B2B Day 28 Frampton Mansell to Chedworth: Ken Got Nettled!

For an OS map of today's walk (12.22 mi; 19.67 km; 1,321 ft total ascent), click here.

 

The Crown Inn provided a generous and delicious breakfast, with noteworthy "house-made" baked beans that I really liked. The staff there were friendly and kind. We set off from Frampton Mansell around 10:00 a.m.; our destination was twelve miles away in Chedworth, where we'd stay two nights with plans to visit nearby Chedworth Roman Villa on our "rest day." [I had not wanted to do such a relatively long walk on only our second day, but there wasn't any accommodation between Frampton Mansell and Chedworth—only a succession of small hamlets and villages as we headed generally northeast, crossing the "grain" of the land in and out of valleys along the way. At least we'd have the rest day there to recover.—Ken] 

 

Ominously, the weather forecast was for rain all day. When we set out, it wasn't too bad—most of the day was either overcast or drizzly rather than all out rain, which was good. We began with a short walk to Sapperton where we visited the church, which had some striking memorials inside. Then things got interesting. . . .

 

On leaving Sapperton we encountered a very muddy bridleway which had been churned by horses and humans into a shallow trough or "U" shape with four inches of mud & water in the centre of the path and a thin skim of mud on the higher sides. We watched a female jogger just slop right through the middle of the path, but we tried to walk on the edges rather than right through the watery mud. I was walking in the lead, and I heard the horrible sound of a slip, a cry, and a thud behind me. Ken had lost his footing on the edge of the path and had fallen face first into nettles. His left cheek, left hand, and leg were covered with white welts from the nettle stings. (He was wearing shorts because he had reasoned that by doing so he would avoid his pantlegs getting muddy on a wet day!) A short while later I heard the same sound. This time, Ken emerged with more nettle stings on the other side of his left hand, nasty bramble scratches on his legs . . . and his whole side—and backside—was caked with mud! [I'll be honest and say that the moment after my second fall in the mud was without doubt the lowest I've felt on any of our walking trips. And let's just say that faceplanting in nettles is not a recommended course of action! Here we were, not even two miles into day two of our walk; and it was raining, I was covered in mud, and my face, hand, and left leg felt like a thousand needles were dancing on every surface. But what could we do except go on? It makes a good story now, but it felt really, really dreadful at the moment.—Ken]

 

Shortly afterwards a couple of walkers passed us, and after telling his tale of woe Ken said, "How am I going to present myself to my B&B host looking like this?" They laughed kindly and responded cheerfully, "Don't worry; your host will love it!" It was all meant in fun and did actually make us smile. What surprised me was that people who clearly knew the area and the swampy state of the path had willingly chosen to walk on the bridleway—some with their dog, no less. In any event, in order to avoid another fall, Ken gave up trying to avoid the muddy middle and just walked down the centre of the path. Just once did the water overtop his right boot, and that not too badly. After his initial dejection at his falls and the pain of the nettle stings, he didn't complain much and just kept going. We passed some people who said the bridleway would get better, and it eventually did.

 

The Saxon church at Duntisbourne Rouse

We enjoyed some of the wildlife on this walk: we heard our first skylarks singing, saw some deer springing, a rabbit, and some hares. We did some road walking and then headed northeastwards on a series of footpaths down into the little valley of the River Dunt. We liked the Saxon church at Duntisbourne Rouse, and the beautiful assortment of old and new houses grouped around a ford over the Dunt. It was simply lovely.

 

As we climbed out of the valley through a pretty woodland our path continued to be muddy, but rather than being treacherous, the mud transformed into a texture that Ken said looked a bit like chocolate oatmeal—the leaves and nuts that were mixed into the mud helped it to be less slippery. Further on we enjoyed seeing a farm with purple beech trees, and bluebells and wild garlic in the woods. 

 

On the chocolate oatmeal path (most of the mud on Ken was hidden "round back"!)

An interesting thing we also noticed along the way was that even though the day was dark grey and overcast, when we passed a rapeseed (i.e. Canola) field, the yellow blossoms were so bright that it felt as though it were sunny . . . even though it wasn't. We were able to walk around the soaking wet rapeseed field rather than right through it, for which we were grateful given past experience. We saw a white horse at Drayton farm, crossed a river, and passed through a wood full of wild garlic before coming to Woodmancote. There, at a short footpath heading out of the village, Ken was so sore and tired that he could barely make it over the stile. Once over that obstacle, we went downhill on a little lane, crossed an A-Road and the river Churn and appreciated a cool water feature there.

We then did a short but vicious walk uphill to Rendcomb, which had fantastic and historic school buildings. It was a disappointment, though, to arrive at the hoped-for shop in Rendcomb only to find it closed for refurbishment as of March 31. We were too tired at this point to see Rendcomb church and the day also began darken and rain harder, so after a few minutes rest on a picnic bench outside the empty shop we pushed on and walked hard to get up onto the long plateau that was the home stretch of our walk. Ken jokingly asked a farmer driving by on a quad if he'd give us a ride, and the man actually might have done so—but we did walk the entire way today.

Heavier rain began to fall for the last one and a half hours of the walk on the plateau. It took much longer than Ken thought it would [I misread the map and thought we were one big field further along than we really were, which was kind of a crushing realization at the end of a very long day!—Ken] and the fieldpaths were a muddy mess, but we finally got to the road that eventually led down to Baldwin House, our B&B at Chedworth. Our host Caroline was amazingly welcoming, especially since we were both covered in mud (especially Ken). A rather pitiful or pitiable sight! Nevertheless, Caroline kept telling us to come on in, that it was a country house and they were used to muddy boots. So we did. We left our boots at the door, carefully went upstairs so as not to get mud everywhere, changed out of our muddy clothes, and Ken had much needed drinks of cold water and a hot bath. [The bath was great even with the nettle stings!—Ken] Caroline brought us tea, put our clothes in the wash, and adjusted our dinner reservation for a slightly later time. The whole suite was lovely, but the bathroom was particularly so, with a fantastic tub and a separate shower. The towel rack seemed to heat the whole room, and it was airy and bright—definitely a great place to relax after a challenging, nettlesome walk!

Of course, to go the the pub we needed footwear, and packing light as we do, we didn't have any options since our boots were slathered in mud. So . . . Caroline loaned us some! Ken wore a pair of her husband's shoes, I wore a pair of her daughter's, and thus kitted out Caroline drove us to The Stump, which specialized in uniquely flavoured pizzas. We ordered a side of crispy potatoes and pecorino cheese, and a lovely pizza with chorizo & nduja sausage with rosemary honey, tomato and mozzarella. Ken isn't always a huge fan of mixing savoury and sweet, but we were both surprised by how well the honey worked with the other flavours. We shared tiramisu for dessert. It was absolutely delicious and one of the best meals of our entire trip—all amidst a warm and lively atmosphere. Caroline even picked us up when we were done, and we went to bed in our lovely room. It was so nice to end the day feeling clean, dry, warm, well-fed, and most definitely well cared-for.

Our bedroom at Baldwin House—a comfy way to end the day!