Mr and Mrs Three Points of the Compass set out for our annual saunter along a longer trail, enjoying comfortable accommodation and good food on the 102 mile long Cotswold Way.

Prologue:

While I usually prefer to solo hike my trails, ideally backpacking, Mrs Three Points of the Compass does like to join me on occasion. However she is not a great lover of camping, nor carrying a heavy pack, and can see no good reason for roughing it. So, we keep the miles down and use a baggage company for these now annual excursions. This years choice is one of England’s National Trails- the Cotswold Way. It’s 102 miles (164km) cross the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ANOB). Setting off from Chipping Campden, the trail follows the escarpment down its western ridge, heading south-west to finish at the historic city of Bath.

It is a trail we have both been looking forward to walking for many years. It crosses 14 nature reserves, extensive Beech woodlands, passes forts, burial chambers, castles, medieval churches and the ruins of abbeys. Each day we encounter historic market towns, built of that wonderful honey-coloured Cotswold limestone. We have deliberately timed our walk for June, usually one of the drier months though we anticipate rain, this is England after all. With rain we will then encounter the notorious clinging mud that has caused so many walkers on this trail to struggle, but wildflowers should be approaching their best at this time of year, and we can always sit in a teashop and wait out a shower.

Frustratingly, this trip had been put at risk because Mrs TPOTC has been suffering from not only plantar fasciitis but also a slight strain on top of the same foot. She has been enduring months of physio, massages, strapping and a return to gentle exercise. Shorter walking days and gentler pace will be an essential element if we are to complete this trail. Our shortest day is just 6.5 miles/10.5km and our longest 13.5 miles/21.5km, though following the escarpment there are also a multitude of ascents and descents and often additional distance leaving and rejoining the trail each day. We booked through Contours Walking Holidays, who arranged our itinerary, overnight halts, baggage movement and transfers. This is really helpful admin in a popular area where accommodation can be block booked months in advance. This really is a very different excursion from my norm and demonstrates there are many ways for a person to tackle a long trail, even for someone carrying injury. It isn’t always about shouldering a pack, living off dehydrated meals, and searching out a wild camp each night. This is a self-guided walk over eleven days, which means we can take our breaks as we wish, preferably in the tea shops and cafes in the many honey-coloured villages that we pass through each day. More on those in the daily posts to follow…

Day one: Chipping Campden to Stanton. 10 miles/16km

Our first day on trail would immediately introduce us to what to expect, a series of ascents and descents between the towns and villages of the south-west heading Cotswold escarpment.

Having arrived in Chipping Campden yesterday afternoon in enough time to explore the town and enjoy a few drinks and a meal. We booked a late breakfast as it is a fairly short day today. The first of many ‘Full English’ I am sure. And a good one it was too. Made all the better by sitting with another couple of trail walkers and discussing current and future plans. Needless to say we were away quite late and didn’t actually leave the official start point at the Market Hall, the start of the trail, until 10.00.

The weather was fantastic, warm and clear skies, forecast to get much warmer later. After just five minutes we were already climbing up Dover’s Hill, straight into the countryside, sheep baa-ing left and right of us. At the top, the vista immediately opened up. But being chased down by a guided group of hikers, we moved on. It is Sunday and quite a few people out on trail. How many doing the entirety or simply day walking I don’t know.

Day one on trail presents the walker with a fine example of man’s folly, a folly. Broadwater Tower was designed by James Wyatt and Capability Brown for the Earl of Coventry about 1800, just so that he could show off his wealth, though the audio guide would have us believe he built it out of love for the Countess. We paid our exorbitant fee (£14 each) and climbed through the various floors to its top, said to be the highest point in the Cotswolds. I found it all very interesting but a pot of tea at the nearby cafe beckoned so we descended and pottered off there.

Broadway was heaving with visitors. Many of the many artists strung out along its main thoroughfair attempting to capture the town’s essence on canvas must have been pretty annoyed with interruptions from a curious tourist but Sarah Darby was gracious with her answers to my impertinence. Mrs TPOTC was impatiently kicking her heels however so it was time to find an eatery for a late lunch. The Broadway Deli supplied a decent ploughman’s (for me) and ham doorstep sarnie for Mrs TPOTC.

We only had about three miles left to walk today, but that entailed dragging our bodies, full of too much lunch, and alcohol (for me), up another hill. Though it was a steady and gentle climb, thankfully, as the temp was now in the thirties. We were not going to meet our time for our pre-arranged transport so I phoned and attempted to delay it. Unsuccessfully I later found out. The path led us past the undulating grassy tops that are Shenberrow Camp, an iron-age settlement. We never really saw the top of Shenberrow hill, the path just sort of swung round and began the descent to Stanton, the view over the Vale of Evesham gradually disappearing as we descended into beech woodlands.

Stanton has almost been frozen in time. The architect Sir William Stott purchased much of the village prior to World War I and resolved to restore much of the village. Though he did bow to the instalation of modern conveniences, he also brought in covenants that prevented more unsightly 20th-century eyesores from disfiguring ‘his’ village. It now has an enviable collection of mostly 17th century farmhouses and cottages, deemed the golden period of Cotswold vernacular architecture.

We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Chipping Campden last night and due to the lack of accommodation at the end of today’s section, we had a transfer from Stanton back to last night’s halt. When we arrived the previous night we had asked our host for recommendations for evening meals. One of these, the Maharaja Indian restaurant,  behind the Volunteer Inn, had been so good that after showers, rehydration and rest, we went there again tonight. AND I was able to have a couple of pints of the pubs excellent Cotswold Best.

It had been a good first day.

• Cotswold Way- National Trail
  • Cotswold Way: Stanton to Winchcombe
  • Cotswold Way: Winchcombe to Dowdeswell
  • Cotswold Way: Dowdeswell to Birdlip
  • Cotswold Way: Birdlip to Painswick
  • Cotswold Way: Painswick to King’s Stanley
  • Cotswold Way: King’s Stanley to Dursley
  • Cotswold Way: Dursley to Wotton-under-Edge
  • Cotswold Way: Wotton-under-Edge to Old Sodbury
  • Cotswold Way: Old Sodbury to Cold Ashton (Pennsylvania)
  • Cotswold Way: Cold Ashton to Bath