Stonehouse

Today was another perfect day for hiking the Cotswolds. It was sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, 65 for a high. We hiked 10.5 miles from Painswick to Stonehouse with an elevation gain of 1,500 feet. Today also marked the halfway point in our 100+ mile journey.

Ready!

But first, breakfast at the inn.

Our hotel last night was right on the main street running through town, but the street is so narrow that it's basically a one way. They have stoplights at either end and each direction has to take turns driving through. In the morning traffic backed up all the way to our hotel.

A lot of the trail up and out of town ran basically through people's yards, with these little fenced in paths marking the way.

A mile or so outside of town there's this official looking half way marker.


Until you look at the other side and see that's it's too optimistic by about 4 miles. Ha! We'll hit the halfway point a little later today. This also only counts the "official" 102 miles of the trail. But the actual trip involves lots of little detours to get to your inn, or to get to lunch or avoid construction, etc. So the full trip will end up being about 110 miles.

Beech nuts

This historical marker for an iron age fort is our best guess for what will end up being the halfway point for us. It's been 5 1/2 days of hiking, and we've got 5 1/2 more to go. We're starting to think we might actually be sad it's all over when we get to the end.

We took a short detour off the trail through some woodsy trails and country roads to get to our lunch spot, the Vine Tree Inn. It ended up being the best meal of the trip so far. A crispy halloumi sandwich and butternut soup. Vanessa got a half-pint of ale to celebrate the halfway point. And dessert was an excellent apple cake with homemade custard.

After lunch we were on the same route as a school cross-country race. There were lots of teachers cheering the kids on (and also us) at various check points. One of the runners stopped to ask us where we were hiking to and was blown away when we told her we were headed to Bath. We were blown away that these kids were running up and down these hills.

Here they all are at the end of the race.

We also passed a vinegar where the grapes were being harvested.

Our day ended with a walk along this lovely canal where our hotel is located.


Our hotel for the night. The first record of this manor house was from 1086. It was granted to various nobles throughout the centuries before becoming the court house for the local area sometime in the 1400s, and eventually being sold to local clothiers in 1558 as cloth started to become a major industry in the area.

Tomorrow we have the option of walking 9.5 or 11 miles for a prettier route - we're going for the 11!