A slightly strange day for a walk today – the funeral of HRH Queen Elizabeth II. I’m leading today, a walk for SPR, starting in Bourton on Water. Four of us, Annie and her friend Jane plus Betty and myself. Steve has given me a route but with an alternative end section, my instincts are for the longer more interesting return.
From the car park by Birdland, somewhere I haven’t been for a long time, we set off, Annie having met us there. It’s just gone 09.00 but it is so quiet, very strange in such a touristy place. Along the Main Street and then off towards the church. A rather unique style!
We are following tracks and footpaths, designated as the ‘Monarch’s Way’ – I believe this refers to a direction of travel of Charles I but bit of an obscure route! We do however emerge into Lower Slaughter which is always wonderful and although there are few people walking around there are plenty of cars in at least one of the expensive hotels. No name for the delightful stream running through this village but tracing the route it seems to be a tributary to the River Diklar , which in turn runs into the Windrush. Always love this little bridge.
We decide to take a short detour round to the mill. One other person out with their dog!
Retracing our steps we leave the village in the correct direction and come across this rather ridiculous sign post which sums up the plethora of named footpaths which seem to have been generated more recently. Why can’t a footpath just be a footpath? I guess if you give a route a name then you can generate a guide and information and anyone, whether they can read a map or not can possibly follow a trail. Probably a good thing but……
We are approaching somewhere called Hyde Mill and pass over this rather delightful little bridge on the way – the River Diklar. Some interesting use of willow to secure the near bank.
I recognise the Mill as somewhere I’ve been before when out on a walk with pupils from school. We used to stay mostly with Year 3 (7/8 yrs old) and further in the past Year 4 , at a Youth Hostel in Stow on the Wold. I’d already been reminded about such groups when we visited Lower Slaughter, where we’d sat to draw on more than one occasion and one time visited an art exhibition in the village hall. I clearly can’t escape my past!
We all decide it’s time for a snack before we set off for our next village destination and manage to find four stumps along the driveway to sit on!
Across the busy road up to Stow on the Wold and we now head for Maugersbury – we are now on the MacMillan Way. These random sunflowers provided a bright spot in the field beside the road.
Slightly go wrong as the path should go off through some gates beside a house and conveniently no sign, so we back track down a road which says it’s closed but luckily not impassable. We find the other end of the blocked path and what should have been our way through!
So our path led us south out of the village. We had talked a bit about the Queen and the funeral and before we had started I had wondered if we should keep the 2 minutes silence. I hadn’t been checking my watch/ phone but just happened to glance down and it was exactly 12.00. I told the others this fact and although we continued walking we did observe that two minutes and it was quite a powerful experience to think that that was happening in so many other places.
Not long after we started to walk up hill, we’d already gone passed the abandoned railway line and all agreed that that would be a boring route!
It was quite a steep hill but it was the right choice! We did come down again into the very picturesque village of Icomb. There are so many rich villages in this Cotswolds area, originating from a once flourishing wool trade. We did spot a tree – below that I could confidently identify as a White-beam, having seen one on the first part of the Thames walk. These pears were quite impressive as well, we resisted the temptation!
We agreed it was time for lunch and there was a very convenient bench. A couple of other walkers came along, a little disappointed I think, they had possibly pre planned a stop. We had seen a few more walkers as the morning had passed and nearly all of them were men, unusually.
Very strange occurrence, it was now about 13.00 and my map app lost all maps and just went white- very strange. My very untechnical thought was that having finished watching the funeral there was an overload on the satellites. At least I had a paper map with me this time!
We now leave the village on the Diamond Way and head westward, crossing back over the road to Stow. This comes out at the edge of Wick Rissington, some where Annie and I have been before as our path back to Bourton on the Water now takes us on the Oxfordshire Way. We were obviously trying to score named paths today!!
There are some good sections of nature reserves with information boards. I am again impressed by this bank edging and recognise this river crossing from last December.
We head back into the town and it is now noticeably busier. We have had a good varied walk with good company and a range of conversations. 19.5 km, so about 12 miles.
Having got back to Millets Farm I was able to listen on the radio to do with commentary as the Queen’s coffin approached Windsor and was at home in time to watch that part of the day and of course could catch up with highlights later. Overall a good compromise for a sad day.
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 