Actually DOING A Cotswold Walk
 

I am determined to do at least one or two when we are visiting in 2011 and I even bought one of those books with the pictures and descriptions.

One reason is to get "Mr. LazyBones" off his dead butt and out for some exercise because I know once he starts off he'll enjoy it.

So I've read about the usual "requirements" such as the "proper" shoes, the possibility of less-than-great weather; no petting the sheep, the goats, the horses and smiling, always smiling when you pass others.

We think we'll do at least one from Broadway and I am anxious to get through Stanway again.

Any other advice especially from those who have done same would be appreciated.

Have not done this walk but just want to suggest to talk SO into a "trial run" - well before your trip.

This will serve multiple purposes:
1) Assess your conditions

2) Give you time to get in better shape, if needed (see #1, above)

3) Give you a better idea about clothing, gear, what to carry, etc.

3) Give you a very pleasant (albeit long) day in the outdoors.

I know you're here in DC - Can I suggest the C&O from Georgetown to Great Falls and back??

http://www.nps.gov/choh/planyourvisi...gandbiking.htm

I've walked or biked much of this canal path (in pieces), including taking Amtrak to Cumberland and walking to Hancock with overnight stays in Paw Paw, Berkely Springs, on the trail itself in a tent and renting a car for the remaining trip home (expensive even for a one-way!!). If you get as far as Harper's Ferry, you can take a MARC train home the rest of the way home. You could even have someone drop you 20 miles or so on one side or the other of Harper's Ferry and train home. It's all gorgeous but the prettiest part of the trail is between Paw Paw and Berkely Springs - awesome.

Bardo1,

Thanks..great suggestion and I hadn't even thought of perhaps doing part of the C+O path and hoping that we don't get run down by some fiend on a bike.

BTW, can you actually walk through the Paw Paw tunnel or do you have to go around it?

"no petting the sheep, the goats"
They won't let you anywhere near them

"... the horses"
If a horse comes up to you and asks for a nuzzle, it's the height of ill manners to refuse it

" and smiling, always smiling when you pass others."
Absolutely not. Smiling is quite unEnglish.

A simple "good x" is fine, or even a benign grunt sounding vaguely like "morning" (or, as appropriate, "evening" of "afternoon"). If you're really garrulous a quick "splendid weather, isn't it?" is OK: the universal answer is "isn't it?". Excessive eye contact is impolite, but in this part of the world, words (or at least grunts) must be exchanged.

If your chum's lazy, avoid the walk to the top at Broadway. For Stanway, I'd start this walk (http://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walk...s/walk_b/3063/) at Snowshill Manor car park, circular back to Snowshill, then go round the house. Even on the busiest day, you can get timed tickets for roughly the end of the walk if you book them when you start.

Dukey,

You walk through, in fact you have to - there's no "going around". You'll both need to BRING A FLASHLIGHT, preferably something small you can stick in a pocket for the rest of the walk when you won't need it.

BTW, the only bike heavy area of the C&O is between Georgetown and Bethesda - even then it's not a problem for walkers.

Flanner:

thanks for responding (figured you would and hope you are having a great day)...I have no idea why but the last time we were in the area (staying IN Broadway) we more or less stumbled (by car) into Stanway and I was for whatever reason absolutely charmed by it...but I tend to be "charmed" by some of these very small places for some reason so looking forward to a return.

I'm hoping by the time this all occurs the other participant will be up to the task of doing the Broadway walk and more.

Bardo1: thanks for that clarification re the Paw Paw tunnel and the bicycle traffic elsewhere.

Dukey...you may want to warm-up with two quite gentle walks I've taken (I use a cane, and had done a goodly section of the Cotswold Way on a few walks many years ago, before the cane)..but on our 2008 visit, based in Broadway , we walked to the Broadway Tower and back. Scenic, fun. Red deer and Jacob sheep along the way. I don't recall the exact time..but we were certainly not in a hurry. Wife took it in fine stride. The next day, we revisited the very popular Slaughter walk (not as bad as it sounds)...between the two Slaughters, Upper and Lower... Actually a segment of the Warden's walk, I believe.(see sign)

Dukey, I also have pix of the Mill Dene Gardens on the much longer Moreton to Chipping Campden walk. Uncrowded in spring, quite beautiful. If you'd like those pix, just ask and I'll post them.

