Part of the Cotswold Way walked on 17th August 2009. A varied walk of walk of about 15 miles. Time about 6.5 hours including several stops to take in the views and a longer stop at Rose's Haven Tea Rooms (highly recommended). Parked the car near the Royal William on the A46 near Cranham and caught the 07:46 #46 bus to Cheltenham (£3) which got me into town about 8:15. Time for breakfast before catching the 9:00 #801 bus out of town. Took about 15 minutes to get to The Reservoir Inn on the A40 where I got off, crossed the road and picked up the trail just past the pub. Walked for a few minutes before remembering to turn on the i-gotu GPS so these few yards aren't recorded on the map above.
The trail leads through woods before climbing steeply to give great views over Cheltenham. Then it's down through woodland and alongside the A436 to the busy Seven Springs junction. Some say the springs here are the real source of The Thames - but others dispute this.
The track then leads up towards Charlton Kings Common (more superb views) and round to Leckhampton, where a short detour leads to The Devil's Chimney
The trail leads via fields and road into Ullenwood - home of the National Star College - an independent specialist college "working with learners who have physical disabilities and associated learning difficulties."
Then it's a climb up to Crickley Hill, across the main road at the Air Balloon roundabout (like crossing a motorway!), along Barrow Walk, and around the escarpment at Birdlip. This is quite a long section in total and forms a wide and open valley. I didn't quite appreciate this until I emerged from the woods at Cooper's Hill village. It was there that I stumbled upon Rose's Haven Tea Rooms, and enjoyed the views back to Crickley while enjoying a superb cup of tea and slice of cake.
Like stepping back in time, Mrs Rose Hellerman's tea rooms are an oasis where you can sit on the back porch of Rose's bungalow and listen to Rose's anecdotes of her 80+ years living in the same place.
Cooper's Hill is the venue each May for those with no fear or sense to throw themselves down a 1:2 gradient in pursuit of a double gloucester cheese in the (in)famous cheese rolling event.
Picture
The final section of this walk took me through woodland and back to the car near The Royal William at about 15:50.
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