Cotswold Way - Day 4 - Dowdeswell to Birdlip

Today's guest walker is my good friend Andy and after a hearty breakfast and the necessary juggling of getting a car to the finish point and a car to the start, we are away at 10am.  Some peering at maps has shown we have two short sharp climbs in the first mile or two and then we should be fine for the rest of the day.  And that's pretty much how it proves to be.  The anticipated climbs turn out to be pretty straight forward actually and we pretty much take them in our stride.  This is probably helped by the brand new route to Ravensgate Common that was opened only two days before, and is described on the Cotswold Way website as the first major route change on the Cotswold Way in the last three years.  We didn't realize it at the time but we must be some of the very first to be taking the new route.  Well, it works and as you can see below, it's a great view from the top.   

Whilst there are still some slopes and hills to come today, this 10.5 mile stretch is reasonably easy walking.  There are some lovely yellow fields on the way to Seven Springs.   

The higlight of today's walk is probably to be found at the top of Leckhampton Hill where we see a few dozen people paragliding, circling around on the thermals like some of the buzzards we have seen.  It's an amazing way to see Cheltenham below but takes some serious guts to launch yourself off the edge trusting only to some thread and material.  It is a magical sight to see so many of them in the air, circling around and it's quite mesmerizing.  We stop and watch for some time and the Rutland and Australian couples that I met yesterday do the same.  Had I not been walking on a Saturday I'd have missed this sight.    

When we finally do push on round the corner to the Devil's Chimney landmark, we realise that we have stopped and stared so much at paragliders, scenery and stone walling that we have covered 4.5 miles in 3 hours.  This is possibly sub-snail's pace.   I think it demonstrates the wisdom of shorter stages and doing in ten days rather than 7 or 8 though.  For me, to be trying to cover, say, 15 miles today, would have meant feeling (self-imposed) pressure when I was watching the paragliders.  I'd have felt I should get on with it and not linger too long.  As it is, there is no rush, though we really ought to step up the pace a little bit.  So we crack open lunch at the Devil's Chimney and walk on. 

Next stop is the National Star College at Ullenwood who have recently opened the fabulous Star Bistro in their new development.  We've only just had our sandwiches so there is no way we could eat there but they have just been nominated as Cotswold Life Food & Drink Awards Finalists for 2012.  The menu looks amazing and it's pretty reasonable too.  The coffee is excellent and you get a couple of lovely little treats with it, I particularly liked the pistachios in chocolate.  When we comment on the quality of the coffee afterwards the person who serves us tells us that Rocket Coffee is roasted in an old copper roaster in nearby Stroud.  More than that, they build schools and hospitals in the places they buy the coffee from and so it's a real partnership.  I love that the Star Bistro know and care and enthuse about this stuff.

If I was local I'd certainly visit.  It's open from 11-4 on Tuesday to Friday, 10-4 on a Saturday and they plan to do some special Sunday lunches too.  It's well worth dropping in if you are walking the Cotswold Way, especially as you walk past the entrance to the college on your route.
  

Suitably refreshed we walk though some lovely wooded areas and on to Crickley Hill.  Again we stop and stare out over lovely scenery, it is a warm, clear day and has been perfect walking weather.  

It's a bit of a rude awakening after such a lovely stroll to then emerge at the noisiest and most dangerous part of the walk.  The Air Balloon roundabout at Birdlip is busy as cars rush between two motorways and you need to take care as you cross.  They are faster than you might think and after 9 miles or so, you are probably not as fast as you think.  Thankfully the route only follows the main road to Cirencester briefly and, again, you are in the quiet of the route to Birdlip. 

   

Having been bouyed by a signpost that told us Birdlip was just a half a mile away, we have to get the map out when we hit the old (pre-bypass) road  from Birdlip to Gloucester.   We've parked in Birdlip village so are faced with leaving the route here and a short walk up the road to the car, or crossing the road and taking in some more woodland before we cut back on a different footpath nearer the village.  We elect to do the latter, even though it means walking down and up, in short succession, a reasonable slope - certainly reasonable for this time in the walk anyway.  I do it because I have half an eye on the next stage, which at 13.5 miles will be the longest, and cutting even half a mile off that seems worth it.  Andy does it because he's a long suffering friend. 

