LEJOG day 18: Dursley to Painswick
Today ought to have been a nice, short, easy day- 13-ish miles, the Cotswold Way, lovely job. However, if you recall, my Spreadsheet told me it would take six hours. I really ought to have paid more attention to that, because today's chunk of the Cotswold Way turned out to consist exclusively of ascents and descents. I don't feel like I stretched my legs and hit my normal walking pace at any point at all today. And it took me 5h20, which felt like a crawl.
Of course the benefit to all this up-and-down-ing was plenty of lovely views over a very pretty part of the country- albeit slightly hazy.
Today also marked a glorious milestone: I'm over a quarter of the way to John O'Groats! Entirely by chance I spotted a geocache when I stopped to call my Dad to celebrate, so there's even evidence of my joy in a slightly soggy notebook somewhere on the Cotswold Way.
I have mixed feelings about Middleyard, a village I passed through: on the one hand, it was here that a couple standing chatting outside their house offered a cup of tea and sat chatting on the bench with me while we all soaked up the sun; on the other hand, this was the first time I have lost the Cotswold Way- although the OS map was perhaps a little misleading so I was looking for a waymarker in the wrong place.
I am now in my B&B in Painswick, apparently "the Queen of the Cotswolds", where I strongly suspect that all I will have to do for my rest day tomorrow will be to look around the church and then drink a lot of cups of tea in various cafés. It's a hard life.
Distance walked: 14.59miles
Time taken: 5h19
Percentage completed: 25.9%
Boot cost per mile: £0.32
Lunch: an egg and cress sandwich, right after my cup of tea. I couldn't find the pepperami in my bag so I had an apple instead, which wasn't the same at all.
Last night's B&B: Woodland House, Dursley - lovely hosts who greeted me with tea and biscuits and did my laundry for me.
A house in a view
I left the Cotswold Way to avoid climbing this and was so proud of my past self for the detour. Then I looked ahead. It was worse
(I've waited so long for this) Two roads diverged in a green wood and I, I took the downhill one
So symmetrical! Such arches!
Never sure if this means it's no longer a right of way, or just that it's been maintained in so long the letters have come off the sign
I am so sad I won't be here for this because I am VERY CURIOUS
Standard farmhouse
Lych gate!
Musical lych gate!
Of course the benefit to all this up-and-down-ing was plenty of lovely views over a very pretty part of the country- albeit slightly hazy.
Today also marked a glorious milestone: I'm over a quarter of the way to John O'Groats! Entirely by chance I spotted a geocache when I stopped to call my Dad to celebrate, so there's even evidence of my joy in a slightly soggy notebook somewhere on the Cotswold Way.
I have mixed feelings about Middleyard, a village I passed through: on the one hand, it was here that a couple standing chatting outside their house offered a cup of tea and sat chatting on the bench with me while we all soaked up the sun; on the other hand, this was the first time I have lost the Cotswold Way- although the OS map was perhaps a little misleading so I was looking for a waymarker in the wrong place.
I am now in my B&B in Painswick, apparently "the Queen of the Cotswolds", where I strongly suspect that all I will have to do for my rest day tomorrow will be to look around the church and then drink a lot of cups of tea in various cafés. It's a hard life.
Distance walked: 14.59miles
Time taken: 5h19
Percentage completed: 25.9%
Boot cost per mile: £0.32
Lunch: an egg and cress sandwich, right after my cup of tea. I couldn't find the pepperami in my bag so I had an apple instead, which wasn't the same at all.
Last night's B&B: Woodland House, Dursley - lovely hosts who greeted me with tea and biscuits and did my laundry for me.
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