Blog from the Mud Bog - May 14th

Breakfast was not being served until 8:30 am so we had a couple cups of coffee and strategized a day that was promising to be very soggy.

After breakfast we head out, all geared up looking like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Tilley hats. Leslie was a bright red mound crowned in a cream Tilley; Gloria-Rose was a bright yellow mound with a dark sage Tilley wanna be. What a sight we made!

Not wanting out knapsacks to get wet we had draped our ponchos right over them. Pick your favourite vision TMNT - or brightly coloured hunchbacks off the beaten track from Notre Dame. Well if we get lost and they came looking for us we should be visible for miles. There was some comfort in that. So we set off on our path....well it wasn't actually a path. It was more of a suggestion of a trail over hill and dale, through mud bogs and traversing streams, through herds of cattle, sheep and horses, over stiles and through kissing gates (aside: no we didn't kiss, the gates did).

The instructions we were given were often ambiguous and when they weren't ambiguous they were down right vague. Occasionally they were clear. Those occasions were a nice surprise.

Crossing a very quaint churchyard we found ourselves in a small village where we stopped a Fox Inn for refreshments and a change into dry socks. Dry socks are heavenly! Here we met a couple from Nova Scotia who visit this area every May to see the best countryside on Planet Earth.

The sun must have heard us singing "You are my sunshine" and "Mr Golden Sun" because he/she decided to put in an appearance by the time we got to Stow-On-the-Wold. We took the opportunity to check out market square and a few shops before pushing on.

A short distance from our destination we lost the trail. Having doubled back and forth a couple of times, trying to figure it out, we decided to ask a local for assistance. As luck would have it, after telling us where we needed to go, she informed us she was headed to Bourton-on-Water if we would like a lift. Would we????
We would! We are convinced she is probably an angel in training.

Once settled into our lovely room, overlooking a beautifully manicured garden we each had a soak in a hot tub and a foot massage before heading off to the Mousetrap Inn for a bite. Seems the mouse got here first and ate all the cheese so we had to suffer through a New York steak and the best salad we've had since coming to this country. We are sipping shandy (shandy is better than water. It is becoming our staple food item) and trying to find out where internet access is available.