Last Saturday we met up with Quentin again to do the 2nd to last stretch of the Cotswold Way. Jane and I set off from home with plenty of time to get back to Dyrham Park but there was a horrible accident on the M5 which caused us to be late.
Quentin meanwhile, who had travelled all the way down from Burton on Trent, was already there. We soon found him in this tiny, hidden away village and then off we went to our start point. This was up near Bath racecourse near the village of Lansdown. I decided that we should walk this stretch in reverse today to avoid two big climbs. We’d do these as steep downs instead and just have the one big climb. It was a good plan.
As we got out of the car to get ready for our walk, Jane and I wrapped up warm in fleeces and coats. Meanwhile Quentin got out in his bare feet. Jane and I had debated whether he’d be a barefoot walker again today and we honestly didn’t think he would. But here he was…oh my goodness! Apparently his measure of whether or not to go barefoot is whether you’d wear gloves. Logical. I decided however, that today I’d keep my boots on.
We set off in good spirits and to be honest we didn’t stop chatting the whole way. The weather wasn’t brilliant but it wasn’t exactly raining. It was a little bit more like walking through the middle of a cloud all day. Just a bit damp. But it was warm enough. A conditions report for barefoot walking today was: cold, wet grass, claggy mud and stony in parts with a light scattering of late Autumn leaves. You know you want to give it a go!
Next to where we parked was a monument to the Battle of Lansdown (1643) which was during the Civil War. There were some nice info boards and a splendid monument built to honour Royalist Sir Beville Grenvile. This had the most gushing words written on it about this chap by another who clearly admired him. It was just a little bit OTT. Still apparently he was a splendid fellow.
We made our way through some woods and then came out above a beautiful valley. We passed a mother and daughter walking who took our photo together. We’d meet them later on too coming back in the other direction. Odd business- covering the same stretch both ways. We commented later on the fact that these were really the only two people that we saw walking and this hadn’t been uncommon on the Cotswold Way. We are surprised at how quiet the walk has been, although we can see by the well trodden path that lots of other people do walk it. We just don’t know when. Quentin suggested maybe at night….
We had quite a steep descent to the bottom of the valley and it was very muddy and slippery. Quentin says that this is the major downside of barefoot walking. Not the mud- he doesn’t mind that. No- the slipping on the downhill bit. It was tricky but Jane and I had our Leki’s. At the bottom here we had to go through a farmyard and there were lots of cows hanging about. Quentin is very unsure of cows and so we took this cautiously. Luckily they seemed pretty pre-occupied with standing about in their own muck.
After passing a small fishing lake the path really started to climb. This was the ‘up bit’ and it was on a good Tarmac lane. We had several breathers as we made our way up and Quentin kept us in good spirits making us laugh. Mainly about my plans for next year. I have decided that my focus next year needs to be on ‘getting our house in order’. In other words decorating and dealing with snags. Q asked if I’d be writing a blog about it and I said I’d quite like to as it helps to give me focus and a sense of accomplishment. I don’t think he was too convinced as he commented:
February 16th – watched paint dry
February 17th – Jane said I’d missed a bit
The lane flattened out as we had to cross some busy A roads and made our way into the village of Cold Ashton. The CW takes an indirect route here so I expected the village to be something special. We sat outside the Parish Hall and had our flask of coffee with a left over sausage and some Malt Loaf. Our surroundings were a bit damp but it tasted great. It was a good job we had our own supplies as the village pub here on the busy road had closed down.
There were indeed some spectacular old houses here although hidden away behind great walls. Q and I poked our noses in the tiny Holy Trinity church which was very sweet and had a rather impressive stained glass window. It also had lots of leaves in the churchyard which I enjoyed kicking about because I had boots on and I could.
We then had to make our way through some really muddy fields. First of all they’d been muck spreading quite recently. Oh Quentin. No matter..you can after all wash your feet, he said. Then the path became very clayey. Q’s feet made quite a splendid claggy , sucky noise. None of this bothered Q and as we made our way across the field he told us about the evening of cabaret his daughter, Rosie, would be hosting at her school and which Q and Margot would be attending. Q had been helping Rosie create an 80s quiz and he tested Jane on some of his tricky questions. It was a fancy dress evening and he told us he planned to turn up in his grey suit and red tie as that was how he remembered spending his time in the 80s. In the office. Made me smile.
He also told us about his new voluntary job. He works in the Wedgewood factory in Stafford. He is working on cataloging their collection and it’s obviously something that he is really enjoying. Q has always been keen on his art, glass and ceramics. In fact, it turns out that he was at Tate modern seeing the Paul Klee exhibition last Saturday at pretty much the same time as me and Leera.
As we emerged from the muddy field we came out into a tiny hamlet called Pennsylvania. We had to cross the v busy A46 here and it really is quite dangerous. I think they should put some sort of crossing in. Later on in the day this road was blocked due to a serious accident. Not really surprising.
Now we had a simple walk back down through Dyrham Wood and then across the fields back to Dyrham village. It was quite surprising to find a field full of yellow flowers here. It looked a little bit like rape but Q said it was actually mustard. What on earth was it doing blossoming at this time of year? Some later research by Q informed us that this was the farmer deliberately trying to get some nitrogen back into the soil.
It was a pretty walk into Dyrham which is a lovely village. We made our way back to the National Trust tea room at Dyrham park where Q’s bare feet attracted quite a bit of attention, despite being cleaned off in their facilities. It’s funny how it makes people talk to us and I love the reaction and friendliness that it brings out in people.
It was less busy in here this week and we had a bite to eat before making our way back to the cars. By the time we’d got back we had walked 5.5 miles and now, more importantly, we have one last stretch to go to get us to Bath.
Walky Talky 