Mike Brotherton
From: Bristol
Started: 6th Jul, 2018 — Finished: 8th Jun, 2018
Janis E Kenderdine
From: Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, United States of America
Started: 1st Jun, 2018 — Finished: 6th Jun, 2018
After doing Offa's Dyke Path, the Cotswolds Way was a "walk in the park!" The locals obviously love their Cotswolds, and once out of the suburbs of Bath and into the hills, it was something else following the footsteps of neolithic peoples along their forts and long-barrows while looking out across the Severn to Hay Bluff where I'd been only a week before.
Carolyn Bookholt , Sarah Poole, & the other Walkie Talkies
From: Baltimore, MD (but living in Cheltenham, UK)
Started: 15th Mar, 2017 — Finished: 5th Jun, 2018
We have the amazing experience of being able to live in the Cotswolds for 3 years. In this time, we decided we needed to complete the Cotswold Way - so we formed the Walkie Talkies walking group. It's a group of 5-10 (depending on the day) Americans (plus an Australian!) walking the Way one chunk at a time. Mostly we walked once a month as schedules permitted, and sometimes squeezed two in (as we took summers off with kids home). We did 14 walks in 15 months from Chipping Camden to Bath. Ending in Bath allowed us to spend the late afternoon at the Spa before having a nice dinner and heading back home to Cheltenham.
Ken Johns and Rita Wilpers
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Started: 22nd May, 2018 — Finished: 3rd Jun, 2018
Fantastic! Everything in bloom. Great temps, great scenery, towns, villages, and lots of Spaniels! Went from north to south with an extra day in Painswick. Rain and fog only on the few days that promised the best viewpoints.
Samuel Cheshire
From: Whiteparish, Salisbury
Started: 26th May, 2018 — Finished: 31st May, 2018
Completing the cotswolds way in 6 days was tough (15-10-15-20-20-20). I am thankful that I had family around me for the first 4 and did not have to hike it all with a huge bag, especially as it rained on the last two days. The walk itself is Stunning. All the way from end to end there is very little to not enjoy. I started in Chipping Campden down to Bath which felt like a nice way round to do it.
Gillian and Paul Whiteside
From: Ashford Surrey/England
Started: 30th Mar, 2018 — Finished: 27th May, 2018
Fantastic views, picturesque villages, even the weather was varied. One of the best.
David A Johnson and Susan W Johnson
From: Boise, Idaho, USA
Started: 17th May, 2018 — Finished: 27th May, 2018
Amazing views of the countryside; songbirds in grand shaded forests; sheep, cows and horses grazing peacefully in green pastures, fields of wildflowers and wheat, old dry stacked stone walls, ancient churches and even more ancient barrows. Monuments, grand houses, iron age forts and 17th century battlefields. It was an awesome 10 days of walking (with a rest day in Painswick) we will never forget. Thank you for creating and maintaining this walk!
John Gifford
From: Bournemouth
Started: 20th May, 2018 — Finished: 25th May, 2018
Christy Foote-Smith & Bob Stupp
From: Wardsboro, VT, USA
Started: 10th May, 2018 — Finished: 24th May, 2018
We were gifted with two weeks of the best weather with which to enjoy the pastoral beauty of the Cotswold Way. The openness of the trail as it followed the summit of much of the escarpment and provided magnificent views of green pastures dotted with sheep and cattle made the numerous steep climbs out of the villages, themselves beautiful, well worth the effort. Hard-work but a delightful journey. People along the way were wonderfully helpful. So many gorgeous views! So many memories to cherish. More sheep than we could count! And blue bells!
Laura Elmont & Jan Willem Oortwijn
From: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Started: 13th May, 2018 — Finished: 23rd May, 2018
"Going to England? Make sure you bring a raincoat!" That was the advice most people gave us before we started. So, we started, with a enormous 15 kg backpack full of warm clothing and rain gear. How wrong people can be! We had 11 days of splendid weather, for a trail that had everything. From wonderful woodlands with birds and plants, to nice valleys with many sheep, or cows. With so many nice people we met in inns and B&B's and of course real English ales in lovely pubs. We had an absolute perfect time in the Cotswolds and enjoyed every mile from Chipping Campden to Bath.
Rick Lausten, Anne Billiard, Laura Barber, Dan Elder
From: Brentwood, Tennessee, 37027 USA
Started: 13th May, 2018 — Finished: 23rd May, 2018
We had a splendid hike with exceptional weather. It only rained for an hour or so prior to arriving in Old Sodbury. Bluebells, wild garlic, wisteria and horse-chestnut trees were in bloom. We decided to take our time and enjoy the English countryside, so we scheduled 11 days on the trail vice the standard 7. The highlight was chatting with various people we met along the trail and in the local pubs. The trail itself was moderately easy. We generally hiked down in the afternoon to villages and up in the morning to get back to the Cotswold Edge. There were a few steady uphill sections that got our hearts beating with vigor, but generally, it was a pleasant walk. I was the oldest of the group at age 71.
