Last week Murphy and I finally ventured in new directions and discovered two new routes that are totally worth repeating in the future. This first one is really short, and currently it has no livestock at all therefore the crazy spaniel took full advantage of his free status and covered at least three times the distance. It remains to see what happens in the spring. The whole of the Cotswold area is swarmed by sheep and lambs. Cute. But extremely annoying if you have a dog who thinks it’s hugely entertaining to make sheep run. He would never attack them… but he sure does like chasing them!
The walk begins, or ends, it depends which way around you walk it, just outside the village of Syreford which in turns rests just outside Cheltenham. There isn’t a great deal of parking it truth be known, we squeezed between other cars in a small lay-by.
The path was little muddy, now that the ground is not frozen anymore, but nothing too treacherous. We had fields either side, huge expanses of Cotswold sky and nobody else around. What’s not too like?
The weather wasn’t sure which way to go. We got sprinkled with rain, then the sun chased the clouds away. Then the clouds came back. Classic English weather.
The walk is shaped like an elongated rectangle… pretty much anyway… which made it really easy and didn’t require too much map checking. (As always I used the AllTrails app btw).
Even if short, it was varied enough to still be interesting and get your legs working. A long slow uphill, a steep descent, fields, gates, vistas, and the most gorgeous cedar grove.
… which included the first snowdrops of the season and a bonus stream. Of course Murphy went swimming…
And then you’re back in the village and it’s a short walk to the car.
Easy peasy.
Happy dog. Happy me.
And… and… on the way home we drove a different route and stumbled on this (not literally, but I totally slammed on the breaks):
… a telephone box library!!
Very happy me.
the-wanderings.com 