I woke several times last night and heard rain. Rain at night is allowed, although not appreciated greatly since we might end up walking through mud. Perhaps, though, we’ll avoid a lot of rain today which is not what the forecast had suggested earlier on.

Looking out one window I could see sheep in the distance, but that wasn’t any surprise since I could hear them.

Speaking of hearing, I forgot to mention a funny one from yesterday. As we were nearing the village we were going down a gentle slope. To my right was a bit of meadow and what looked like a forest. To my left was a wall of shrubs. I heard loud baa-ing. On my left. I looked and looked. No sheep! Jan must have figured out what was going on and I heard her (she was behind me) say, “They’re to your left.” DUH. I have to hearing in my left ear and hearing them in my right ear didn’t mean they had to be my right! But the most interesting bit is a bit later, as we were still on the path but there was a road to our left I heard motorcycles. Now where do you think I looked? To my left, of course! I even thought I heard them on my left. Because motorcycles couldn’t possibly be to my right. The brain knows!

Now back to today.

You might be shocked and amazed that we packed and lugged our bags down two flights of stairs. Great fun was had. Then it was time for breakfast.

We all enjoyed nice breakfasts, getting more food than we of course needed. But isn’t that what happens on vacations? Seems so. The photo below shows Dan. Most likely he’s meditating over a cup of coffee. You also see my slice of toast and I’ll just pretend that’s all I ate.

Then it was a quick trip back up to our rooms, with a quick shot up a lovely staircase (that we didn’t take), and we met up again to start our walk.

The walk began easily, as we said goodbye to Chipping Campden and got on to our route..

We soon left the road and marched on. Or ambled. You choose. Some of the sheep yesterday and today look rather naked, as they’d been shorn.

Above Chipping Campden is Broad Campden. The Quaker meeting house you can see in one photo has been used in the Father Brown series.

We were told to turn left at the Bakers Arms pub. At that point Jan and I were walking together. We saw one path but it was before the pub so we walked past to the next left and went there. Well, my phone was NOT at all happy with me and let me know. Oops. We were supposed to take the other left. So back we went.

We saw we were again on The Monarch’s Way. When I first saw a sign for The Monarch’s Way I thought they were talking about butterflies. Yes. Really. But never mind.

We continued our walk through lovely areas, through sheep areas (we have to do some “poop dodging” in those) and more. The clouds did look ominous at times. (But I think the gifts the sheep leave are more ominous!)

I sort of got off track one other time: we are the red line. We are supposed to follow the blue. I really just think we are more creative is all. (I suspect you have to click on this image to really understand what I’m writing about!)

More walking, more beautiful views, more fun with Jan! Oh, and more grain.’

Then we reached the village of Blockley.

Don’t know the place? Well, you might know it as Kembleford. As in Father Brown. We arrived there, not remembering the Father Brown bit. We went to a little store to buy some lunch and as we exited the store the rain came down. Right next door was a cafe and Jan and I went in to order cappuccinos and I asked if we could eat our sandwiches there. The young woman said normally no, but their oven wasn’t working (or something like that) and if we were discreet they’d allow it. So we very discreetly ate the sandwich (we shared because we are learning that we often could just share things rather than eat too much) and drank our coffee. Later Dan arrived and had an espresso and cake, so I wasn’t feeling quite so bad about our eating our sandwich. When we left the cafe we had a look at the church used in Father Brown. Because Jan and I put on our rain jackets the rain stopped.

Then on we went, past Blockley, through meadows, past cows, down paths and trees, through some rather narrow spots, and we did have another climb. (We had one earlier in the day but nothing like yesterday.) It’s nearly impossible to really show you how high we’d climbed, but if you can see a village below us in some of these photos, that’s Blockley again and we are high above it!

Now I must say there were many moments we had to concentrate very hard on where we stepped, in order to dodge things that must be dodged. We also had to be cautious about sting weed and the thorns on various plants. But we soldiered on bravely. (At one point, though, I did have Jan grab the poles from my pack and we each took one … it was so helpful to have both to help us climb and to assist in pushing back prickly plants.)

I can’t remember exactly when the rain began, but it rained. And it was somewhat significant. We stood under some trees for a time. Earlier we had heard thunder and wondered if we’d get dumped on. After a while someone who is impatient (me) decided to go on while Mr. Patience (Dan) waited a bit more. Jan was with me and, really, I think we were right to go on. But Dan later mentioned perhaps with the possibility of lightning we might have been smart to wait. But hey, I’m here, right?

The sheep here are much bolder than the shy Scotland sheep we saw. We even seemed to have welcoming committees sometimes.

The walk continues. The dodging continued as well.

And THEN … the worst of all. Mud. Mucky mud. By the time we got through the field of mud my shoes were caked and so much heavier. I’m hoping that means I get extra points: it’s like weight lifting, really. Jan took a photo of my lovely shoes. (I attempted to pull my pants legs up a bit so we could really see the damage. Honestly, though, it was worse than these photos show, I think!)

From there we were very close to our final (can you hear me sighing and even crying a bit?) destination of the walk.

Hello again, Moreton-in-Marsh!

We are back in the hotel we stayed in when we arrived here, but no deluxe room this time.

Shortly after getting in our room we met up with Greg and Jan for a celebratory drink. I took photos as we went down the stairs. The many, many stairs. But that really doesn’t do them justice! (I think I counted 28 steps up, and then, for Dan and me, 4 down to get to our room.)

But your SHOES, you ask? Did you really walk into the hotel and then go to the bar with those SHOES? No. I didn’t. I’ve been taught by the master here (hi Dan) that a puddle, especially a puddle with rocks below, is a great way to clean off filthy shoes. I had also used my poles to knock off a lot of the mud. By the time we got to the hotel the shoes were nearly presentable. After drinks, when I got to our room I used some wipes to clean them off nearly completely. I was happy to have them clean, and even happier to have shower time to get me clean!

We had dinner at the hotel and the meal was lovely. Greg and Jan had some risotto, Dan had chicken, and I had trout. All tasty!

We had a little after dinner drink and called it a night.

While we went back upstairs I took a video: this hotel has a lot of twists and turns. I’m guessing I could easily get lost. I’m not sure the video will really show that, though.

Tomorrow we move on. Time is passing by far too quickly and I just want it all to slow down, but I guess I’m not in control of time. I should be, but I’m not. Ah well.

Goodnight and stay tuned for the next adventure!

21,457 steps, 8.32 miles, 17 flights climbed