At the time of this walk, I remember I was beginning to struggle for motivation to get out and do something; feeling tired from work, a sudden decrease in daylight hours elsewhere and a gradual drop in temperature.
I found myself feeling as though I was about to ‘waste the weekend away’. Somehow, I found the impetus to consider a short walk for the afternoon. Post-lunch and fewer miles… This seemed do-able and soon, I was heading up the M5 towards Dursley.
Having already explored the house, it was now time to get outside and see the rest for myself.
Stourhead had been on my shortlist since 2012, when I first became aware of it from the stunning photos featured on another blogger’s post. Why it had taken me four-years to actually get there, I’m not too sure. It’s only a ninety-minute drive from home and I’ve been a full National Trust member now for eighteen-months.
I waited until November, in the heart of autumn, when I also happened to have a Monday off work and didn’t fancy another energetic hike the day after a long walk in another part of Wiltshire.
Here we are, then. Just one month to go until the end of 2016.
It’s inevitable that I’ve already achieved my personal target of eight-hundred miles. But, with weekend of flooding across the local region and a sharp drop in temperatures to sub-zero; how much walking did I manage in the month that was November?
This weekend, I’m planning a walk down on the Quantocks and so, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to write about my previous walk only a ten-minute drive from home!
I’ve been to this part of the Mendip Hills so many times in the last three-years that I feel it would be futile to attempt another extensive walkthrough on this page. Instead, I’m going to select a succession of my favourite photos, picking out the highlights and favourable sights from along the way.
…Some may say this is what I do in a walking blog post anyway! ;-P
Saturday came and with it, the opportunity for me to lead my fifth (and final) Ramblers walk of the year. I’m pleased to say I’ve now done enough to have earned myself a £20 voucher at Cotswold Outdoor. In 2013, I lead a total of three walks to gain £10. This year, I’ve gone that extra bit further. What will 2015 bring?
It got off to a very foggy start as I set off from home.
When I first heard of ‘Kelston Round’, I assumed it was some kind of circular walk; perhaps even the focus of an annual fundraising event. It was only about six months ago that I learned it’s solely the name of a hill near Bath. So, yesterday, I went off to explore it.
If you’re interested to know the exact route, you can find it as Walk 22 of Geoff Mullett’s Walk West Again eBook.
It’s officially less than two months to Christmas. In the UK and Europe, the clocks have already gone back one hour, meaning we lose 60 minutes of precious daylight from our evenings. With the turn in season, my walks will also continue to shorten as I fight the lure of hibernation. But walk on, I must. I will.
For the first time since May, I took a trip up to the Cotswolds on Sunday in an effort to discover the Slad Valley, not too far from Stroud.