Stu

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/Cotswolds2008#

Incidentally:

1. Our two current favourites:

Incidentally:

1. Our two current favourites:
a) The world's absolutely, overwhelmingly, finest short, effortless country walk: the circular walk (google it) from Swinbrook to Widford and back. Mitford tombs, resting place of a Saint on his last journey, 13th century wall paintings, Roman floor, abandoned manor, world's best memorial to the vandalism of filthy Hun bombers (includes bits of the medieval stained glass their bomb destroyed - though in fairness their accidental destruction was a mere bagatelle compared to the wanton destruction that Prod fundamentalists had wifully wrought in the same church 500 years earlier) and (best of all): the Fettiplace statues.

b) A tad more strenuous: the circular walk from Longborough to Bourton on the Hill, then back by a slightly longer, southerly route. Good pubs, and choose a day Sezincote (through whose lands most of the walk runs) is open. THE great product of the Nabob era (the first time the area saw what became a running story for the next 300 years: bloke makes a pile from ripping off some third world country, then buys and absurdly tarts up a posh house round here on the proceeds)

2. "the possibility of less-than-great weather;"
Unlike what you have to put up with in the recycled swamp you use for a federal capital, that possibility is remote. There's practically no such thing as bad weather in England for walking: just feckless walkers too improvident to dress properly. Though we did have one of our once-every-two-decades cold winters this year, those two months of thick snow were really the only time since the late 1970s it's ever been too hot or snowy for comfortable walking.

Stu: thanks very much and yes if you wouldn't mind posting the others it would be appreciated. I am DETERMINED to make this happen and the more ammo I can get, the better.

Flanner: WHAT?????

Flanner:
Sorry, for some reason the remainder of your post didn't show up earlier.

I'm sure we won't have any difficulties at all with the weather..after all, we're much more used to dealing with adversity over here <G>.

<i>Stu: thanks very much and yes if you wouldn't mind posting the others it would be appreciated. I am DETERMINED to make this happen and the more ammo I can get, the better.</i>

OK, Dukey...I attached the Gardens to a few more Broadway pix, plus the initial ones I had sent...so scroll down to pic titled Milldene Gardens..and there you are. It is located not far off the walking path from Moreton-in-Marsh to Chipping Campden...very quiet, serene English gardens..only two other people were there at the time we were, in mid-spring.
Stu

http://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/Cotswolds2008#

Hi Dukey1,

I just spent 5 days walking in the Cotswolds at the end of Sept, early Oct., and did a couple walks that included the towns you mention.

I do defer to FlannerUKs reccos for his two walks as he's a native, but if you have the time, I enjoyed these walks very much...

I did the Chipping Campden-Broadway Tower-Broadway walk, and the Stanton - Snowshill (and back) walk. Both were wonderful -- if you like Stanway, I know there's a circular walk you can do that includes Stanton-Stanway-Snowshill. The village of Stanton is lovely, but this is a moderately challenging uphill walk if you go in the direction of Stanton towards Snowshill.

I did NOT have a rental car, though, so I didn't have to do circular walks. I could walk from one village to another and pick up a bus/train there.

I based myself in Cheltenham (staying at the wonderful George hotel with an English b'fast that was just perfection) and took buses (from a bus stop 1/2 block away) to the small villages.

I'd rented a car a year ago for my trip up in Yorkshire, but I was so happy to leave the driving to the bus drivers who were always on schedule (unlike Chicago's public transportation).

Not having to deal with the stress of a car on the narrow roads absolutely MADE the trip for me. My focus was on hiking, though, and I wasn't so ambitious in seeing a large number of villages in my short stay.

If you're interested in the idea of using buses and trains to get to the villages, post it here and I'll provide more detail as to my experiences.

BTW - If you two are fairly fit, and plan on doing 7-10 mile walks, I'd buy trekking poles. I didn't know if mine would actually come in handy when I practiced on the flat parks of Chicago, but they were phenomenally useful and essential on the hills and woods of the Cotswolds.

