Читать книгу The Cotswold Way. NATIONAL TRAIL Two-way trail guide - Chipping Campden to Bath онлайн

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Stage Start/Finish Distance miles (km) Approximate time 1 Bath to Cold Ashton 10 (16) 4–5hr 2 Cold Ashton to Tormarton 6 (9.5) 2½–3hr 3 Tormarton to Hawkesbury Upton 8 (12.5) 3½–4hr 4 Hawkesbury Upton to Wotton-under-Edge 8 (12.5) 3½–4hr 5 Wotton-under-Edge to Dursley 7 (11) 3–3½hr 6 Dursley to Middleyard (King’s Stanley) 6½ (10.5) 3–3½hr 7 Middleyard (King’s Stanley) to Painswick 9½ (15) 4–5hr 8 Painswick to Birdlip 7 (11) 3–3½hr 9 Birdlip to Dowdeswell (A40) 9½ (15) 4–5hr 10 Dowdeswell (A40) to Cleeve Hill 6 (10.5) 2½–3hr 11 Cleeve Hill to Winchcombe 6½ (10.5) 2½–3hr 12 Winchcombe to Stanton 8 (12.5) 3½–4hr 13 Stanton to Chipping Campden 10 (16) 4–5hr 102 (163)

The lofty Broadway Tower was built as a landmark folly for the Earl of Coventry. Standing high above Broadway it commands an impressive view (Stage 1, Southbound; Stage 13, Northbound)

INTRODUCTION

Dodington Park, a series of graceful meadows between Tormarton and Old Sodbury (Stage 11, Southbound; Stage 3, Northbound)

Views were lost in a grey mist of rain that had not let up since breakfast, but needing a hot drink I sank onto a cushion of heather, settled back against a silver birch and dug my flask out of the rucksack. The tea was welcome; the rain and lack of views had not affected my spirits and I was aware of being immensely happy. It was a privilege to be there, to be walking this land of timeless beauty, absorbing its past and present, gleaning experience for tomorrow’s patchwork of memory. And as I wiped the steam from my glasses I noticed, among the swamps of nodding cowslips that crowded the hillside, early purple orchids standing sentry-like here and there, their helmets tossing minute cascades of spray as raindrops fell upon them…