Dowdeswell to Birdlip

Day 4

Walk distance:  10.3 miles

Total Ascent: 1,328 feet

Today I reached my personal low point. Or so I hope. It can't get any worse, can it?

The prognosis did not look good when I struggled to climb two flights of stairs after an excellent breakfast at the George Hotel in Cheltenham. Over previous days the pattern has been:

0 - 2 miles : warm up

2 - 5 miles : striding out

5 - 8 miles : tiring

8 - 9 miles : fading fast

10 miles : exhaustion

Over 10 miles : agony!

The problem is the hills! Today there were more than ever. Exhaustion took over at 6

miles, and agony levels were off the scale.  If I stop I seize up and it takes me half a mile to get going again. Anni says if she had taken a video of me hobbling along after one break it would have gone viral on U-tube! Please make tomorrow easier!!

I need to remind myself we're doing this for charity:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=wickham&isTeam=true 

We took a taxi back to the start of the walk at Dowdeswell and were faced immediately with a long, steep ascent through Lineover Wood. I renamed this section Poachers Paradise on account of the constant clatter of pheasants startled from the long grass as we passed beside them.  At one point a family of six preceded us up the hill for some distance before slipping off into the undergrowth.

 

At Leckhampton Hill and Hartley Hill the views to Cheltenham in the valley below were stunning. In 10 miles we have completed a long clockwise sweep around the escarpment from the North to the South of Cheltenham. 

 

My feet hurt so much I would really have liked a mobility scooter at this point!

 

The route continued along the escarpment eventually entering Crickley Hill Country

Park, an area administered by the National Trust, and most definitely an area of outstanding beauty.  Here the views of Cheltenham were replaced with views towards Gloucester, with it's magnificent cathedral clearly visible. This was an area of humps,and hollows from old quarries, from where much of the stone that formed the building material for Cheltenham Spa was cut. Turning a sharp corner at the head of a

promontory rewarded us with a fine view back along the escarpment all the way to Cleeve Hill., some 10 miles further back along the walk. In the near distance was Crickley Hill Fort that archaeologists have now discovered was settled first  in the Neolithic Age, later in the Bronze Age, and then again in the Iron Age.Finally the hill was quarried for stone until modern times.

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We covered The last 1.5 miles walking through mature beech woodland carpeted with golden leaves as Autumn begins to exert its influence.  Despite the aches and pains this had been a stunning walk in absolutely ideal conditions.  Nevertheless as we arrived in Birdlip the hotel was a most welcome sight!