Another trail done!
It felt great to be walking ‘normally’ again. Not that I’d developed a ‘silly walk‘ in Lockdown, but the out and back walks from the car are not as good as a ‘proper’ linear walk sleeping on the trail, and moving on the next day.
When I say sleeping on the trail I realise that made me sound like I was wild camping, romantically roughing it under moon-lit skies with nothing but the ear wigs crawling into my… erm, ears (!), and feral squirrels eyeing my snack-stash for company.
No I didn’t go-wild on this walk, not unless you count a string of rather nice B&B’s and Inns as off grid. I mean the wifi was invariably appalling so it was basically a back to nature digital detox, but with Egyptian Cotton sheets and little chocolates on my pillow to soften the blow. There was one place that was a bit odd / run down, where I was less concerned about whether their Covid-Secure arrangements would be adequate, and more worried about the black mould that fell out of the tap when I filled my water bottle. At least that place, unlike anywhere else on the Cotswold Way was cheap!
I did meet a bloke, Richard, who was doing a 2-week circular walk that started on the Cotswold Way, who was wild camping, with the occasional hotel. Good on him, he said it was still cold at night, and wet, but was at least free! I’ve done my share of odd spot / wild camping and have no problem with it so long as you leave no trace, and abandon nothing, not so much as a blob of chewing gum as litter.
Post lockdown, Twitter and the news is full of photos berating people, perhaps less likely to normally frequent outdoor natural spaces (wait that sounds pompously weird, ‘frequent outdoor natural spaces’, my God what have I become?) – I mean : people less often seen about in t’ woods, fields, forests n’that!.
Any-road… having a go at people leaving full tents, gas canisters (for laughing gas / food), disposable BBQ’s (I mean the clue is in the name!), booze cans and so on after their mini-adventure, on an assumption that someone will be along shortly to clean up after them…
At least that’s what I assume, they assume, will happen. That once a day a team of elite litter wardens will rappel out of municipal trash-choppers and get to work. But maybe their brains don’t get that far, as they walk back to their cars, leaving a trail of litter.
Maybe they don’t even know that their behaviour is out of order? Maybe they think that needs must, and that their urgent need, nay borderline humanitarian crisis, to get to McDonalds before they stop serving McMuffins, means they need to travel lite, unencumbered with their stuff. Hopefully their rubbish tents leaked all night long and they had a bad nights sleep. At least if they didn’t enjoy their camping experience, I’m less likely to bump into them!
It’s easy to be snobbish and paint this as people who don’t understand or appreciate the outdoors. Townies making use of their cheap, pop up festival tents, because all the festivals got Corancelled. I don’t think that’s fair. Here is a video of the litter picking required at Everest, which costs a fortune to get to, and has the same problem. Sure, you could argue that the extreme conditions required to climb to the back of the worlds highest queue, mean that litter is a justifiable afterthought. My take is that if you can afford to go, you can afford to do it litter free. Sure – it would cost even more, but I’d guess that most non-local Everest climbers for the most part have deeper pockets than many, or have committed their lifestyle to conquering that lump. In any case – you think they’d want to leave that special place as tidy as possible. For the post lockdown litter bugs in the UK, perhaps, a trip to Kielder, a few paces from the car park, in a nature reserve, a full 36 miles from the nearest McDonalds in Carlisle is their Everest, and they are just coping with the experience as best they know?
My take is that whether you’re gonna plant a flag in the peak of a mountain, or the apex of a McFlurry, enjoy your moment – and take a selfie you hero. But when you’re finished, pop your rubbish home!
I thought I was a bit clever coming up with Corancelled – Corona / Cancelled. Get It? Good Grief?! But a quick check of Twitter shows that @MsStrophe came up with is at 0927am on March the 9th. When Susie Dent does the etymology maybe she’ll find an earlier example. The first reply to her tweet? Someone hoping Cheltenham Races (which the Cotswold Way passes near) will be allowed to proceed. We’ve learned a lot since then! Anyway – enough of that B*ll*cks. By the way – if you’re offended by that word, apparently it’s only a medium strength swearword, the 8th most offensive to be precise. Ask your Mum what ranks above it, she’ll know, even if she pretends she doesn’t!
Back to the Cotswold Way, as I feel I may have got off track writing this post. It was great to be walking after lockdown. The train to Moreton In Marsh was fine in the end. I wore a mask from A – B, and to be fair most people were compliant – a few ear-danglers, nose-showers, or chin-strappers only wearing for the look.
The pubs were so variable in their Covid-Secure precautions. Some didn’t bother asking for contact details for Track / Trace. Some had perspex around the bar, visors for the staff, and others didn’t. One required you to email the bar with your order and did table service. Others were still ordering at the bar. Most had thinned out their chairs / tables, and you’ll get closer to another household in the supermarket than in the pubs I went to. That said – I had a meal, and a couple of pints before retiring to my room, I can imagine the traffic to the loos been a problem as booze kicks in. One hotel – had stickers everywhere, including a seal across the door when it had been cleaned to give you reassurance. They even had a Covid-Clean sticker on the high contact point TV remote, which I thought was a good idea that they should carry on after this is all over. Businessmen in hotel rooms are often ‘disgusting’. No wonder some people wrap the telly blipper in a shower cap before using it!
The walking was glorious. Such beautiful countryside with a trail running through some picture postcard villages. Certainly I enjoyed it, because it was a first real flash of post lockdown freedom, but this was only part of it. The Cotswold Way is an excellent trail. A great option for a first distance walk given the fact you could alter the duration to suit you. I did it in 7 days (standard for the CW), but a bloke I watched on Twitter did it in 3, but admitted he’d mashed his feet up as a result. It would be a very leisurely 10 day walk, with plenty of places to stay and eat. Oh, and I only fell over once this time, on a road near Whiteshill on my way uphill to rejoin the trail. Tarmac surface and I didn’t see a pot hole. Some Pics:
Morale Boost from Garmin… The cleanest I stayed at… My first pub pint since March…
The Day Charts:
Day 1 – Chipping Campden to Winchcombe…
Day 2 – Winchcombe to Hartley Hill (Cheltenham)…
Day 3 – Hartley Hill to Whitehills…
Day 4 – Whitehills to Ryeford (Stroud)…
Day 5 – Ryeford to North Nibley…
Day 6 – North Nibley to Tormarton…
Day 7 – Tormarton to Bath…
Stat Summary – No wonder I am not shifting any weight, if I only earned 888 Percy Pigs… Obviously this is from door to door, not just the trail, so a little bit further than the official route which is c164km/102m. Late start on the first day, as I needed to get a bus to Chipping Camden, which took the most circuitous route possible and took forever!
