Day 10: Old Sodbury to Cold Ashton

Last night we stayed at Rock Cottage with Joan and John who proved to be excellent hosts. After they had served us tea and cream tea (scones with really yummy cherry jam and clotted cream) they sat down and chatted with us. This was the first time any of our hosts had done so. Joan laughed as I tried to spread the cream on the jam and said that they do it the other way round. She likes to put a good lashing of cream (which is exceptionally thick and almost yellow in colour) on first and then another good lashing of the jam and let it slide down the side of the cream. So that's how I did the second piece of my scone, yum!


Joan was very chatty and John was very quiet. He showed us his pride and joy - a shiny red Hudson convertible with cream leather upholstery. It was gorgeous and so was his face as we admired his beautiful car! Joan and John had run pubs for 52 years and John has never had a drink. They decided to get out of the pub life and have gone into B&B life; they are still gladly serving others at the young age of 80 and 81! What a joy to meet such English eccentricity. We headed across the road to the Dog Inn (which Joan and John had owned and run) for dinner. We loved sitting in the quiet country pub with several other walkers, eating typical English pub food. Imagine huge plates filled with mashed potatoes, peas (there's always peas on the menu, either mushy or straight), cauliflower, broccoli and in Graham's case, a lamb shank and the whole meal drowning in gravy. Allan asked Graham if he would like some more gravy as it didn't look like he had enough! The rest of us had fish. Breakfast this morning was perfect.


'As we leave Old Sodbury I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling so much better than when we arrived. And today is a much shorter day with very little ascending and descending; Praise the Lord! Walking up the lane out of the village we encountered our first road rage episode. The mid sized truck came down the lane at a speed inappropriate for such a narrow road and at the same time a very nice looking black sedan was approaching from the opposite direction. There was no time for the sedan to pull aside and the truck just kept coming, sideswiping the back window of the car. They pulled over immediately, with the lady jumping out and shouting at the truck to stop and then the driver leapt out and began whistling with his fingers in his mouth. With that the truck simply disappeared around the corner. We enquired if they were OK so they showed us the shattering back window. We wished them well and continued on our way..'


As we turned into our first field for the day we spied another gorgeous house sitting in a most picturesque setting.

There seems to be so much grandeur in these parts.

We spent quite some time walking through a most beautiful estate; the grounds looked like well manicured lawns with sheep grazings on them.

Turns out the estate belongs to James Dyson, the inventor of the vacuum cleaners.

Only 17 miles to Bath.

I thought you might like to see Ammie and Graham's style at the stile.





Crossed over the M4 this morning, so glad that we are removed from this hustle and bustle for now.

We are really enjoying the wild meadow flowers along the walk.

Standing about 50 metres apart in a field were what seemed like a great contradiction. A wind powered turbine and the electricity pylons.

We've seen many fields planted with a very dark green crop and have wondered what it was. We've decided it's wheat.

Another field had a herd of cattle which was advancing towards us rather quickly. I was very glad Allan and Graham waited for Ammie and me. As we made our way through the gate, they moved forward, eager to come through with us.

They did look disappointed.

Today's walk has been relaxed and beautiful.

Arrived at Dyrham Park in the village of Dyrham in time for lunch.

This is a Baroque-style house, built in the 17th century, and formal gardens which are open to the public.

We toured some of the house and found it very interesting. A very strong Dutch influence pervades the original decor and furnishings. Ammie and myself were excited to see all the servants bells.

The display in the kitchen and adjoining rooms was enlightening and the food looked very realistic.


Headed off for the last leg of our journey for today before we arrived in Pennsylvania. One short climb, past a green dam with ducks swimming around, through more gates and fields of flowers, more gorgeous scenery, another small wood where we found a message box and a seat to sit and reflect

and wait for Graham and Ammie

We looked back across the field of wheat to a lone tree and, to our surprise, we had arrived at our B&B 'The Swan' to be greeted by Malcolm.

And the English eccentricity continued...

Day 9: Wotton-under-edge to Old Sodbury

Yesterday was our longest day for the whole walk and we all felt that we pulled up reasonably well, considering all the climbs and descents we did. This morning Allan wasn't so sure about tackling today, another big day, we just know there will be more ups and downs waiting for us. The promise of several pretty villages to walk through and perhaps stop for a drink and lunch helped to get us up and heading out the door.

We enjoyed another pretty view from our bedroom window.

As we walked along the street we saw this amazing little crooked house and another interesting sign hanging overhead.

The houses here have very thick walls and really wide window sills. We've noticed most window have small decoration sitting in them making it very tempting to look in. We saw this doll's house sitting in a window this morning. The detail was amazing.

A short visit to the pretty church of St Mary the Virgin was our last stop before leaving Wotton. The stained glass windows were lovely, as were the banners which sat in the front of the church.

As we were walking down another cute little laneway leading us out of town I was struck with the thought that the Cotswolds truly are the heart of farming England. We passed terrific veggie gardens, ducks and geese, a horse with a brand new foal, a country stream and out into the fields filled with crops. We had been walking for several hours when we had an awful "Oh No!" moment. We rounded a bend and saw a tall monument just like the Tyndale Monument we'd visited yesterday. Surely we hadn't been walking round in a circle for the morning. I was beginning to feel like I'd hit a wall. This was turning into a tough day. Fortunately it was a different Monument. Phew!

The feature of today's walk was open, rolling fields, interspersed with the occasional tract of woodland, a few heart pounding climbs but no villages to walk through. The trail skirted the edges of Alderley, Hawkesbury, Hillesley, Horton and Little Sodbury but when you are as weary as we were today, you don't walk one step more than you have to. The other feature today was the wind, sometimes blowing a gale and other times just blowing the trees. I recall one field was filled with tall grass shimmering in the wind, it was very pleasant walk, at that moment! This is a pretty walk. A pretty TOUGH walk. We came to an interesting little tower at a farm. It was built for swallows and owls to nest in because they like to nest in structures.

Walking into Old Sodbury brought us through the grounds of St John the Baptist church, where we had a quick sit down before heading into the village. There was a small box with a sign, 'please take one'. The leaflet had a prayer for the walkers of the Cotswolds, very reassuring at the end of a long and hard day.