Have fun planning!

but they were phenomenally useful and essential on the hills and woods of the Cotswolds.>>

usful, possibly, essential - no.

we brits have been managing to walk around our countryside for hundreds of years with nerry a trekking pole in sight.

a walking stick, now, that's something different.

have a great walk, wherever you go.

"we brits have been managing to walk around our countryside for hundreds of years with nerry a trekking pole in sight"

Yes, but Dukey's not British. And many of "us Brits" who walk the Cotswolds a lot find a pole makes getting up and down steep hills and dealing with slippery paths a very great deal easier, faster and safer. On steep downhill slippery paths it can be a life-saver.

Conventional walking sticks put more pressure on your arms and hands and often cause hand blisters: two poles are excessive. The ideal compromise, IMHO, is one spring-loaded pole with a handle. Feels at first like a walking stick that's morphed into a pogo stick: but after a few minutes you wonder why you've masochistically done without one all these years.

They're also perfect for restraining flannerpooches and for prising up wire fences to let them tunnel under a stile that's been designed without sufficient thought for small dogs just too big and grumpy to carry across.

flanner - I'll take your word for it.

should one wish to purchase such an implement, where would one find it?

Re poles - We have a new branch of "Go Outdoors" near us which sells hiking poles at very reasonable prices. I have tried, and really don't find them comfortable on my normal walking routes (8-12 miles, mostly flat or gentle hills)

Last month we were walking in the Canadian Rockies, and were very much in the minority of people without poles - to the extent that many people commented on the fact, and several tried to lend us one of their poles when they were carrying two. Obviously it was a different type of walking altogether, but if (hopefully when) we go again, I must take poles with me as they definitely seem useful rather than a fashion accessory.

Thanks for all the additional responses and offers for help.

We will most definitely have a rental car and I actually enjoyed driving on some of those "back back" roads the last time we were over (we had based ourselves in Broadway) although I am a big advocate of public transport. However, this next time around we will be covering simply too much territory to rely on the trains and busses but again, I appreciate the suggestions and offers.

As to the walking sticks, poles, whatever one wishes to call them..since we're "not British" I guess we're just SOL but I somehow think we'll manage.

"should one wish to purchase such an implement, where would one find it?"

Every outdoor shop has a fixture of them. Not always visible when you're looking for new boots, since poles (with or without handles) tend not to offer much square footage for the eye to catch, and to be in muddy shades of brown or grey. But just potter round your friendly neighbourhood Millets, Black's Outdoor Shop etc.

As I understand it, poles' near universality in North America is down to the difference between their hiking and our walking. Walking's easier and a bit safer with one comfortable walking stick (which is all the new-fangled spring-loaded, extensible, poles are). Hiking turns into something approaching cross-country skiing in the calories it burns and the muscle groups it exercises if you use two poles: some guff about "total body workout" is usually in their makers' PR

Obviously of course, a "total body workout" is the last thing on the mind of anyone planning a modest 10-miler taking in a few medieval churches, a bit of nice landscape, a decent lunchtime boozer, a few hours' mildly malicious gossip about absent friends (or what a complete nerd Ed Milliband looks like) and somewhere doing crumpets and egg sandwiches round about teatime. So you're quite right to be leery.

But one at a time really can help.

OK, you mentioned walking in the north Cotswolds, but if you venture a little further south there are also some really good walks.

I just posted on goddesstogo's Cotswold thread, and paste what I wrote here...

<<<Now, about the south Cotswolds:

Here the country side is no longer rolling hills and bucolic vistas. The hillsides are steep and the valleys deep and narrow with tumbling streams and grey stone cottages clinging to the steep slopes, the villages being built to no pattern but randomly placed in clusters.

The views are tremendous, across the Severn valley to the Welsh mountains - on a clear day you can see the Sugar Loaf Mountain at Abergavenny. And south you can see to the Marlborough Downs, north to the Malverns, Abberley hills and very occasionally to Clee Hill which towers above Ludlow in Shropshire.

