06/09/15 - 13 Counties View

Distance - 6 Miles
Geocaches - 6
Pub - Horse and Hound, Broadway.  Old Hooky.

Sonia is working at Broadway Tower and the sun is shining.  I spy an opportunity to add in a walk on her travel expenses and be provided with a gentle re-introduction to walking after the heavy work of completing the South Downs Way this week.

I can be dropped off at the Tower, grab a few caches and work my way down the hill to be collected and taken to lunch.

Too good a chance to miss.

To start the caching, there is a nice simple multi, collecting clues from around the famous tower.  The views, of 13 counties apparently, are spectacular.

How Many Round Windows?  How many Gargoyles?  Answers needed for a Cache

Views over 13 Counties

Walking away from the Tower to the First Cache

Cache found (after a minor recalculation) and off to an Earth Cache and then a chance to find a previous DNF in the woods down and away from Fish Hill.  Glad to have righted that particular wrong.

The views are that good, that I get seduced from my planned route by a fine looking path downhill.  Forced to double back.

Unsurprising that I was tempted

Superb Walking

I'm working my way down to Saintbury - a previously unexplored hamlet in the Cotswolds.  It has the most wonderful church, which I may be incorrect in stating, is abandoned.  The Churchyard was very overgrown and despite it being a Sunday morning, there was no other human activity.

Saintbury Church

Onwards to Willersey, which has a lot more life.  Another fine looking church and two decent looking pubs.

Oldest Tombstone spotted - 1792

My planned route to get out of Willersey is thwarted by a housing estate, where I cannot pick up the planned footpath.  I head on the road back to Broadway and get the call from Sonia to say she is finished and where should she meet me.

Never felt more like a hitchhiker in my life.

She whisks me away from the walking/caching and we find car parking at the back of the Horse and Hound in Broadway high street.

A fine ploughman's and Old Hooky for lunch.

Old Hooky rounding off a fine day.