This was a training walk done with Dominic, originally intended to end in Leckhampton along the Cotswold Way, but cut short at 11 miles at Dowdeswell for a number of reasons - tiredness being one.
Bus timetable from Cheltenham to Winchcombe
We caught the 606 from Royal Well at 10:00 along with all of the other bus concession folks and arrived in Winchcombe at around 10:25 where our (my) problems started. I could not get one of my tele walking poles to cooperate and spend 20 minutes coaxing it to extend. Finally we got going and left the bus stop towards Vineyard Street off to the left, towards Sudeley Castle. We crossed into fields to our left and crossed into open countryside, meeting Corndean Lane for a while. We followed the track past the cricket club and started climbing gently before meeting the lane again and crossing into woods, again climbing towards a gate ahead.
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| Belas Knap |
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| Dominic at Belas Knap |
We followed the field edge around to the left and then right up the slope towards Belas Knap, a Neolithic long barrow, where we stopped for a short while to take the obligatory photograph. We then followed the field edge with the hedge to our right (great for sloes in autumn!) until we met the track which we followed left before turning the the right, down towards Breakheart Plantation where the path drops into a valley floor before riding gently again towards Postlip Hall. We skirted the hall, along its file stone wall and started uphill again towards Cleeve Hill and the golf course - with a break for lunch requested by Dominic. We past the club house and continued along the track, following the edge of the common, stopping a few timers to admire the fine views towards Cheltenham Racecourse, the Malvern Hills and south towards the Black Mountains.
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| Postlip Hall |
Belas Knap Long Barrow
The rain started to fall steadily at this points, so we moved out of lovely view mode into a more business like pace off the common and onto the track towards the nature reserve and the valley below.
At this stage Dominic was tiring and I suggested he drop out when we got to Dowdeswell. He called his mum and we agreed a rendezvous by the A40 Oxford road at Dowdeswell, by the reservoir. However, we underestimated how far we had to go before the rendezvous which caused a few issues with the waiting mum who had better things to do than wait for us to emerge! Anyway, eventually we followed the track down, followed the road for a while and entered Dowdeswell Woods, dropping steeply into the valley before emerging at the B&B below and eventually the A40. We had not made great time and with 6-7 miles ahead of me, I didn't fancy walking into the evening, so I joined Dominic in a lift home - to fight another day.
The Cotswold Way is well documented online so I haven't included maps on this post. I'd recommend the following site for more info.
Cotswold Way Guide
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