sat a bus alongside the road that had been converted into a diner. Seats both inside and out, we took a seat inside and placed an order for lunch. After inquiring more about the operation, the man running the entire shebang told us that this had only been in existence for 6 weeks, but he is hoping to develop an empire of them. Apparently Big Truck Tacos isn’t in England yet, so this guy probably has a very good chance.

The rest of the day was spent climbing our way up, down and around the endless, moderate hills that made their way towards Birdlip. We arrived at the Royal George Hotel, coincidentally, at exactly nine hours again after leaving the B&B that morning. Dinner was easier than ever before because this hotel featured a bar with a full kitchen just down the hallway from our room. When you take two people and walk them over 15 miles across mixed terrain for nine hours straight, absolutely nothing sounds better than walking just a few feet from your room to the place you plan to have dinner. 🙂

Tomorrow’s adventure will be the longest yet. Clocking in at an approximate 17 miles, Middleyard sounds like it will be quite the endurance tester. For a trip that is supposed to average 12.5 miles a day, one day these walks (13.5, 15, 17 miles) are going to have to shrink in size to reach that average!

After a great first day of walking, the expectations were set high for what would be a longer, more grueling journey than the previous. From Stanton to Cleeve Hill we were expecting 13.5 miles (before adding in a 1.5 mile roundtrip to Sudeley Castle just outside of Winchcombe).

With a fairly easy start, our pace was great. The English hills tend to deteriorate our pace as we go up them, and improve our pace as we go down them—imagine that, gravity is real—but this first stretch was fairly flat with the only real obstacle being a couple of other walkers that we kept struggling to pass. It was relatable to driving on the interstate in the vicinity of someone who is not using the cruise control—aggravating. Managing to pass them near Stanway thanks to a magnificent church that served as an irresistible photo-op, our pace was reset. Shortly after, we met a larger walking group and overheard their leader informing them that “this will be the first of three hills today.” Great! Maybe we shouldn’t have overheard that because by the time we made it to the top of that first hill spirits were…in question. I think the old saying “some things are better left unsaid” applies smashingly well in the case of overhearing the leader of that group.

Surviving the first hill, we made our way on to Winchcombe. There was a nice bakery for lunch and a convenience store to pick-up a few extra bottles of water. The road to Sudeley Castle led right out of the middle of Winchcombe and was an additional ¾ of a mile towards it and back. It was well worth the walk; a castle drenched in English history. There was not a lot of dallying there, however, as we still had the better half of the day ahead of us and the ominous two-hills remaining before Cleeve Hill and our B&B.

The second hill, well, it was straight up like Mount Crumpit rising from Whoville.  And the third hill, while less lengthy, was nearly worse as it came in the last hour of our nine hour journey. Below I’ve attached a profile of the first part of the Cotswold Way. We’ve been walking from right to left when you view the image below, and in the red box you will see the severity of the hills that rise out of Stanton, Winchcombe, and up onto Cleeve Hill.

We arrived at our B&B nine hours on-the-dot from the time we left our B&B in Stanton. 15 miles later, and still feeling every rock, rut and stretch of mud wearing on the muscles in my legs, it was dinner time. Our B&B owner, Barry, recommended a pub down the street. It was great—filled with interesting people and plenty of conversation to overhear.

We turned down for bed shortly after dinner and I took a few moments to post some photos from the day. https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A159UlCqG86vcI

Tomorrow’s route will be a 15.5 mile walk to Birdlip with all hope that there will be less extravagant hills than those encountered on the walk to Cleeve Hill.

As planned, we started today off with a scrumptious full English breakfast. I’m not the world’s biggest egg eater, but that was a delicious egg that I knew I needed the nutrition from for the walk we were about to set out on. We left Cornerways Cottage at about 10 minutes until 9:00 and turned towards the north. While north is not the prominent direction that the Cotswold Way progresses, it was the way that led us out of Chipping Campden, up through the neatest hedge, and past the place where the annual Cotswolds Olimpicks are held.

Let’s back up about 100m and 45 minutes before we passed the Olimpick site, however. While the Cotswold Way is all in all a relatively well marked national trail, when you’re doing something for the first time, it is understandable to get a little confused. As we approached the top of the first major hill we came up for the day out of Chipping, some pretty cute sheep got us distracted and we ended up on a “Cotswold Circular Path” rather than the Cotswold National Trail… To make a long story short, the trail guidebook quickly came out to save us from any more unnecessary excursions—excursions that cost us about 45 minutes and a hike down then back up the largest hill I’ve ever seen.

With the trail guide in hand, we were back on the straight and narrow and making good time on our way to Broadway—the half way point for today’s walk. There’s not a lot to say about the actual walking itself. Some of it was muddy; some on gravel; some through fields; some on roadways. Before making it all the way to Broadway, we came upon Broadway Tower. For £4.90 we were able to climb to the top for a view that stretched over 13 counties.

Just down the hill from the tower was the town of Broadway. For lunch we found a café and for dessert had an ice cream cone with a flake from a street vendor. Broadway was a neat town, buzzing with townsmen and their families enjoying the very mild Sunday afternoon.

Spending just enough time in Broadway to grab a bite to eat and catch our breath, we headed out and rejoined the trail. The last half of the walk for today was a bit more of an endurance test than the first half. Much hillier, muddier, and did I say hillier? Wow it was hilly! I hope the photos I took today will be able to capture the true essence of the landscapes we encountered. We walked (nearly rolled actually due to the steepness of the descent) into Stanton in the best part of the afternoon and found our B&B (The Old Post House) sitting quietly on the side of the main street in town. Another gorgeous home and another lovely family, we made ourselves at home in our room and took some time off our feet.

Out B&B owner made us a 7:00 reservation for dinner at the only pub in town—The Mount Inn. Cleverly named as it is the highest building around, the dinner was absolutely fantastic. I had a veggie burger that was completely contrary to our idea of veggie burgers in the States. This had vegetables on it. Fried, sliced and stacked into a hamburger sized portion.

This evening I posted photos from Day 2 to the Photo Stream and typed up a full post of what happened on Day 2. Tomorrow’s walk will take us to Cleeve Hill and it has the potential to be a wet day. Fingers crossed for another day of sun and stripping off layers to beat the heat.