Nottinghamshire

The Royal George just about did us in.

Food was OK, but we both felt a bit under the weather this AM. Arlene was worse than I was, but she ate more of the hollandaise sauce than I did. At least it is not food poisoning, just an upset stomach.

We had a so-so breakfast at 0700, out the door by 0800 and walking downhill. The way out of town was a bit pecarious as we had to walk along a narrow and curvy road until we reached the trailhead. Cars were hauling and we had a very uneven shoulder to navigate....we both made it.

The trail immediately started downhill (oh, what a delight, but we would pay dearly later) and was a very woodsy trail. I recall what happens to the first walker in the morning that walks a woodsy trail...yep, a face full of spider webs and my hat was covered.

After a few minutes, we stopped as Arlene wanted to check out a side trail so I sat on a rock (being the patient person that I am), and up the trail trots a red fox. We saw each other about the same time and the fox did a 360 as casually as a thief in a jewelry store. Nice surprise so early in the morning.

We continued along the woodsy walk seeing a deer jump in front of us and I flushed a pheasant out of the bushes. Scared me out of my second skin and Arlene got to view his upward flight while I was ducking for cover.

We passed some great views through the trees of the valley below and really enjoyed the cool morning air.

A local running club must have had a 1/2 marathon utilizing the trail, and started such that the runners were running south to north (we are walking north to south). We noticed many, many temporary trail markers providing directions and from the looks of the muddy footprints in the trail, the runners were covered in mud from head to foot. The one part of the trail they did not run up (but we walked up) was the portion to the top of Coopers Hill. This would have been a killer as it did us in.

Amazing what a short break and a sip of water will do for the recovery after a hard effort.

So we continued after the brief recovery stop, walking through a golf course that had posted signs "traverse at your own risk". That gave us pause, but then we saw no golfers, so across the fairway we motored, getting to the far side, to the service road which took us away from the course and down into Painswick.

We are at the Troy House B & B for two nights and our hosts are very nice and accommodating. Dinner reservations are made, they are doing our laundry and there is an honor system for beer and snacks in the quite large room that we have. Arlene is enjoying a well deserved nap and I am not too far from that as well. After the rest day tomorrow, we finish with six straight days of walking. I can imagine that they will be walks to remember.

We have been very weather fortunate so far, but the forecast is not looking quite so accommodating for a dry walk into Bath next Thursday. We shall see.

Dinner tonight.was at the Cardynham Bistro in Painswick. It came highly recommended and it deserves its appraisal. Garlic toast as an appetizer was hot, soft and delicious. The main course of beef stroganoff, the house specialty, was the best I've had in years (we both enjoyed the same thing), and to wrap up the meal, the sticky toffee pudding was truly outstanding. Now to let things settle down as tomorrow arrives too quickly with a full stomach.Read more