Day 17 - Chipping Sodbury to Middleyard
Mary was brilliant and didn't want any money from me so there are nice people in Gloucestershire! I felt a bit bad when she started to cry as she'd lost her dad to cancer. Nice start to the day with me picking up the Monarch's Way through Little Sodbury and then quite steep uphills through fields to Horton where I treked upto the fort and found a millenium tower built for owls and swallows to nest! The Monarch's Way was then joined by my old friend the Cotswold Way and I followed these via chalk bridleways and grassy fields to Hawkesbury Knott where there was a monument to Sir Somerset. On via tracks to Hillesley where I stopped for lunch at The Fleece and received free drinks for my efforts...definitely nice people here! Then a lovely run down past fields of cereals to Wortley where the footpath then went directly through a tall field of rape seed - I ended up looking extremely jaundiced and covered in yellow! I went round the next field! On reaching Wooton under Edge the Cotswold Way suddenly really picked up and I was suddenly crawling up a near vertical footpath onto Wotton Hill. However, at the top I saw a huge dog fox sniffing around and the most stunning views yet - I could see Wales and the Severn Bridge! Still more climbing through lovely woodland on well marked tracks to Nibley Knowl monument where I climbed all 120 steps upto the top! I then followed the Cotswold Way down the steep hill again only to find it doubled back up to the top field where the monument was! Bad move!! Back on the village lanes I was faced with a huge hill (made the one up to Wotton Hill look tame) well named Breakheart Hill and then dropped down through Folly Wood to Dursley where an ice-cream didn't even touch the sides! Out the back of Dursley the Cotswold Way was temporarily moved which appeared to add a bit extra to my mileage. Strangely I decided not to follow it up the near vertical hill of Peaked Down and Cam Long Down and instead continued on the valley floor before then having to climb out of the valley into Coaley Wood where again, it was an undulating but very well marked and maintained footpath to Coaley Peak viewpoint with 180 degree views both over to Wales but also showing where I'd come from that day. The rest of the way to Middleyard was through lovely beech woods covered with wild garlic. A really great day through stunning scenery but very hilly (mildy challenging they say!). The locals apparantely don't eat at the local pub but anyway, it closes on Mondays (like I would have known that!) so Pam kindly cooked me lasagne and garlic bread followed by strawberries and cream - whilst delicious after a long day's exercise, definitely wasn't a patch on Pam's at Northlake (nor was the company!). I've got burn marks on my back again but worked out these are from the stitching on my shorts so will roll them down slightly in future!...not too painful at the moment though
Mileage 22.84 taking 5.41