21 Sep. - Winchcombe

Image: The very silly Broadway Tower - but worth the climb

Pulled by the 'Dinmore Manor' engine, from Winchcombe (Greet) to Broadway, its high street broad indeed but crowded yet by tourists + Cotswold Way runners.

The ascent to Broadway Tower on its proud summit with views to all corners + then the walk proper - maps in hand, packed lunch, drinks + snacks.

A true Cotswold tramp - forest + field, yellow-stone villages on forgotten byways, stiles + kissing gates, fences, hedges + sunken stony tracks - but always new vistas, new plants, flowers, fruit trees + livestock - sheep, cattle, horses + a pony club!

Highlights like Stanton village (though the inn was closed, save for the kitchen staff - kind with chilled water) or the living history of walking alongside + over Mediaeval 'ridge + furrow' fields - still speaking of their creation, labour + bounty to this day - an honour to behold and to touch with bare palm - 'I acknowledge your lives!'

Notes: Our longest walk (I think) for the entire nine-week trip - about 25 km we figured, with lots of elevation changes, but worth every step. In Australia we (the white invaders) are immersed in a landscape inhabited by indigenous peoples for around 60,000 years, but we don't really know how to look for, and therefore rarely see, traces of their enduring presence. It is truly our loss.