We made it through the night, undetected. I don’t understand why wild camping is illegal in England. Everyone tells us it is and then gives us suggestions of how to go undetected. I think the biggest reason is to give people an excuse to kick partiers out of their woods and/or off their land. We’re a geriatric crowd and are pretty harmless. We don’t build fires and are too lazy to carry alcohol. Most nights, we’re in bed, asleep before dark. People should pay us to camp on their land to keep campsites unavailable from potential miscreants.
Being the youngest of the group, as is usually the case with me, I possess certain qualities which the older folk may have lost. I’m not saying I’m the strongest, I’m not. I’m not saying I’m the fastest, I’m not. I’m not saying I’m the cleanest, I’m not. What I do possess that no one else in this group does, is superior bowel control.
Bunny and I both needed to go last night when we got to camp. I set everything up while Bunny disappeared into the woods. It’s only 3/4 mile to a carpark with a toilet. I can wait until morning. We woke up in the morning and Sassy absconded first thing. Bear at least waited until he ate. It’s only 3/4 of a mile. I used to wait a week when I went to scout camp. It’s sad when you friends lose bowel control. They’re getting old.
Bear still thinks getting ready in the mornings is a competition. I threw him a bone this morning and let him get his pack finished first. I tried going as slow as I could. I can’t even start to pack until Bunny gets out of the tent because I carry the sleeping pad and sheet as well as the tent. Bunny does carry the tent poles. As her left leg gets stronger, she’ll get to carry more. Not that it matters, it absolutely doesn’t, but I was the first with my pack on and ready to go.
Our first stop this morning, after the carpark, was the town of Broadway. Broadway used to lay on the main road from Worcester to London and gots its name for how wide they have the road through town. It is probably the widest road we’ve encountered in England so far. Two cars can easily pass without scratching mirrors.
The town was hopping this morning because of the Jubilee. I am so happy we get here to witness this rare even…70 years of symbolic monarch rule. Everyone loves the Queen—Charles? Fortunately he’s old and won’t sit on the throne as long. I’m afraid, if he did, it would be the death of the monarchy.
We stopped at “Number 32” for second breakfast. Lunch is not even a possibility until noon at the earliest. We Yanks tend to eat much earlier than the English or other Europeans. While we were eating, three young men that worked there came out to talk to us because they have hiked the Cotswold Way. They did it in 3 1/2 days. They warned us about the remoteness we were about to experience and the lack of water we are going to encounter. We will average 3 villages a day the entire trip.
The guys were not trying to scare us. To them, the Cotswolds are remote. They probably didn’t have a large budget to afford eating in pubs every day. They were all quite fit and probably did the hike on a long weekend. Since wild camping isn’t common, they weren’t familiar with filtering water and carrying lightweight tents. Dehydrated food is nonexistent along the trail which is why we’ve brought 2 days worth in case of unexpected closures.
The AT through New York wants to make sure that you hit every rock pile high spot on the ridge you are walking. Sometimes, you can literally see the trail 50’ in front of you but you will walk 1/2 mile before you get to that spot. (I was a purist, I ALWAYS walked the 1/2 mile.) The Cotswold Way will do the same type of thing. It’s probably because of land access rights, but, in one instance today, we walked over a mile around a field to end up less than 100 yards from where we started. I’m a purist, I won’t cut it if I don’t have to.
Heading out of Broadway, an older gentleman stopped us and asked if we were hiking the entire trail. When he heard we were, he got very excited. He works as a trail steward and is on the trail board of governors. He said they only meet twice a year to discuss trail conditions. Because of Covid, they hadn’t met as a group for over 2 years. They really wanted the truth as to how well the trail is holding up. Bear agreed to keep notes and share the info with them when we are done.
The trail has been fantastic up to Broadway. Granted, it’s only been 6 miles, but zero issues so far. Less than 2 miles out of Broadway we encountered a glitch. Maybe it was because Bunny was in the lead, or, maybe it was because there’s a new land owner that doesn’t want the trail crossing his land. In either case, we lost the trail.
Bunny can be directionally challenged at times, but I’m sure the land owner was being a huge printer (I understand tender ears might be reading). He had signs taken down and gates tied shut. He forced the trail through a narrow path surrounded by electric fence. I’m pretty sure he blocked a turn on the trail.
We also passed through Stanton, once we got back on trail. There’s a great pub called the Mount Inn that we wanted to stop at, but we missed it. We asked a man putting signs up and he told us it was about 1/2 mile behind us. I’m not THAT interested in going there. He also told us he was putting up flyers for a town wide party tonight. It’s always my dream that we’ll get invited to an event like this. “Can we find space in some of these huge mansions for these four Yanks who will be joining us for the Jubilee celebration? Sir Henry, can you spare the guest house for a night or two? You can! Hear that Yanks, let’s toast Her Majesty! You’re all set for as long as you want to stay.” Instead, we walked dejectedly out of town. At least I did. No one else seemed to have my fantasy so they weren’t disappointed.
There was another country manor we passed, Stanway House. This is still a private residence, but they are open for tours for a total of 6 hours a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is a Friday. Some manor houses will do creative things to help reduce costs. For example, lease the house as a filming location for a global phenomenon. Stanway also rents the venue for weddings and special events. We couldn’t see the house, but we saw the tree lined avenue they are putting in place. The gate to the house was quite impressive and could easily provide living space for 3 large families.
The goal has been Hayles all day. It was raining when we got here. We headed straight to the restaurant in the hopes of eating while it rained and setting up after. We were told to go to the farm store and get settled in first. In the farm store, she told us to go to the restaurant first. I thought we were in for a runaround. We got back to the restaurant and they told us they had just seated the last table and everything else was reserved. Here we go.
The woman who told us to go to the restaurant, came in and directed a worker to carry a table and chairs in from the outside. She seated us in the middle of the restaurant and made sure we had everything we needed. She knew Sassy was gluten intolerant and helped her get food out of the store that would not cause the English countryside to be painted a delicious shade of brown. They were very accommodating to us.
The campground area is quite crowded because of the Jubilee, but we had no problem finding spaces for our small tents. Her husband helped set us up and talked about the gun and political situation in the US. People around the world can’t understand the idiocy of our gun situation. All we could do was shake our heads in agreement because none of us understand it either. Almost everyone we’ve talked to here is afraid to travel to the US. What can we say, we’re over here ourselves.
EFG
Ha. Painting the countryside delicious brown? That’s disgusting.
Guns? I’ve got plenty. Come visit me!
She has quite a bad reaction to gluten. Guns, I’ve got ‘‘em too. We’re both safe, trained, and, relatively, mentally stable.