17/11/12 - Nailed it

Distance - 9 Miles
Walk from - Country Walking Magazine - November 2009
Caches - 5

Got a new geowagon and it needed a test run.  Review of old CW magazines and off the Cotswolds it is.

Never been to Nailsworth before.  Its better than Tetbury.  Park up in a free car park in the town centre and pick up cache 1 of the day, which I assume is located in the garden of the cache owner.  Soon have nice paths, working my way to Avening and passing the old mills that put this place on the map.

Stiff climb up Hazel Wood but the paths are glorious.



Time for a breather

Even Molly was appreciating the paths, taking the opportunity to nick Pippa the labrador's stick and chomp it to bits.  Three more caches along this stretch.  They belong to a series, which I could have devitated from my walk for.  Today, I think I'll go for the walk, rather than the tupperware chasing.



Where's Pippa?

Hazel wood opens out to fields and this comes the theme for most of the rest of the walk.  The recent rain has left it a bit of a mudfest, although not as bad as last week in Peak District.



Farmland all the way from now on.

I skirt around the outside of Avening, as there is a cache at the church that I can take in.  Will this be a town that I ever see?  Pick up the Macmillan Way south out of the village.  Its all fields and interesting cotswolds stiles.

Skirt the edges of Chavenage House.  Do you remember the Susan Boyle posh Tetbury based lookalike from John Bishop's Britain?  This is her gaff.  I prefer the links with Cromwell (there is a lake called Cromwell's bath marked on the map) and the English Civil War.

More fields and then Ledgemore Bottom and Longlength Lane.  You can always rely on the Cotswolds for vaguely rude sounding place names.



The Bottom before the Longlength

Longlength Lane is a quagmire.  Slop my way through it and have a chat with the farmer at Upper Barton End.  Turn the corner to take a track and am confronted by one of these for the first time in my walking career.




Impressive - but how do you get their feathers up?

I waited for a time to see if I could get a photo of it in all its glory.  I think they only do this when they are trying to pull lady peacocks and I wasn't sure on how it could be seduced.  However, it soon got the fear and flapped off.

This just leaves Tetbury Lane before reaching the town.  This is my favourite bit of any walk.  How should I reward my 9 miles of effort?  A pub, a pie?  I hit market street and smell the chipper.  First, I have to tie Molly up and I leave her with some new friends.



Burst through the door, extract my emergency twenty from its special place and spend 5 minutes looking at the menu before settling on Fish and Chips.  Mouth watering, I wait for the little man to finsish battering his fillets to take my order.  He tells me to hang on 5 minutes and leaves me drooling.  He works with the urgency of a man who knows he has a captive audience and owns the only chipper in town.

Another couple come in.  I clock the fella's disappointment as his missus suggests that she'll "just share your chips".  Eventually I get served and take them over the road into the little garden.

They were superb..... and should set me up nicely before my bish celebration based ruby tonight.