Day 8: Selsley to Wotton-Under-Edge

All Saints' Church had been visible for much of yesterday afternoon, now we were walking past it on our way out of town.

We were climbing again, very steeply and for a long time as we walked through Penn Wood, beautiful but heart pumping. Today was a runny nose day. The weather has turned, being drizzling rain and cold wind, meaning we are in our jumpers and rain coats. As we walked along our noses kept running, trouble was I didn't have enough breath in my lungs to blow mine and breathe at the same time.

After Penn Wood came Coaley Peak, the views from here towards the Severn River and Cam Long Down were, you guessed it, stunning. Saw another ancient barrow or burial site here.

The tide was in so the river was very conspicuous even though our views were misty. At one point we were walking across a narrow strip of land at the top of one of our climbs and the wind was howling around us. Imagine! And it's nearly Summer here! We had morning tea under a tree before pressing on to Dursley, a hard slog, but we made it an hour earlier than we had expected. Our Cornish pasty and cup of tea for lunch were a great refuel, ready for the afternoon of more ascents and descents. We had thought that, because we were taking the short route to Wotton-under-edge, that we were avoiding one very steep descent and another hill but alas, no! We climbed, descended, climbed, descended all afternoon

through gorgeous woods, fields of crops, fields of cows, beautiful countryside, past pretty houses

and in drizzling rain

until we reached the edge that sits overlooking Wotton. Trees were planted on this site in 1815 to commemorate the victory at Waterloo. Over the passage of time the trees died, where replanted, felled, replanted and burnt in celebrations of varying kinds. They have been fenced to protect them from further harm. They now stand watch over Wotton-under-edge.

Another monument we visited along our pathway was Tyndale Monument, standing on the top of a hill, visible for miles. William Tyndale translated the New Testament into English and was imprisoned soon after, charged with heresy. He was martyred for his faith in 1536.

One last descent and we were there, thankfully, arriving just after 5 o'clock. The walk through town was lovely with curving, narrow streets with pretty signage hanging above the street.

Our destination for the night was The Swan, another old inn. Today we climbed 800 meters (2500 feet) when we combined all the different hills. That's a PB for this trip.