At the bottom we meet our Australian friends, who have their map out and are wondering, not unreasonably, where Birdlip has gone.  Through local knowledge - partly garnered through playing cricket in such villages - we point them back up the hill to where they are heading for the pub.  We continue and join them a bit later.  We sit together on a table in the pub garden swopping stories and they are thrilled to find that Andy is a Cotswold dry stone waller and have lots of questions for him.  It's a good way to end the day and with the weather, scenery and people, it's been my best day yet.  Next stop, in a couple of weeks time, Randwick.    



Cotswold Way - Day 3 - Winchcombe to Dowdeswell

Well, I needn't have worried about not quite finishing the previous leg.  By parking in the Back Lane car park I follow the Town Centre signs to come out exactly where I finished last time.  I take a diversion to get a picture of the Winchcombe stocks.  I am sure there must be a good reason why they have holes for seven legs in the stocks but have no idea what it is. 

                                          

It's a steep climb from Winchcombe up to Belas Knapp, in fact I think it might be the longest climb of the route, though I confess I need to investigate that in a bit more detail.  The views were good though. I know because I stopped to admire them plenty of times as I caught my breath.  

Belas Knap is a burial chamber dating back from around 3,800 BC.  The picture is of the false front.  As I arrive there an Australian couple are just leaving and a retired couple from Rutland have arrived a minute or two before me.  I get to chat with them and it turns out that all five of us are doing the same stages today and tomorrow.  We'll bump into each other several times as we walk and build up a bit of friendly camaraderie as we walk.    

It's very windy and quite cold up so high but if you keep moving it isn't so bad.  I finish the coffee from my flask and push on.  I walk down through a beautiful wooded path but it's very steep and actually, despite being downhill, it's probably the most painful part of the day's walk.  Also, in the back of your mind (well, in the front to be honest) there is the knowledge that for every step downhill there will be a corresponding step up hill to come and more, because I'm approaching Cleeve Hill and the highest point of the Cotswold Way.  

To this novice walker, it's hard work but it's well worth it, the views at the top are incredible.  

It's slightly odd to get to the top of a steep climb to end up on a golf course, stranger still that there are nervous looking sheep occupying the same space.  But there are golfers and grazers on Cleeve Common, I even spot lambs in a bunker on one of the holes.  Clearly got a baa-ed lie.  

                               

Here it is, the highest point on the Cotswold Way, proof that I made it. 

The views are spectacular but sadly Blogger says the panoramas that I took from there are too big to post.  I can see why, they are big views!  So I'll link in with my Flickr account to post some of those later.  It's very windy up there and I am blown around a bit just trying to take photographs.  It must be a nightmare to play golf in.  But what views!

Anything will be a bit of a comedown after such heights and the nature reserve I walk through is pretty uninteresting to be honest.  Maybe it's the wrong time of year.  Much more dispiriting though is the sight, just past some disused quarries, of dumped rubbish.  Drinks cartons and bottles mainly but particularly vexing and perplexing is the old tyre that someone has gone to great lengths to dump in the middle of a beauty spot.  They must have had to travel some distance to do this.  Morons.  It does, at least, serve to highlight the lack of litter on the rest of the walk, so far.

Heading towards Dowdeswell is a lovely gentle downhill walk, just what the doctor ordered when you are approaching the ten mile mark.  The sun is out as well and it makes for a very pleasant end to the day's walking.

If I had one complaint about the day (and it seems churlish to complain about anything at all on such a lovely stretch) it is the complete lack of facilities along this section.  With the possible exception of the golf clubhouse (I really should have taken a look) there are no toilets, places to get coffee or buy food anywhere.  So it is a great joy to come across a house at Dowdeswell Reservoir who is offering tea, coffee, chocolate bars and the like at very reasonable prices.  If you are walking there do drop in at Langett.  Just ring the bell at the bottom of the drive and shut the gate before you walk up the drive so thatthe free range chickens don't get out.  I sat in their garden with a cup of tea and a Mars bar and it revives my spirits almost as much as the friendly welcome from my hosts.  They are Cotswold Way people and also offer a range of Cotswold Way goodies.  I buy a relief map before I leave; I will get it framed as my reward when I finish.  It's a welcome break, a little oasis and the world feels like a better place for the existance of such places.