Thornbury Wayfinders

This is one of the trails that we going to use for the Step into Spring Walking Festival. It is one of the published Slow Way routes, and I have done it before. However, there are more than one possible route, so I needed to check out some possibilities.

It was a lovely day and Steve Dimond accompanied me which made it a lot more interesting.

The clear weather made the journey on the number 60 bus something special. We had the bus to ourselves to start off with so we had the benefit of the raised seats at the back so we could see over the hedges. More people got on in Kingswood village and we moved in past Katherine Lady Berkeley school into Wotton, where the bus had to manoeuvre twice past a row of cars.

The best bit is the journey is from Wotton to Cam along the side of the escarpment with views to the left across the vale to the Severn with little grassy valleys running away from the hillside.

The route up the Cotswold Way to Stinchcombe golf course from the bus station is brutal, but the climb is rewarded by views through the beech trees and there was seat half way up if we had needed it. The descent down the other side was difficult because I tried out a steep short cut, which I won’t use again, and views of elegant farmhouses opened up.

A bird of prey flew past on pointed wings – I would bet a peregrine – but I am no expert.

We crossed the Dursley/Wotton road at a point we had marked before on the bus and made our way up the avenue towards Nibley.

There are two distinct routes from here to Katherines’s Farm. One goes through a garden off the main street in Nibley to some sheep pasture and the other goes via the church of St Martin of Tours and some very minor roads. Which route is best depends on conditions under foot. The route to the church is grassy with good views and the minor roads would be easier than negotiating a series of stiles. However, the roads seemed icy today, so we switched to the cross-country route. This was fine until we left the sheep pasture for a muddy bridlepath.

I think I’d take the other route if I were leading a larger party.

Katherine’s Farm is a fascinating place, and Steve was snapping away with his phone. One building looks as if were an ecclesiastical site, and there is an amazing root garden.

The trail passes under the main line from Bristol to Gloucester on its way to Michael Wood. I am yet to go this way without seeing a train or two. I think we saw four. One of my aims was to try out the route alongside the railway. It was fine. Someone had put in a a track for exercising horses. There was one stile and a gate onto the road. There were a couple of stiles on the path down to bridge over the Little Avon, which is not far from Huntingford, which is on the northern boundary of the ancient royal Forest of Horwood.

I think it was near here that an egret flew past.

The bridge proved to be something of a meeting place. Among others, we met a man from Oldbury on Severn and his dog and a woman from nearby Avening Green, who had read the poster for the walking festival in our window in Thornbury. We ate our sandwiches on the bridge and made our way past her house in Avening Green to the tunnel under the M5 that leads to the lakes at Heneage Court, where we saw a heron and half a dozen cormorants.

I have written up the route back to Thornbury from here before, but this time my enjoyment was somewhat sullied by the liner of my boot attacking my heel. Ouch!!