Orta is a bear we rescued in Italy in 2002. He had been trapped in a glacier for thousands of years and was eventually disgorged into Lake Orta. We found him floating head down and rescued him. He orta have been more careful.

Orta joined us for this holliday because Buddy couldn't come. Today he wished he hadn't.

The guide books and maps for the walk from Chipping Campden to the Broadway Tower said it was a 1 hour and 5min walk. The first three hundred metres was along a boggy track. We abandoned the track and walked up the road risking getting run over, it was so narrow and steep. At the top of the hill, we rejoined the "public footpath". We walked between hedgerows and across fields of wheat. This "country" has been so dominated and controlled for thousands of years and when walking betwwen hedgerows, there isnt anything to see.

If golf is a good walk ruined, I wish I'd had a golf club for the first hour. An hour saw us half way there, at which point Orta asked if he could leave Cheryl's shoulder and get back in the bag. The inside of the bag was more interesting than the countryside.

After 2 hours, we reached the Broadway Tower. It is a "Folly", designed and built by Capability Brown (he of the landscaped estates). I heard a little voce from inside the bag say "Crawford Folly, walking al this way".

We had lunch at the cafe down from the tower and called for a taxi to take us home. If it wasn't much to look at on the way over, it wasnt going to improve on the way back and we couldn't have walked another 2 hours with Orta weeping in the bag.