Escape the summer crowds and walk the Cotswolds using a traditional map for a unique adventure. Photo / 123rf
Escape the summer crowds and walk the Cotswolds using a traditional map for a unique adventure. Photo / 123rf
There’s a simple way to avoid the hordes that descend on the Cotswolds during summer, requiring little more than your legs, an old-school map, and some gusto, writes Pauline Ray.
I see you are using Flat Nav, said the fellow walker, a complete stranger, as we pored over maps on the corner of a barley field.
Even before we left New Zealand I’d been in a complete tizz after the organisers, Walkers Britain, recommended that we should be capable of using GPX raw data files and understanding the grid references of ordnance maps. Crikey!
Then I had another panic attack when the organisers emailed instructions, for our forthcoming self-guided walk, Exploring the Cotswolds, and we couldn’t even download them on iPads or mobile phones.
As we had already been travelling for a few weeks I asked a poor male receptionist at a hotel in Crete if he would kindly download and print the instructions. I was mortified when the instructions turned out to be 68 pages.
Even though I have worked with computers most of my working life, as Baby Boomer non-digital natives this all seemed a stretch too far so I messaged Walkers Britain to ensure we got a pack of maps and Route Notes sent to our first hotel when we arrived in the United Kingdom.
Exquisitely detailed: ”Please turn at the church on your left hand side as you exit the village … Walk along the field edge to your left beside the ditch ... Turn sharp left, there is a deep ditch and a tiny broken stone footbridge to your right. Continue along the trail along the next field with a plantation of larch trees on your left.“
When describing the Cotswolds, most people imagine villages of honey-coloured houses set against a backdrop of sheep grazing in nearby hills.
Quite the twee image, but the Cotswolds we walked through - 102km in a week - while preposterously beautiful was so much more.
There were ancient beech forests to stroll through, surprisingly huge tracts of rolling farmland planted with barley or corn, and tracts of colourful wildflowers as the English are into ‘wilding’ by letting their countryside and grassy verges grow wild.
Contrary to the quaint image of villages and grazing sheep, the Cotswolds offered vast ancient beech forests, huge tracts of farmland, and areas of wildflowers as part of a "wilding" conservation effort. Photo / Pauline Ray
The maps and written instructions were just fine for our eight-day self-guided “walking holiday” although luckily we were not travelling through Te Urewera-type dense forests or bush.
Much of the Cotswolds is hilly rather than mountainous and we were walking through countryside which had been tilled and crisscrossed for centuries.
We only lost our way once in a massive field of barley and were saved by a young cyclist.
We were trying to find Snowshill Manor, near Broadway, an amazing mansion full of antique bicycles, prams, toys, and farm equipment - so crammed that its original owner Charles Wade had to move to a small cottage next door as there was no space left for him to sleep.
When describing the Cotswolds, most people imagine villages of honey-coloured houses set against a backdrop of nearby hills. Photo / 123rf
We started the walk in Stratford where we stocked up on the requisite Royal Shakespeare Company play, As you Like it. We truly liked it.
On the second day we walked to Mickleton, the northern most village in Gloucestershire.
On following days we visited picture-perfect towns and villages, such as Chipping Campden with its famous market town dating from 1627; Stow-on-the-Wold , Guiting Power, Bourton-on-the-Water and Winchcombe, which once depended on the wool trade.
The walk, while aimed at the reasonably fit, does not have a high level of difficulty and it is a fantastic way of avoiding crowds of tourists who pack the Cotswolds during summer.
We sometimes saw less than a dozen people in a day.
It is also a wonderful way to experience the Cotswolds landscape of mostly parkland, cultivated fields with dry stone walls of Jurassic limestone and copses of unspoilt woodland.
The Cotswolds is known for its dry stone walls, built without mortar and made of Jurassic limestone. Photo / Pauline Ray
It was also a walk through history: “notice the ancient ridge and furrows in the pasture, a relic of medieval farming practices”.
As well as our famous book of maps and written instructions, what also aided us were the established waymarks, usually white or yellow arrows, which are the indicators of the well-established public footpaths common throughout England.
We passed through kissing gates, which have nothing to do with kissing but were invented to keep livestock from wandering. We chatted to locals, such as the farmer who quizzed us about the economics of farming in New Zealand. His daughter told us he was rich, but he was typically eccentric English with more holes than wool in his jumper.
Stroll through honey-coloured limestone villages and rolling hills. Photo / Pauline Ray
We had time to take in sights and enjoy local quirkiness, such as the farm sign: “I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned”. We visited a 700-year-old dovecote in Naunton, and got dive-bombed by doves when we ventured inside.
We stayed in three-star accommodation and our luggage was collected each morning before 9am and then taken to our next destination. It was a well-organised, thoroughly enjoyable experience. After my initial trepidation the route notes worked like a dream.
Helpful tips
Although we were blessed with balmy weather, you do need tramping or hiking boots, and poles are helpful as much of the walk would be slushy in wet weather.
A moderate level of fitness is required as some days are quite lengthy – 18 to 20km.
As our luggage was collected each morning and taken to the next destination you only need to carry a day pack. You do need to carry water but you can usually time your walks to reach a pub or cafe by lunchtime.
A sunny day on Winchcombe street. Photo / Pauline Ray
Checklist
THE COTSWOLDS, UK
GETTING THERE
Fly from Auckland to London’s Heathrow Airport with one stopover with multiple airlines, including Qatar Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Air NZ on a Star Alliance codeshare basis.
