As we were at the campsite we had quite a lazy morning and got ready slowly. I discovered as i was packing up that my platapus thing had a whole in and was leaking all over my bag....very annoying!Today we walked along a bit of the Gloucestershire Way but it was mostly a day of roadwalking because we were trying to avoid fields so H didn't have to deal with any cows. We had one big climb up to a place called Cold Slad and on our way up here we saw a fox which was pretty cool. From Cold Slad we walked down along the road and arrived at a very big and busy road, i had seen it on the map and hoped that there would be a crossing of some sort but there wasn't. We decided to walk up the side of the road hoping that there would be a crossing up by the roundabout, we guessed there would be as it looked like both the Cotswold Way and the Gloucestshire Way crossed over here. When we got there it was clear that this was where we were suppose to cross as there was an island in the middle but it was still a bit dodgey as it was very very busy! A nice lorry driver let us across the first bit but we stood on the middle island for a long time before another kind lorry driver coming the other way also let us pass. Right next to the roundabout was a pub called the Hot Air Balloon. We couldn't resist so popped in for a drink....we deserved it! We enjoyed a nice drink then before we left got the girl at the bar to fill up our waterbottles.
From here the Cotswold way lead us to a view point which looked down over Gloucester i think although ic ould be wrong, somewhere down there anyway. It was a really cool view down from the hill, the land below was flat for miles. Up where we were there was a lovely grassy area and there were lots of benches and although we had only just had a break it was to nice to miss so we took a seat on a bench and ate some lunch. From here we took the road down through a forest to Birdlip. It was really sad that Jade wasn't here because she loved the sound of Birdlip!! Biiiiirdlip! Also we were mant to be here the weekend Ka came to see us so it was also sad that she didn't get to see it. However, i made sure i got a picture by the signpost and also some pics of the place itself although there wasn't much there!
From Birdlip it was a long walk on the road down through the forest and then we joined back on the Cotswold Way. We planned to follow the Cotswold Way all the way into Painswick and just hope that we could find somwhere just out of the other side to wild camp as we were feeling tired! I was very impressed with Hayley, she was feeling tired but was doing very well. She had already walked 2 very long days! The Cotswold Way took us across a golf course, the grass looked so green and lovely and i just wanted to pitch the tent up everywhere! Whilst we were walking along here Ka rang to say hello and we asked her on the off chance if she could google and see if there were any campsites around here that just hadn't been marked on the map. Ka was brilliant and found a farm that was just a field and a tap but let people stay. It was perfect timing because as she rang to tell us this we had just reached the road that would take us down to it. Afew minutes later and we would have been on past it.
Holcombe farm which was the place that Ka had found us was just off our route and about 1km away from Painswick and although i wanted to get past Painswick this seemed like the best bet so we went there. We arrived at the farm and the farmer and his wife were lovely and let us camp for free although it was meant to be £5 each. It was just us and a man in a caravan on the field. We were just discussing how we were running low on food and would need to find a shop tomorrow when the man from the caravan came over to say hello. He was really cute and said he was going to Tesco down in Stroud if we wanted a lift. Wow- perfect! We got lots of goodies from tesco including cream cakes!!!
Tonight we were warned by Ka and Scott (H's fiancee) that there was going to be torrential tomorrow so we made sure everything was sorted so if there was a downpour it would all stay dry.
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