Hiking day 8 to Cold Ashton

Today’s forecast had a chance of rain!  It was a little cooler and misty feeling to start, but turned into a comfortable day on the trails and backroads of the Cotswolds.  The hotel/restaurant that we stayed at had a car show early this morning. There was quite a crowd in the lobby and pub to get there coffee and pastries. 

What a variety of cars… Old and new,  classics from around the world. Great way to start a Sunday morning. 

We had to walkover a mile to get back on the Cotswold Way. 

Our method for counting gates and stiles each day is using the alphabet to keep track. In the beginning we were using random words or phrases that begin with the designated letter, but now we’re see using categories. Today’s categories were  countries and then foods. 43 gates!

It’s always fun to go through a gate and find friendly faces to watch us pass through. 

The beautiful estate is Durham Park. The baroque mansion was built in the late 1600s and the gardens around it are spectacular. We chose to view it from the road and carry on.

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This home had the most well maintained beech tree espalier hedge. Beautiful private home right on the Cotswold Way. 

The Holy Trinity Church in Cold Ashton is a grade 1 building - which is the highest level of historic protection in England . The tower is about 700 years old, while the rest of the church is about 500. 

Today we went over one large highway overpass and two very busy road crossing. There were no crosswalks, no signals, and it was very challenging to navigate an opening to run across the street.  Our overnight stay is not on trail and therefore we had some less desirable walking to this destination.    We did get some sprinkles in the last mile, but it was not worthy of raincoats. 

We discovered this place only has breakfast, and there’s no restaurants in the area, so we decided to take an Uber to Bath for a fun pub dinner. And that it was!

Gates:  43

Miles hiked 12

Elevation gained. 1290

Hiking day 7 to Old Sodbury

Today started with a gaunt through the town of Wotton-Under-Edge prior to a big grade climb to the adjacent hilltop. 

Once on top of the hill we were greeted by undulating green pastures and some lazy or friendly cows. 

There was a lot of inclines and descents today in the countryside, but not a lot of small towns/villages to  pass through. When we did get to a road, it typically was passing through small farms or neighborhoods, but not towns. This tractor took up the whole road! 

Somerset Monument was built in 1846 as a memorial dear Lord Robert, Edward Somerset, a British general. 

We took a recommended diversion from the Cotswold Trail to have a lunch and a break at The Fox Inn in Hawkesbury. This cute honey stand was along the way. 

Energized and heading back on trail. 

No signage here, but AI informs us that  Horton Millennium Folly, sometimes described as the Horton Owlery. It’s a modern folly built in 2000 as a millennium project, specifically to provide nestingh places for barn owls and swallows. 

The Cotswold Trail  goes right through the grounds of St. John the Baptist Church in Old Sudbury. 

We had to hike up hill on a Hill Road almost a mile to get to our overnight stay at Cross Hands hotel.  It was another long day and we were happy to be at our destination. It was busy at the Hotel restaurant being that it’s a Saturday so we were fortunate to find a place at the bar to have our dinner. Both Ed and Tim enjoyed an order of the  massive Mixed Grill. 

Gates crossed- 36

Miles hikes  - almost 14

Elevation gained- 2300’

Hiking day 6 to Wotton Under Edge

Another beautiful morning! 

We began with a walk in the woods. Many of our wooded walks have been on a hillside with the valley far below on our right and the ridge on our left. It is beautiful to see the sunny farms and valley views peeking through the trees. 

We  were welcomed by various free range animals today. Horses, cows, sheep goats, we also saw pigs but not in the same field that we were walking through.

Walking on the path we’ve seen lots of unique rock stack and mounds surrounding them. A trained eye can identify that they could be extremely old burial mounds. This historical landmark is Nympsfield Long Barrow. It is a communal tomb that was constructed 5000+ years ago.

We had a more than a fair amount of steep ups and downs today, It is the biggest day elevation gain while in the Cotswolds. 

It’s incredible how massive some of the trees are along the trail, especially knowing how much limestone is beneath the surface. This is one huge beech tree. Most of the woods that we’ve been walking through are predominantly beech trees. 

The clouds are spectacular here. It’s beautiful how the sun finds its way through to light up different locations of the valley below. 

This spectacular oak tree pulled us in for a closer look, but you had to be far away to grab a photo of this giant. 

After 10+ miles  we passed through the town of Dursley and saw The Hoptician Micro Pub. It seemed like a brilliant place to take a break. It was very small in size but huge in selection. 

After the “rest stop” we had an almost immediate steep climb to get to a route decision. At the top of the climb was a big beautiful and apparently popular golf course. There were two routes at this point cutting across the golf course or going all the way around. 

Tim and I chose the shorter route.. giving us about 4 miles to get to Wotton-Under-Edge, our destination. Michelle and Ed took the more challenging route with 2.5 miles more than us and more elevation gain. 

Pretty much anytime we got to a hilltop and scanned the surrounding hills and valleys we could see in the distance a tall tower.. Tyndale monument.   It seems so far off in the distance… until we were right there in front of it.

This 1866 tower commemorates, William Tynedale (1494 to 1536), producer of an influential English translation of the Bible. The tower stands 111’  and it’s a prominent landmark from miles away. 

Gate count:  35  / 39

Miles hiked: 16   /  18.5

Elevation gained: 2300 / 2600