Cleeve Hill Golf Club - Dowdeswell

On my own today, as I didn't want to race the 4pm taxi pick-up .

Baggage down at 8am. Quick stop at the Morrison Co-op to pick up a protein shake and pasties at the bakery.

Left J, A and E to catch the 8:54am W bus - a quick 15-min ride to the golf course. Started walking around 9:15 . . . Up up up into the wind at the top. Hats off to these golfers! Sheep were grazing in the sunshine ON the course.

The CW is super well-signed. Maybe this is the origin of the expression "from pillar to post." The arrows point in the initial direction, and you keep on the track until you see a post ahead. Once there, repeat.

LOTS of folks walking in the a.m., along with the same two horse women from yesterday in Stanton. After acres and acres of the golf course was a nature preserve, with the path headed mostly downhill. Birds were singing up a storm - got to see a European Goldfinch and a Dunnock (a "drab little brown bird," according to the Merlin app. 🤣)

Around 11:30, I just needed to sit, so found a bank off the track and sketched one of our Cotswold Way signposts. Got doggie kisses too. Refreshed, I continued on down through a hedgehog of crabapple and blackberry.

Rain spit and scattered 🌧 but it seemed that the worst of it passed just east of us. You could see the sheets coming down.

Next came a lovely walk along a fence and green fields with horses. Headed down down down through the woods. A LOT of Americans are walking this path!

About 15 minutes from the end, I got a message from A that they had reached the golf course. Joe had had a healthy breakfast, so he powered through without stopping for lunch! ... And then ended up doubling back, afraid A & E would miss a particular turn.

I finally could hear the traffic on A40, so I used Google maps to guide me down to the bar where a taxi was to meet us. It was only 2pm!! Yay for me!! 🎉🎉

Lo & behold, the "closed" bar & grill (according to the same Google maps) has reopened as La Petite, a SWANKY place. I ordered an Italian coffee (with amaretto and double cream) and visited with a local couple (who were also waiting for a taxi). They were walking the CW for the first time!!
Me? More sketching, of course.

Later, the host invited me back in out of the rain (there were no other customers). I felt badly for staying for HOURS, but I didn't want to buy anything else, so I did just come in. Martin & I talked a bit. He's from Romania (!!!) by way of Dubai (!!!). I gave him a trading card, and he said he hoped we would meet again - even if it wasn't along the CW. 😊

When A, E & J came in, they got some ciders while we waited the last 20 minutes for the taxi. (A had moved the time to 5pm to allow them to get down without racing the clock.)

We're now at a Double Tree in Cheltenham, having had dinner (corn soup and chicken) and more cider. Afterwards, we toasted the Vincers with some Kentish Gypsy Tarts - pure sugar!! I did ALL my laundry in the sink and shower, and hung it up on the line J stretched between the wall lamps. Let's hope it's dry by tomorrow morning! 🤣

20.1k👣 144 min💛Baca lagi