Wednesday 21st September 2011 Hazleton & Salperton, Glos

This is a short (5 miles) circular walk through rolling Cotswold Hills, done with Mike on a beautiful autumn day, sun shining, birds singing etc etc. We drove to the picturesque village of Hazleton, just off the main A40 and parked in the village before setting off along the track down towards a large, untidy farm yard.

I was relieved to see that a large gaggle of geese were restrained behind a fence as we approached, so we took time, in comparative safety, to look at the geese, ducks and other game birds being reared there. We passed through the smelly farm yard and started along the edges of fields which had been recently been ploughed. We continued until we stopped to look at an old barn at Downs Barn which Mike had explored on a previous walk - believing it to be the home of barn owls at some stage.

Back towards Hazleton

We started uphill at this stage (unusual for a Mike walk) on a gentle climb, criss-crossing fields, trying to keep out of the muddy parts by sticking to the edges of the fields and stumbling through the narrow tracks as a result. We joined the Gloucestershire Way at Lamp Acre where there was a very smart roadway, with well manicured trees and bushes either side - marking the entrance to Salperton Park. We crossed the cattle grid into the park and took a small detour to look at a view of the main house before retracing our steps and continuing the walk back towards Hazleton.

Salperton Park

Again we crossed fields and skirted the woods at Hazleton Grove before we saw the first few houses of the village. We passed the churchyard, admired a few village houses before we reached the car and took on liquids. We declined a lunchtime pint and drove back to Cheltenham - a good walk and all done, door to door in around two hours.




An OS view walk is below, courtesy of QUO digital mapping/OS