Walk 05/2010 – The Cotswolds

Saturday 20th February 2010

We promptly assembled for breakfast at 08.00 which was of course cooked and served by the man from Krypton – when I say cooked, there were some extremely anemic looking sausages and slices of toast on offer!

Anyway off we set in cars to the walk start. At one point we had to park up and guide a little red car back to the mother ship via the mobile phone!

Our walk started at Naunton – a small village in the Upper Windrush Valley and is very much sheep country. We headed towards Guiting Power – a typical Cotswold village lying on a tributary of the River Windrush. The first part of Guiting Power’s name comes from the old English ‘gyte’ meaning an outpouring of water, no doubt from the many springs that surround the village. Power is derived from the 13thC lords of the local manor, the Le Poer family.

Lunch was taken sitting in the snow covered hills just through Guiting Wood – where the clearings appear to be used as a collection point for timber.

We continued along the Windrush Way – a mixture of snow covered fields, tracks and roads towards Hawling Lodge. The Windrush Way goes over the hills with only the remains of ‘lost’ medieval villages en route to the River Windrush in Bourton. We passed by Tally Ho country house with its full sized carved horse in the garden and back to Naunton with its 1660 erected famous dovecote, having yomped through snow covered field after field after field.

Back at the hostel we did our own thing and met up for dinner before heading for another session at the pub and another evening of gaiety and witty banter – if you can call a discussion about stone water bottles witty banter! Although Barbara was in fits of giggles when explaining her bung! [Ed – is this anything to do with her “state–of–the–art” knob!]

Report – Sue

Pictures – Alan

Walk rating – very good

This attractive garden in Naunton has the Windrush running through it.

A covering of snow adds to the scenery.

The church at Guiting Power.

A snowy path through the wood.

Oh so pretty.

We stop for a breather.

What happened to huddling together to keep warm?

I always thought sheep were white.

More trees.

Barbara educates us on how to make a snow angel.