Glostr one

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Some lovely historic buildings at the start of the walk, then about 4 -5km before you get out of Gloucester which is probably the least interesting part of the walk (sorry Gloucester!), partly boring for me as it is along the road that I drive into Glos from Stroud.

The walk is a bit noisy in the first half with roads and the M5 but there is no way around that, and walking at the start of February it was quite muddy in a lot of the fields.
I particularly enjoyed the walk once I had crossed the motorway. The scenery was better, it was quieter and there are lots of great wide open views back to Gloucester and across towards Wales.

Not lots of places to stop for refreshments but there is Fagin’s pub in Brookthorpe (I have not been in), and obviously lots of places to choose from at the start and end of the walk in Gloucester and Stroud.

Overall no problem to follow the gpx files which I had downloaded into my OS maps app. In a couple of places there was some small variances or possible confusions which I have noted below.

Before I set off I wondered why the route didn’t take you into Robinswood Hill Country Park sooner to save some road walking but when you are there it is clear to see that that would add quite significantly to the overall elevation and I was glad the route skirted round the bottom of the hill instead!

In a couple of places it was slightly confusing or I chose a slightly different option:

1) when you have left the houses (finally!) and are skirting round the bottom of Robinswood Hill Country Park looking for a right turn to go down the hill across the fields - the path appears slightly before where it does on the OS Map. I walked on to check that there wasn’t another way down but it seems that it is just in a different place to the OS map.

2) when you approach Whaddon (a couple of fields on from the above point) the Slowways route takes you past the farm on to the main road, turns left and then after a short distance on the road you go left again on a footpath BUT you can avoid going to the road and follow a footpath behind the farm instead and still reach the same point. On the ground there is a foot bridge taking you into the field going behind the farm and it is clearly signed.

3) after you have crossed under the M5 and walked through fields then a farm (Brentlands on the OS map) back on to a road, there is a short section of road walking before you get to the footpath to Brookthorpe. Take care here as it is a busy road, with blind corners and not much space to get off the road. There isn’t alternative way around this due to the motorway.

4) Past Brookthorpe - don’t turn left into the field marked Withyrows too soon - you need to carry on past the farmer’s track to reach the path route. I accidentally turned up the farmers straight track and had to walk back to find the route out of the field.

5) Once you’ve passed Daniel’s Brook you need to stay on the left of the stream and take a stile into the next field. Keep to the left of the stream until after you have gone about half way along a large field (and passed a small area across the stream where there are coloured ribbons in the trees and a few other surprises). Then a little way after that you need to cross the stream but even in February the bridge and stile were quite hidden in the brambles and trees and would be quite easy to miss!.

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