Ausbra one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Ausbra here.

I started from the horrible great shopping centre based around a huge car park which is the Bradley Stoke meeting point. At least there are buses, toilets and cafés here! I was soon following off-road footpaths, including the Saxon Path, and then the safe pavements of busy main roads, with pedestrian lights at the crossings.
It was lovely to reach the quieter road at the top of Almondsbury. Before heading down the footpath I went a few steps beyond, to see the great view across the Severn estuary with its two huge bridges.
The footpath down Almondsbury Hill was quite steeply downhill. It was tarmacked but with some moss, and I imagine it’s very slippery in certain conditions. For those heading up this hill, there are a couple of benches where you can get your breath back. The lower part of Almondsbury was very pretty, with a church, pub and community shop and café, but I was told by a resident that the buses no longer go to the bottom of the hill, and so they have to climb to the top, to go into town.
A good farm track led to some okay field-crossings, then a quiet road. This road formed about a quarter of the route, and ran alongside the M4 for a bit, but at least there was a hedge blocking the view and fumes of it, but not all the sound. This road was very quiet – I saw a lot more cycles than cars.
All of the field paths after this appear to be not very well used, and the wooden stiles and bridges over ditches are mostly a bit rickety. Also, it was occasionally tricky to spot the stiles or gates between fields as they weren’t always quite where the map said! One particular field crossing had me walking across stripes of bog and raised ground. It was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated after a very wet winter though.
There were some signs around stating that various footpaths may or may not be closed, but it was difficult to interpret some of the information, even later on at home. Anyway, it all seemed passable to me. The section going into Aust, along the newly created levees around the wetlands, was the easiest to navigate, but it was still quite pleasing to arrive at the pub in Aust!
This route had some lovely parts, but parts of it were a bit less delightful. Oh, and I saw a Red Kite!.

I originally walked this as part of a longer Slow Way which has been removed as a result of the addition of Aust as a Slow Ways place.

I walked the route from Aust to Bradley Stoke. Most of it crosses the Severn Vale on pastures, tracks and minor roads. It then climbs uphill into the village of Almondsbury and is, thereafter, an urban walk beside a main road and on foot/cycle paths through housing estates.

The route heads out of Aust along a track and reaches an area where a new wetland is being created as part of major flood defence works on the River Severn. This should become a lovely wildlife area in time. There was a well-signed diversion of a few hundred extra metres when I went through but the path may have reopened since if this part of the works has been completed. From here to Greenditch Farm, the route is mainly through flat, low-lying pastures. The ground can be very wet in winter in this area but it was good enough underfoot when I walked it in mid Spring. Note that at Bilsham Farm, the path runs a little to the east of the farm in a field, and not through the yard as marked on the OS map. Generally, some of the wooden infrastructure in this area has seen better days and the signage isn't perfect but I found it easy enough to make my way through.

Just north of the M4, the Slow Way joins a track over the motorway, arriving at a minor road by Greenditch Farm. The next couple of miles is on quiet lanes, often with verges and some views around, before picking up another footpath across the fields. After a while the Slow Way takes takes a turn and heads uphill into Almondsbury. There are lovely long views back over the River Severn from here and is a pub iby the church on the way through the village.

A short, steep climb up through woods leads out of Almondsbury and up to the A38. There is then getting on for a mile of (safe) walking along the pavement by this major road and a crossing of a motorway junction (at traffic lights), and another big roundabout (ditto) before the route takes to pathways through the modern housing estates to get to the massive shopping centre at Bradley Stoke. The route is a slightly wiggly and potentially confusing. I used my GPS a bit to help here. This latter part of the walk heading into town does the job of getting you to the meeting point in Bradley Stoke perfectly well but I didn't enjoy it as much. Hence only three stars overall, but it is a decent walk.

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