24/11/19 - Heart of England Way - Stage 32 - The End

Distance - 8 Miles
Geocaches - 1
Pubs - GBG Tick # 432 - Mousetrap Inn, Bourton on the Water
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19, Stage 20, Stage 21, Stage 22, Stage 23, Stage 24, Stage 25, Stage 26, Stage 27, Stage 28, Stage 29, Stage 30, Stage 31

The conditions were not a fitting end to my monthly rambles on the Heart of England Way.   I started in April 2017 in Cannock Chase and knocked a circular walk until 32 were completed, finally arriving in Bourton-on-the-Water for the grand finale.   I wanted blue skies and solid ground.   I got dank November mist and mud but miseries were soon forgotten with a 2020 Good Beer Guide Tick at the Mousetrap.

Heading North East out of the Village across the Salmonsbury Meadows Nature reserve, I'm quickly aware of what I am in for on today's walk.

Grim, by any standard

The only thing to keep me going is the promise of my post walk pint and laughing at other walkers who have not realised that trainers aren't going to cut it.   A high percentage of them are Americans, presumably lured in by Cotswold honey stoned village charm but then hoping that the slurry in the cow fields is only mud.   Some ruined reeboks for sure.

I could bring you more photos of dank fields but we'll move onto the final stages.   Hyde Mill provides a touch of interest - the final resting spot of a racehorse who's name I failed to record but overheard a local explain it was a Gold Cup Winner.   Its prime walking country and many ways (Monarchs, MacMillan, HOEW, Gloucestershire) share the same paths.   Lower Slaughter is the only village passed on route and its a damn fine one.   Stream running through the centre, impressive church and the Slaughters pub.   Try to imagine it in the sunshine.

Hyde Mill

All the ways, sharing nicely

Lower Slaughter - gentle stream, pub, off image church

To reach the Mousetrap and celebrate the closure of a long term goal, I have to enter Bourton on the Water in the Landsdown area - ever so slightly away from the tourists trying to find Birdland.

Its a handsome, small single roomed freehouse.   As you'd expect, there's a heavy emphasis on food and as I sat at the bar, I saw several disappointed walk-ins politely informed to keep on walking if they hadn't booked a table.

The drinker hasn't been forgotton and quite rightly, its in the Good Beer Guide.  This is an achievement lost on the much bigger Stow-on-the-Wold just up the road and the centre point for the previous leg on the HOEW.

There's three real ales on - two from local breweries and a Titantic number that wasn't plum porter.  The Stroud Brewery Fall - a Smoky Bitter - was perfect.   The wall shows the clip pumps from past beers.  Pints are offered in straight or handled glasses.  Toilet Art, ever so slightly homo-erotic.  I feel the landlord may be having a joke on middle England sensibilities.   Where as you normally expect saucy carry on cartoons, we had half naked, mustachioed men, embracing.

Mousetrap Inn

Stroud Brewery Fall - Smoky Bitter

So that's the Heart of England Way over - and a summary blog of all stages is available here.

New adventures await in 2020.