We all agreed that last night was our best night of sleep when camping this year. The ground was flat and soft. We were protected from any rain should it happen to fall. The view outside of the tents was like being inside an English heritage garden. And best of all, we were legal. When/if we wild camp, we all tend to sleep light anticipating getting run off.
Malcolm came out as we were packing up and left us a guest book to sign. Wendy and he ran a B&B here for several years once their children grew up. They decided it was too much work and stopped after 2015. It would appear, they have gone into gardening full time because the grounds and gardens are stunningly beautiful. We felt honored to be their first guests since 2015.
After seeing how fast we were getting ready, Malcolm went back inside and got ready. He walked us through the village all the way to our turn. We had heard that the area around Hawkesbury Upton was monitored pretty closely for wild campers. Wendy and Malcolm saved us a lot of potential headache by inviting to stay in their yard last night. They seemed like the type of people we would like to get to know better.
Altogether, today was the most villages we have gone through in a single day. Hawkesbury, Horton, Little Sodbury, Old Sodbury, Tormartan, Dyrham, Pennsylvania, and The Folly. Of the eight villages, only 3 had anything resembling restaurants or places to stay. This is what may be considered the remote portion of the Cotswolds. If we got into trouble, someone would surely have helped us if we asked, but this is an area you’d better be prepared to take care of yourself.
We went by a wide variety of terrain and ecosystems. We passed through old growth forest, hay fields, pastureland, swamps, deep ditches (ravines), and scenic overlooks. We passed multiple churches which have have active congregations for over 800 years. We saw multiple English Heritage sights (former manor houses converted to museums). We saw Bristol and passed within 5 miles of it. We could see Wales most of the day. We saw wind turbines, suspension bridges, and the power of vacuum cleaners.
Our breakfast was a little light. We knew the first chance for a place to eat was almost 7 miles and 4 villages in at Old Sodbury. We had a food-driven goal which ensures maximum speed outlay. The only thing that slowed us down was when we ran into the couple from Oregon we had met yesterday at the heretic tower. We discovered they are trying a different approach to the Cotswold Way. They have gotten lodging in Bristol and are using public transportation to day hike the trail.
We had more busy road crossings today than we’ve had on any other hike in GB or Europe. It was even tricky crossing the highway to get to the Dog Inn in Old Sodbury where we had lunch. After lunch, we stopped in the petrol station to pick up some snacks for breakfast tomorrow, just in case. It was here that we were warned to not stray off the trail heading out of town.
Behold the power of the vacuum cleaner. Dyson owns what can only be described as a “shitload” of land in this area. He is sucking up property (pun intended) around here at an amazing rate. We found a notice in Dyrham of all the land his farming company was in the process of acquiring.
We spent a couple of miles crossing an estate he has bought and is fixing up. He’s putting in new fencing to keep the riffraff (meaning us) out of his eyesight. He lets you get close enough to catch glimpses of the good life he has made for himself. I’d like to look more into his family background to find out if he’s self made or had a huge leg-up from old money.
His security is tight across his lands. When you enter, you are given notice that you are being watched, listened to, and recorded. Several members of the group indicated they thought he was “number 1” in their books. I chose the more altruistic approach and expressed my displeasure with my mother-in-law’s vacuum beater bar not functioning properly and the hand blade at the Edgemoor Inn corroding and suggested these two items need to be looked into. I also indicated my willingness to take up residence on his estate. Over the years, I have acquired a certain set of skills that might be useful to him.
Tormarton seemed to not want the trail to pass in town. Even though it might have been more direct to use the main street for the trail, they routed the trail around the edge of town. This was evidence to us in itself but they added a little twist. The trail was routed over old stone stiles requiring you to step up a couple of feet to get over. They chose to add another bar above the stone thus invoking a minimum inseam requirement to use the trail. Bunny and Sassy just barely made the cut. We would have missed them, but it’s only another day to the end.
The trail after Tamarton was actually what we would consider the most boring section of trail we have encountered. It could best be described as a hike through the fields of Central Illinois. It was flat and boring in full sun. The only thing exciting along this stretch was when we came upon a reroute “due to a serious police incident.” This intrigued us. We narrowed it down to two possible scenarios: 1) With all the busy road crossings today, we surmised a hiker got hit by a car and the blood splatter might be disturbing to other hikers; or 2) a local farmer had found a wild camper and taken matters into his own hands. It is possible for farmers in England to get Shotgun Permits rather easily.
We are using the app “FarOut” (formerly “Guthook”) for our trail experience on the Cotswolds. We used it exclusively on the AT, the PCT, and the Tahoe Rim Trail. It was fantastic on those trails. We even have the CDT version which we plan to use. The version for the Cotswold Way is not up to the same standard. It’s missing lots of town information about businesses hikers need along the trail. When it does provide information it’s incomplete—locations aren’t shown, phone numbers are wrong, services offered are incorrect, etc.
Our target for tonight is listed in the village of Cold Ashton. It’s listed as Folly End Farm and indicates (through verbage) that it is further up the trail by a quarter mile. It’s location is not indicated on any map. We’ve been bitten by this a few times already. Bear had a hunch (correctly, it turns out) that the camping place we were looking for was in a location off the trail. He dropped his back and sniffed out the location for us.
Folly Farm has a cafe, Ells Kitchen (logo complete with flames and a pitchfork) and allows hikers to camp for free in a field adjacent to the cafe. They offer water and use of a toilet. I don’t think they even ask for the hikers to eat in the cafe to help defer costs. When Bear tracked the owner down, she gave him the rundown on where things are located. When we showed up, she brought out a huge pot of hot tea, milk, and sweetener. We asked if we could use her tables to cook and eat at. Sarah said we were welcome to use anything we needed.
A great pleasure for us is that she is opening up the cafe on Sundays this year from 8a to 2p. We get to sleep in tomorrow and have a hot breakfast on our last day. That freed us up to eat some of the snacks we bought for tomorrow morning as dessert tonight. Chicken Tikka Masala with carb killers for dessert. 🎶 How do handle a hungry hiker, the carb killer 🎶
EFG