Dunns On Tour

A bit of an uncomfortable night for me, there was a dip in the bed that made me feel like I was constantly trying to scramble out of a hole. Despite being part of the Greene King chain, breakfast at the Royal George was somewhat below standard compared to the Rising Sun experience. Just little details missing that made it feel a little less soigné. There was also a minor kerfuffle as I double checked our lodgings for this evening and couldn’t confirm in my notes and emails that I’d actually completed the booking. This was straightened out with a quick phone call, it turns out I had made a verbal commitment (dim recall) and so thankfully we didn’t have to hunt for an emergency alternative. Just as well, as the CW is busy traffic and there must be pressure on limited accommodation at some of the smaller pit stops. I counted upwards of 30 walkers at breakfast, most of whom were probably heading South on the CW with us. Many seem to be North American (have we mentioned this?) and are keepi...

  An epic walk today. We left the Rising Sun at Cleeve Hill at 9am, and arrived 16 miles and 7 and a quarter hours later, footsore and weary, at the Royal George in Birdlip. We would ideally like to walk as close to 10 miles per day as possible, but lack of accommodation on this stretch meant we were stuck with a long trek today. However, what a glorious day for it. Sunny but not too hot, and thanks to the clouds here and there, pretty good visibility. We initially had a short, sharp climb up onto Cleeve Hill - grassy downs incorporating a golf club and the highest point on our walk (317m). The views were spectacular, and we had a variation of this view for most of the day. Cheltenham and its racetrack in the foreground, with the Malverns and beyond them the Black Mountains clearly visible. We could also just about make out the Sugarloaf, though it was a little hazy. Our trail was nicely varied: open fields, the escarpment edge and woodland, with plenty of up and down to work diffe...

  We were royally entertained at breakfast this morning.  Our co-occupants in the B&B this time were a Canadian/ Cambodian couple who work for a development NGO, assisting small communities with basic infrastructure like sanitation and access to clean water. We exchanged notes over scrambled eggs & salmon on the impact of cuts to foreign aid and the woeful lack of any progressive check against Big Capital. Just your average casual breakfast chitchat with strangers. Midway through this earnest conversation, our landlady Sarah entered the room and parked herself on a chair by the door, blocking off any easy escape, and proceeded to hold court in a rambling monologue, regaling us on a series of topics of her own choosing - mainly family stories and the traits of nationalities she disliked (principally the French, but Americans also came in for a patrician caning). All this delivered in the plummiest cut-glass English tone, and in such a chatty and amiable way that it was ...

  We passed a very uncomfortable night on a decrepit bed at the Vines. The building looks gorgeous on the outside (see yesterday's pic), but inside it's rather less so. The family has been living there since 1976, and I don't think they've troubled to do much to it since then. Our 7.5 mile walk today felt very much like a stroll through England's green and pleasant land. As yesterday, we enjoyed sweeping views west to the Malverns and Wales beyond, and with better visibility. Our near sight was also tested when Joff saw something move on the track, and we eventually spotted a very well camouflaged, teeny frog, about the size of my thumbnail. In several places we saw evidence of the old ridge and furrow ploughing method, on this occasion planted with an avenue of trees. We crossed paths with quite a few other walkers, all American. In fact, if you were to randomly throw a rock around here, you would in all likelihood hit an American.  To be clear, I'm not advocat...

  Host pub kitchen was closed when we went down by appointment for breakfast at 8am, something must have got lost in translation, so we went round to the local cafe diner for our bacon & fried egg sandwiches. Obligatory selfie in front of Market Hall, marking the start of the Cotswold Way, and we were off, on a gentle climb up to Dover’s Hill, offering a good viewpoint from the escarpment. Bright conditions overhead to start with, if getting progressively a bit cloudy and grey as the day wore on. Half hearted bouts of drizzle came and went, almost as if to force us to go through the motions of donning waterproofs, and we soon reached Broadway Tower, a 17th century folly which was recently used as an observation post for aircraft manoeuvres before being privatised. Along the way, we passed a glorious profusion of damsons, sloes and blackberries, most of this fruit seems to have been left unpicked, which was a torture for Em. The descent to Broadway marked the halfway point. We t...

  In a perfect example of stupidly doing what you've always done, rather than approaching each task afresh, we decided a while ago that we would drive to Bath, take the train and bus to Chipping Camden and then walk back to the car. This made perfect sense for our earlier hikes a good distance away from home, but with the benefit of hindsight made no sense for this trip. Not even mentioning the inglorious details of our attempts to park and the cost of that, we realised whilst changing trains in Bristol (3 hours after leaving home) that we could have done the whole thing on public transport more easily, cheaper, and quicker. I'd like to say lesson learned, but honestly, there's no guarantee of that! The final leg of the journey was a somewhat tortuous and meandering 2 hour bus journey from Cheltenham to Chipping Camden. If you drive yourself it takes 40 minutes. As we were buying the tickets the driver noted that we were in for a long haul, but that we would at least s...