Gerwyn and Linda Owen
From: Portbury, GB
Started: 12th May, 2018 — Finished: 20th May, 2018
Ian & Anna Barnard
From: Stretton on Fosse, UK
Started: 12th May, 2018 — Finished: 18th May, 2018
Fantastic time, although having the weather on our side the whole time helped. We walked south to north and had pre-booked accommodation ourselves. We also carried all our own gear which was ultimately more challenging but also more rewarding. Completed in 7 days, which included an additional 6m at the end as we live just a bit further on from Chipping Camden.
Tom McCormack, Auburn, Alabama USA Ed Hunter, Fort Payne, Alabama USA
From: Tom: Auburn, Alabama USA; Ed: Fort Payne, Alabama USA
Started: 8th May, 2018 — Finished: 17th May, 2018
First and foremost, we successfully completed the entire 103-mile trail in ten consecutive days from Tuesday, May 8th and finishing by walking into Bath on the afternoon of Thursday, May 17th. When I say, we walked into Bath I really mean we limped into Bath. Ed suffered from nerve issues in his toes and an injured knee. While I suffered from multiple blisters on my left foot. In addition, while the official distance of the Cotswold Way is 103 miles, Ed and I managed to walk it in just over 130 miles. Some of the extra miles were due to our bed and breakfasts being off the official Cotswold Way trail. However, most of the extra miles were due to my lack of navigational skills. We experienced highs and lows on our ten-day walk. Some of the highs were the beautiful scenery. We walked through ancient Beech Wood forests, through fields of bright yellow canola and acres of wild garlic, blue bells & cowslip. I can still smell the garlic. We walked through valleys and pastures filled with wild flowers in full bloom. The colors were beautiful. Along the way we watched and talked with men sheering sheep, a stonemason building a traditional dry stonewall, and the owner of an estate near Ullenwood who shared some local history of the involvement of the area in the World War II D-Day invasion. We walked through battlefields, golf courses, and past historic Tyndale & Somerset monuments. We visited Abbeys, churches, and graveyards. Ed and I marveled at the ancient burial mounds at Belas Knap. We walked through miles and miles of sheep and cow pastures. Which means we walked through miles and miles of sheep and cow manure mazes. Ed managed to avoid stepping in the gifts left by the sheep and cows while I was not as lucky. On the tenth and final day of our walk, I stepped into a very deep and wet cow “pie”. While Ed failed to warn me about my pending mishap, he did support me after the fact by laughing uncontrollably for hours after my accident. We walked past outstanding examples of Cotswold limestone architecture in the form of quaint stone farmhouses with thatched and stone roofs, beautiful Abbeys, and small town buildings. We stayed in Bed and Breakfasts in rural villages with marvelous hosts. We were served full “English” breakfasts and provided daily packed lunches for our walks. One of the greatest highs was meeting and getting to know other walkers. We met and came to know Nick and Lesel and Dr. Richard and Sally both couples from England, and Dr. Richard and Melinda from the USA. They out walked us nine of the ten days (passing us each day). However, Ed and I beat them to Bath on the tenth day entering the city like While our highs greatly outnumbered our lows, we still had a few lows. During our journey, Ed managed to lose his eyeglasses, his passport, his wallet, and his boots. While we never found his eyeglasses, Ed did find his passport and wallet in different pockets of his pants other than the pockets where he had originally kept them. After almost destroying his bedroom looking for his boots he was informed that he had left them, like all the B&B guests, in the foyer of the B&B. Another low was my left foot. Early on the walk, I developed some horrible blisters on my left foot. With the help of the doctors, we met on the trail and with Ed’s engineering skills; I managed to walk most of the trail with a bandaged left foot in moderate pain. Ed came up with the plan to cut holes in my shoe to relieve the pressure on the multitude of blisters on my left foot. The plan was much like drilling a hole in someone’s head to relieve the pressure on the brain. It worked. However, this did precipitate the development of a reputation on the trail as the Alabama boys who had cut holes in their shoes. The walk on the Cotswold Way National Trail was one of the greatest experiences of my 66-year-old life. Ed and I completed a journey that will probably never be topped, at least in my life.
Mike Anstey and Lynda Broadway
From: Malvern Worcestershire
Started: 3rd May, 2018 — Finished: 7th May, 2018
We walked this beautiful well marked trail in glorious weather