Previous walks: Summer 2005
Archive of a summer of excellent walks
- 1st May: May day walk - around Upper and Lower Brailes on the Eastern edge of the Cotswolds, this was a lovely walk in spring sunshine with wonderful views, some woodland walking and enough muddy tracks to keep Gill happy..... Gill being of the opinion that a walk is not a walk if you don't get your boots muddy!
- 8th May: Spring sunshine, some showers and strong wind on the ridges; a walk with weather interest (!) as well as heady, full-on, fully out, bluebells in ancient woodlands. This has to be loads better than doing housework, wandering around a garden centre or cleaning the car - where were you?
- 22nd May: Seven mile walk starting from Welcombe Hills country park. As well as fine views, this walk included, as promised, some riverside walking beside the River Avon and, as NOT promised, some very tall stinging nettles in very inconvenient locations (narrow paths for example).
- 12th June : A 6 mile walk around Chipping Campden, A walk with everything - Dovers Hill for views, woods to walk through and teashops to choose from at the end of the walk.
- 26th June: A lovely walk for five of us on a bright, but not stifling, summer day from the village of Broadway up to the Broadway Tower and back via the Cotswold Way. This was a short but energetic walk (its a long way up to the Cotswold escarpment!) with wonderful views over the vale of Evesham and even as far as the Welsh borders, finishing in our favourite teashop in Broadway...... perfect!
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Sunday 10 July: an 6 mile walk taking in two Cotswold villages - Snowshill and Stanton - plus wonderful views. This was a challenging walk; Kay S not really paying attention to the number and closeness of contour lines on the map until faced with three long climbs (and descents) in the heat of the day.... Luckily we found a farmhouse serving tea and cakes in the morning and the Snowshill lavender farm teashop at the end of the walk. The longer version of this walk will definitely feature in the autumn programme - the views are spectacular, the villages very lovely and the 300ft climbs ideal for cold weather.
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31 July Alcester and Coughton Court Four of us set off on this 6 mile walk from Alcester to Coughton and back, mostly alongside or near to the River Arrow. The Arrow is a modest and winding waterway with some cheery weirs, interesting flora, some green dragonflies and a slightly overgrown riverside footpath. Alcester turned out to be a pretty and slightly old fashioned town with, the key feature for a Warwick staff walk, a pleasant teashop....
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7 August, Aston Cantlow. Trudy led this walk as an addition to the summer schedule, she reports: "this went well despite a detour to avoid a very mean looking bull guarding the stile into Great Alne! Pretty walk through fields, chocolate box villages and over rivers and weirs."
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21 August - Gill and Tony led 8 walkers on a lovely 5.5 mile walk around Longborough, Sezincote and Bourton-on-the-Hill. This was certainly a classic 'little gem' walk: the last of high summer sunny weather, lovely views over the north Cotswolds, a pleasant pub garden halfway and tea and cake in Moreton on the way home.
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4 September: A big day out for four staff walkers in the Cotswolds, taking in Winchcombe, Hailes and Sudely Castle. Acccording to the book 'This is a fairly lengthy (8.5 miles) and relatively easy walk that combines magnificent scenery with considerable historical interest' and so it was! It was also a warm sunny day with pleasant breezes on the hills, with TWO lunch stops, a tea break and ending in a pub-garden in Winchcombe late afternoon- What could be better!
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18 September Jeff Fry took us on a 6 mile walk around Rutland Water on an overcast and cool day - great for walking! This was a rare walk by water (Kay is still searching in vain for the Warwickshire seaside... but inland water will do very nicely in the meantime); Three walkers from Coventry shared a car for a longish drive, meeting with three Leicestershire locals at 11:30 then setting off to walk round the Peninsular. Once again we managed two mini-lunch breaks and a late afternoon pub garden stop by the waterside. A fine end to the summer programme!