Seven Springs - Birdlip (🤣🤣 Really!)

What a day!

I did all my laundry last night in the sink with soap and then in the shower to rinse, so Joe hung our clothesline between the lamps. 🤣 Generous use of the hair dryer got the clothes mostly dry before packing up.

While packing this morning, I realized one of my credit cards was missing. 😶 A&E lent their eyes to the search after breakfast, but to no avail. We called to lock the card right away.

I finished up my 30g protein shake from yesterday this morning in the room, so all I really wanted was the fresh fruit at breakfast. Taxi picked us up and delivered J, A & E to the same spot we left yesterday. I, however, did NOT want to walk 11 miles, so I got a lift a little further. Seven Springs was a teeny tiny hamlet, and 5 min after drop-off, I was walking up a country lane on my own.

It was a bit of a climb, but soon I was looking out over the town below. I think I even saw the hotel we stayed at in Cheltenham! Lots of walkers with friendly, well-behaved dogs. As is common on the Cotswolds Way, most of today's walk was along the "scarp" (escarpment), diving down into woods or climbing up hills. Again, gorgeous views. Lots of tracks crisscrossing the fields, and signage indicating there was an Iron Age fort up here. Made me wonder if they caught all their water from the rain, it was up so high.

I took a short break just to sit around 11:30am, just before the first big downpour of the day. I debated not putting on rainpants (oh, by the time I finally wrangle them on, the rain will have stopped, I thought) but I'm glad common sense won out because the rain came and went all afternoon. 

Lovely walks through forests helped shelter me from the worst of the wind and rain for the most part. But the trail had a few surprises: although I stayed on the path indicated by my AllTrails map, it seemed to get pretty tiny, almost nonexistent, in some places. 

And THEN was the rotary crossing, where I stuck my hand up high like a Japanese kindergartener crossing the street 🤣 until I made eye contact with a driver. I had to walk along (and I mean right on the edge) of a 4-lane highway for about a block. Just then, I heard some whooping and hollering - it was a carful of 20-somethings cheering me on! 🤣🤣

Soon after, I turned on to a teeny tiny 6" wide muddy track and went down into woods and over vale, all in the blustery rain. It was sooo strange after the wonderful signage I'd grown accustomed to! And still I was ahead of the Gang of 3 (J, A & E).

Still and all, you could see the towns below, so I knew we were up on the escarpment, as was right. Walking through the woods with the rain on & off was just lovely - so fragrant!

At one point, another walker asked me, "You're not walking the Cotswold Way, are you?" followed by, "Because this isn't it. It's over there (waving far off to the side)". Not exactly encouraging at that point.

Turns out there was a nice small café ahead, so I had a nice long (20-min) rest while sipping on a latte. Met some friendly locals with their dogs. 🦮🦮 I really wasn't sure how to continue, so I just kept following my AllTrails map.

It took me throgh some more woods, where I saw some branches and sticks piled up against a tree, and I couldn't help but think of Eeyore's little stick hut. 😊 I knew I was geting close now to my destination, so I just switched to Google Maps. 🙄

But even that wasn't foolproof: it popped me out on a 2-lane highway with very little walk room, and then climbed uphill around a curve into town. I got in at 3pm, which was just perfect. I was done for the day. The Gang of 3 had it much worse, as it was rush hour when they rolled in around 5pm. We had changed the 4:00 taxi to 5:30, so no problem. Just harrowing. 

The place we're staying is charming! Run by Jenina, a Romanian transplant. We walked up the hill into town, and chose dinner at St. Michael's, also run by a Romanian! In fact, Jenina is scheduled to help our chef in the kitchen tomorrow night, since he is short-handed. Rack of lamb with a glass of wine from Chile for me, wild boar with cream sauce and cider for Joe. YUM! Sticky toffee pudding with cream custard for dessert. DELISH.

27.9k👣 (7.5 miles-ish) 253 min 💛Les mer