Upper Hill Farm to Wood Stanway. 23km 8hrs. After breakfast with Paul and Helen, we had a squirrel feeding session, where Paul fed his pet squirrel, Cyril. Apparently he heard a commotion about six weeks ago and when he went outside, he found Cyril on the ground having fallen, or been pushed from a tree sixty feet high! At that stage, Cyril still hadn't opened his eyes and was dehydrated, either because he couldn't feed, or his mother decided not to feed him? T...

Cotswold Way Day 7. Monday 11/9/17. Birdlip to Prestbury Hill. 22km 7 hrs. It has been a long day so this is a quick blog. Greg gave us another slightly hair raising ride in his Land Rover, from Painswick to the start of the track in Birdlip. The weather was foreboding with a strong wind and grey to black skies, so we were in full walking gear, with waterproof pants and parka as well as our usual boots, pack and poles. Fortunately the terrain was a bit kinder ...

Painswick to Birdlip and return: 11km 4hr. Today after breakfast at St Anne's B&B in Painswick, Iris organised Greg to run us into Birdlip so we could walk back south to Painswick where we're staying another night. After a slightly hair raising ride, with three of us riding without seat belts in the back of a Land Rover we arrived outside the Royal George Hotel in Birdlip. We needed to do a bit of map reading to figure in which direction we could pick up ...

Cotswold Way Day 5: Middleyard to Painswick. 14km 5hr. The weather has become wetter. This morning we left Valley View and our hostess Pam about 9.15am. There was intermittent rain and a fairly constant grey-black sky. I was foolish enough to start in shorts and tee shirt and was attacked by nettles after the first stile. I found that if I watched my feet in the slippery mud, the nettles leapt out and attacked. If I watched the nettles, I tended to do half Ch...

Friday 8/9/17: Wotton-Under-Edge to King's Stanley 24km 6 hrs 30 mins. Sometimes walking with friends can be challenging. Last night we had talked over a beer, about better communication and letting each other know what we were wanting to do, or where we wanted to stop and sightsee. As part of that, we planned to meet outside the Swan Inn at 8.30am and Hett would see the chemist about replacing her glasses, Rowan would go to the bank and Jane and I would do a ...