17/2/13 - Return of the Mapp

Distance - 6 Miles
Caches - 3
Walk From - The Times - New Year Walks 2012

Owlpen and Nympsfield

Four times a year, the Times on a Saturday has a supplement of 20 seasonal walks.  Four times a year, I plot them into my database as potential future walking options.  Very occasionally, I actually walk one.

Leave sunny Worcestershire at 9am and head off to Nympsfield.  It sound familiar, but it's not until I get here that I recognise the Rose and Crown pub and realise this is where I stayed when completing the Cotswold Way back in 2007.  I had company then and this dog friendly pub put myself and the labradoodle up for the night.  At first, we had the place to ourselves before the local hunt came in, dressed in full regalia. 

I have never felt more English.



Mappiman's Bed for the night - 2007

Today, I am short of a walking partner.  The dog isn't very well, so she gets a sickpass and I head off for the 50 minute journey without her usual whimpers of excitement.

Glorious blue skies have me in high hopes but Nympsfield is at the top of a very steep hill and appears to have its own microclimate. 

I drop down through Dingle wood, slopping around in the mire that is equal parts horse poo and mud, with some very disappointing pictures in the fog.

Apparently, the light thing in the top left corner is called "the sun"

There are a number of reasons for choosing this walk.  I rarely need an excuse to get on the Cotswold Way, but today there are some added historical factors.

The first of which is Owlpen Manor, one of England's finest Tudor manor houses - dating from 1200 but extensively rebuilt between 1464 and 1616.  There is the manor house, a church and a number of reasonably priced holiday cottages.  I could have stayed this week for £220 for 7 nights.

I'll save my entrance fee money and see if I can get any photos by using the public footpaths around.  Standing on a bridge and peering over the hedge gets me a result.

Over the Hedge

Public Footpath into grounds

Technically, I probably shouldn't have been here

Having got my fix of Tudor history, I head up to Uley.  I think I have been to this pub before as well.

England captured in a Photo

This walk needs a 21st Century fix and there is a geocache across from the Church.  Despite a finger tip search of a bus shelter (its was a Cotswold Bus Shelter, much nicer than regular) I gave up.  There was noone around, as you could hear them all singing in the church.

 

More disappointment to follow in the shape of the stiff climb up to Uley Bury.  Think I am still in post xmas out of condition mode, as it is a bit of a lung buster.  At least the 70 year old walkers behind me don't actually manage to overtake me.

 

Uley Bury is our next historical item on the walk.  Its an Iron Age Hill Fort, with a very flat hill top and some excellent ramparts which make it like a tiered cake.  The only decision to be had is which rampart to walk on.  On a normal day, I would have been rewarded with excellent views of the Severn Vale.  Today, you can make do with me next to a tree.
 

Stunning Views... Usually

There is a geocache in an old biscuit tin which is in remarkable condition, being as the top doesn't fit properly.  At least I have one find today.  Walk my way around to the carpark and there is another multi.  I have a sit on the bench and work out the co-ords, but the final cache is back the way I have come.  The pub is open, so I knock it on the head.
 

I know where it is, even if I can't be bothered to get it

 

I'm on the Cotswold way now, walking on an excellent path free of mud (hurrah!) as we walk towards our final historical artifact - the wonderfully named Hetty Pegler's Tump.

I have walked here twice and although its marked on the map, I haven't actually found the burial site.  I am afraid that I have no Tump shots to show you this time.

Instead of Tump hunting, I concentrate on my second and best geocache of the day and walking down only to walk steeply back up.  Nothing pleases me more than these sort of rambling work outs.

All the way down to go all the way back up - love it.

It's not long before I am back on the road and crossing my last field to get back to Nympsfield, taking in a small cache near a stile.

12:15 and the pub is open.  I get my drink - of course it had to be the Cotwold Way - and adopt my usual post walk position.

Happy Mappi

But what am I doing?  I have no filthy hound covered in her usual mix of mud and fox poofume.  I can actually go inside with all the other humans.  The pint is finished off next to a roaring fire, on an old leather sofa - that comes complete with added advice from the management.
 

Perfect end to a perfect Walk.  Apart from the fog.  And horse poo.