Day 7: Gloucester to Mitcheldean

We knew today was going to be challenging so made a reasonably early start after a rather weird DIY breakfast of instant coffee, oaty smoothie and egg sandwich. Once we found our way out of Gloucester Quays, we followed quiet cycle paths out to the north-west, crossing two channels of the Severn. We crossed the A40 by the lovely Over Farm Shop, where we bought two delicious pies.

I found it a bit hard to get going today, the initial euphoria has worn off, but cheered myself up by thinking that Theresa May was having a worse morning.

The paths were good for a while, mostly flat and fairly easy to follow, but as the morning progressed the going got harder, with many stiles hidden in nettles and brambles, and arable fields with no obvious route across. At one point we were on a disused railway line, which led us clearly into a field full of cattle who were interested to see us. Having skirted around them, we weren’t best pleased when we found there was no way out of the field at the far end, so had to backtrack several hundred yards to find an unmarked stile high up in the hedge bank.

We finally reached the pub where we had originally intended to have lunch at 2:30, after 12 miles. Thank goodness we’d had the pies! A ginger beer and KitKat gave us some instant energy to climb May Hill which had been lurking on the horizon for most of the day. We did get right to the top (just under 300m) but there were no views to the east because of trees – so no looking back! Plenty of hills to be seen to the west, and before our walk was finished we had descended and climbed over two more ridges, the last climb through another field of not-all-cows, some with horns, who thought about pursuing us but didn’t seem to fancy the slope any more than I did.

Our second Airbnb tonight, very comfortable and friendly, and we have our own kitchenette, so have eaten in for a change – glad not to have to go back out after 17.5 miles and another long one tomorrow.