Day 18

A very enjoyable day's walk, 18 miles from Tewksbury to Worcester along the River Severn.
My nephew, Jon, and Jess his girlfriend walked with us to Upton and told us about their traumatic experiences in the July 2007 floods. At Upton we were met by Janet and our sons Andrew & Steve, and by Kate, their son Nick and John-Henry, Nick's soon-to-be-father-in-law.
Thus there were eight of us for the final march into Worcester.
Tomorrow is a rest day when the rest of our two families will be joining us. There will be 19 of us including 2 babies at lunch tomorrow, bidding us their fond farewells before Andrew and and I set off towards the deepest Midlands and frozen north on Monday.

Day 17

An easy day today. Gloucester to Tewksbury following the Severn Way. Just over 14 miles including a short diversion to watch the Severn Bore.
The Severn Bore occurs on about 4 days every month and I had found out from researching the internet that a Bore would, by happy coincidence, be happening round about the time we would be leaving Gloucester.
It was only a small bore - more like a yawn - but well worth seeing. The wave was probably about two feet high but what was particularly impressive was the speed and volume sweeping upstream behind the mainwave.
Watched Reading vs Sheffield Utd on TV and wished I hadn't.

Day 16

From Wotton Under Edge to Gloucester - 20.5 miles. We had expected this to be about 24 miles but managed to shorten it by cutting out some of the more rambling bits of the Cotswold Way. It did, however, mean that the final section into Gloucester from the south was very tedious - about 5 miles walking beside a busy main road.

Generally we try to avoid main roads, prefering instead to walk on minor roads or footpaths. Sometimes the footpaths are hard to find or peter out. This afternoon we were crossing a field on a footpath marked on our OS map but the footpath clearly hadn't been used in a while. We found ourselves in the corner of a field with no way out other than to climb under a barbed wire fence and then crawl on hands and knees for about 10 metres through a hawthorne copse dragging our rucksacks behind us. I can still feel the after effects of the stinging nettles.

We have now walked 273 miles since leaving Lands End.

Day 15

A short day today, only 15 miles, to Wotton Under Edge. But tomorrow is a long one all the way to Gloucester.
We've met some nice people today including a very nice attractive blonde young lady in her early 30's in the pub at lunch time who offered to do our washing and deliver it to the b&b!
We also met some real walkers for the first time - two young lads from Leeds walking the Cotswold Way,doing about 25 miles a day, camping and staying in youth hostels. I hope they don't read what I said about youth hostellers the other day.

Day 14

We've covered just under 17 miles today and have reached Doynton about 6 miles NW of Bath. We've walked 238 miles since LE and can see the M4 to the north so it feels like we are making real progress.

Day 13

Walked just over 20 miles today from Street to Farrington Gurney. A hard walk towards the finish coming on top of yesterday's 27 miles.
It's nice to be back in a b&b. I don't think Andrew and I are youth hostel people. There's nothing wrong with youth hostel people but cooking one's own baked beans for dinner and again for breakfast, then doing the washing up, making your own bed, sleeping on said uncomfortable bed in a room with no curtains, the bathroom on the floor below accessed by stairs that creak and paper thin walls and paying more than in some b&b's for these dubious priviledges is not for us.

Day 12

Yesterday was a rest day at Andrew's brother's house and a very relaxing day it was too in preparation for today's literally marathon walk to Street.
We set off from Paul and Sandy's house at 07.40 and arrived at the YHA just south of Street at 17.50 having walked 27 miles.
Our hardest day.
We now reckon we have walked exactly 200 miles since leaving Lands End.