Sudeley Lodge, Winchcombe
	Picking blackberries
	Thatched roof cottage
	Path through church yard
	Passing through sheep pasture
	Cotswold garden
	Don crossing a pasture

Cotswolds, UK – 2010 Travelogue

If you enjoy hiking over rolling hills covered with lush green fields and chestnut forests, strolling through medieval villages with 16th century pubs and stone houses, and sharing your footpath with sheep, cows, and fellow hikers, the Cotswolds are the place for you.

We spent a week hiking through England’s Cotswolds, starting in Chipping Campden, a charming market town, with its 500 year old “wool” church and 400 year old market hall.  We checked out pubs and restaurants, hotels and B and B’s, as well as the fabled footpaths so famous throughout England. 

From Chipping Campden, we hiked to lovely Sudeley Lodge, a 16th century manor house turned into a Bed and Breakfast lodging, with a beautiful garden, the best English breakfasts anywhere, and delicious afternoon tea on the terrace.  That day, we crossed green hillsides filled with sheep and passed through dense forests.  Our hosts recommended the White Hart pub in nearby Winchcombe, where we enjoyed a superb homemade sausage platter and wine from their excellent wine list. 

Along the footpaths, we ate handfuls of wild blackberries that were at their prime of sweetness.  On several hikes, our blackberry gluttony added at least half an hour to the day, to our great pleasure. 

As we passed through one farmyard, we had a chance to chat with a farmer about the wheat crop.  We had noticed that the wheat was gray rather than golden which, he told us, was due to the recent rains.  Nonetheless, they expected a good harvest with excellent prices since, he added, the US was using so much of its grains for ethanol rather than food.  One of the enjoyable aspects of our hiking was the chance to wander through villages and farms and talk to people along the way.

We saw hundreds of pheasants and learned that they are farmed for hunting in this part of England.  At the end of the hunting season, cocks and hens are rounded up and put into fox-proof enclosures for breeding.  When the chicks are big enough, they are released into the fields to grow fat in time for the next hunting season.

The hiking paths pass through the old stone villages of the Cotswolds, with such intriguing names as Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper and Lower Slaughter, Birdlip, and Guiting Power (with a wonderful pub for lunch).  They wander along streams and up steep hillsides, past ancient stone walls and earthwork fortifications, and across private pastures on marked trails, a tradition in England.  We loved the beautiful views across valleys and villages and the colorful English gardens in every village.

The hiking is not difficult (particularly if you are used to hiking in the Rockies) and can range from 6 to 15 miles a day, depending on one’s wishes.  And, there are a number of local golf courses along the route for those who want a day off to play golf.

We are thinking about offering hiking trips to really wonderful parts of the world in the future.  The Cotswolds would be our first such venture.  We have hiked all over the world and have found this to be a wonderful way to meet local people and to see a country at a leisurely pace.  

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