Some of the villages are really lovely, the Duntisbournes, Sapperton (really nice walk through Siccaridge Woods along the old canal banks), Chalford (the canal walk again along the Golden Valley), and up on the hill is Chalford Hill and then Bisley. From Bisley you can walk the Toadsmoor Valley which is absolutely gorgeous). On the other side of the valley are Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons - 13,000 acres of National Trust land. In the summer months this is open for grazing, but the cattle will be in now. This is a wonderful place to walk, with stunning views.

Then travelling further west there are pretty villages like Uley with the ancient manor of Owlpen, Nympsfield, Ozleworth, Alderley and Tresham, then dropping off the Cotswold escarpment there's Berkeley Castle down in the Severn Vale.

Email me at [email protected] if you want to come to this part of the Cotswolds, and we could maybe arrange for me to pick you up after a walk and take you back to the start where you left your car, or I can suggest some pubs, etc. >>>

Frankly, I rarely see people walking around here with the sort of hiking poles you seem to be talking about, except when it's really wet and muddy underfoot. But it's no big deal if you want them and they could be well handy when/if tackling the steep hills.

a call to flannerUK...

Thanks so much for all the wonderful information you've provided.

I wonder if you had any additional walks to recommend? I will definitely look into your reccos for the circular walk from Swinbrook to Widford, and the circular walk from Longborough to Bourton on the Hill.

Do you have any experience with walks that include the Westonbirt Arboretum (near Leighterton/Tetbury) or a circular walk from Barnsley (to Winson, around Ablington, to Bibury, around Arlington)?

These two are among the Times "100 favorite" walks.

As you know, almost any walk can be done in gazillions of permutations, so these comments refer to my walkng experience round them, not necessarily The Times' description.

Tetbury and Winson/Barnsley are prime weekender territory (every single house in Winson is normally unoccupied, except by housekeepers, from early Mon to late Fri): this doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them, but that they probably got into your list because these lists are compiled by idle tosser journos who only know about the two or three areas round their more successful fellow-undergraduates' country cottages. They're rarely as good as their inexpert compilers think.

The Tetbury-Westonbirt one is interesting for skirting Highgrove, with its trespasser-repelling signs (Highgrove is one of the few estates in Britain where trespassing is a criminal offence and that has lads and lasses with machine guns to catch you if you try it), the passage through the arboretum and the view of Tetbury on the home stretch, followed by a delightful little bit UNDER the bridge going into Tetbury. In between I thought there was an awful lot of dull, flat walking over unexciting countryside, including a huge but uber-dull racehorse training farm owned by one of the Al-Makhtoums. Tetbury church is interesting for being extraordinarily unEnglish: it's a New England Prod clapboard interior inside what looks like a proper Perpendicular exterior that's actually a modern (well, 1777) copy.

If you're interested in trees, Westonbirt's great. But personally, I'd be inclined to make it a half-dayer, walk to and from Westonbirt from Tetbury (remembering, if you really visit Westonbirt, that they expect you to put their admission fee in their honesty box. Obviously not if you're just passing through)then mooch round the area between Tebury church and the fields on the other side of the valley to get the view. Nicest in the evening light.

If you think of Barnsley, Winson and Bibury as a triangle, the area round Bibury's nice, and the bit on to Winson's OK. I've not walked the other two sides to and from Barnsley, but it's never struck me as that interesting when driving. Personaly, I'd be more interested in combining the circular walk between Winson, Bibury and Coln St Aldwyns with the circular walk between Winson, Coln St Denis and Chedworth. But that's because there's lot of Roman stuff along the route: it's mostly quite close to the River Coln so there's limited upping and downing. If you want a fair amount of striding across hillier stuff, the route down to Barnsley's probably more your cup of tea.

Gosh, I love this board.
flanneruk: to me, you're an absolute treasure. Thanks so much -- I can't tell you how I appreciate your taking to time to post. I'm going to work out my routes taking into account all this information.
I only wish I could return the favor... but would despair for anyone leaving the English countryside to come to manic Chicago.
Thanks again, flanneruk!

I wonder which absolutely delightful poster started this whole thing off anyway? <G>