Day 12

Breakfasted on an immense meal of eggs, sausage, poached tomatoes and portobello mushrooms with cereal, yogurt, and the fixings. That stood us in good stead because we did a very big walk, about 8 hours. The public pathways are quite incredible: hidden valleys, dark woods, fields of horses, cows, or sheep; vistas of distant church spires and villages. Absolutely charming and completely "English". We walked west from Bisley, through the dew damp fields and drier woods to Slad, then north to Painswick for lunch in a courtyard at a pub. After that spent ages crisscrossing the same field to find our way to Sheepscombe. Funny thing about the English: they refuse to look at your map so you'll know where you are. Instead they point and say "just go down here a while, cross the stream, take the second path to woods, and, once the pasture gets a bit scruffy, go to the left and [on and on...]". Friendly but maddening.

We did make it to Sheepscombe and eventually back to Bisely. It was somewhat arduous but a real joy. One special moment was watching racehorses being exercised as a group by running up a steep hill across a small valley from us. Others: the sunshine, the yew trees in Painswick, almost bonking Jayme with a surprisingly well thrown crab apple, so many partridge in the brush that it sounded like the noise of rushing creeks on either side of us in the woods.

Home to supper at the Stirrup Cup pub and a deep sleep under soft quilts.