After several days of rain, seven members set off from Dursley under a blue sky and sunshine. As anticipated the day was muddy, but the weather held, apart from a couple of light sleet showers. When we set off, the usually quiet corner of Dursley was bouncing with Lycra clad runners, assembling to start the ‘Dursley Dozen’. On a couple of occasions during the walk we encountered these runners, at one point we had to wait patiently whist a stream of competitors puffed by. The walk took us through Hermitage Woods, where markers left a few weeks ago guided us through the myriad of woodland paths, to Breakheart Hill.
We continued onto a narrow bridleway above Waterley Bottom that had a small Cotswold version of the Badlands of Utah. Then on along the Cotswold Way, past the Iron Age fort of Brackenberry Ditches and the Tyndale Monument, a brief refreshment stop in North Nibley and over Stinchcombe Hill and back to the cars.
Climbing up out of Dursley
Pausing for a break
Demonstrating the Pathwatch app to report a broken stile
Brackenbury Ditches, an Iron Age hillfort near Wootton under Edge
The Tynedale Monument at North Nibley, built in honour of William Tynedale, a translator of the New Testament.
View from the top of the Monument