Day 11 Stow on the Wold to Rendcomb

Stow on the Wold to Rendcomb

16 Miles

The best weather day so far. It was still cold but at least there was no rain!

The day started with an easy four miles across the fields to the picture postcard village of Lower Slaughter. Not as well known as the neighbouring Bourton on the Water, but as a consequence it is not commercialised and so is much quieter. There were still a few Japanese and American tourists even at  this relatively early time of the day.

After Lower Slaughter the day was a succession of walking out of a river valley, over the top and then down to cross the next river at another Cotswold postcard village. Cold Aston (yes it lived up to its name), Turkdean, Hampnett, Yanworth, Chedworth and finally Rendcomb.

My favourite was Yanworth. It is an estate village, so every house is painted with the same estate green. However the buildings were different shapes and sizes, and included old stone barns and stables. As ever in these places all of the gardens were immaculately kept.

With all of the up and down today was the longest walk in respect of time, nearly eight hours. However perhaps if I had not spent so long absorbing the delights of lower Slaughter, Hampnett and Yanworth it would have taken less.

Overall I am on schedule, so I will hopefully not require any additional “Fergie time” to complete the walk. It does mean that I have not been able to gain any time to go to Wembley on Sunday. The Hatters will have to do without me. There will still be over 25,000 others to turn Wembley into a sea of orange as the Town return!