Stonehouse and Ryeford to North Nibley

From Stonehouse Station we walked past various bits of Wycliffe College, then (now back on the Cotswold Way, briefly on the route we followed last time) we crossed the Stroudwater Canal. There is an optional route from here, along the Stroudwater Canal towards Stroud, then up to Selsey Common, but this is a longer route and time was something we didn't have a great deal of today, so we followed the main route across the A419, past the lay-by with the Ryeford Kebab van (where we parked last time) and past the impressive Stanley Mill.

We turned left onto a grassy track, above the houses of King's Stanley. I'd expected this section to feel quite urban but it didn't and it was also warmer than I'd expected; we were soon walking in short sleeves. Rather than going along the road through Middleyard, the path now takes a path around the edge, to emerge by the "severely classical" Baptist Church. We took a track out of Middleyard and climbed and climbed, with views opening up behind us, and we eventually reached Penn Wood.

We followed the escarpment edge through the delightful woods, then descended slightly, then climbed again to Stanley Wood, complete with aconites and bluebells. We met a group of young boys who asked if we knew where "Gipsy Lane" was - amazingly, Richard did; we'd passed a steeply descending track, with wooden barriers, presumably to keep motor vehicles off the path, and the track (leading back to King's Stanley) is Gipsy Lane.

We reached the mound of Nympsfield Long Barrow and continued across the busy strip of grassland to Coaley Peak, with lots of picnic benches and lots of people - and a splendid view along the escarpment towards the Tyndale Monument (just past North Nibley) and - nearer to us - the outlier of Cam Long Down. It was here that I realised for the first time that the walk between here and today's destination would involve substantial descent, ascent, descent and ascent We stopped for a rest, a snack, and some people watching.

After leaving the viewpoint, the path took us through a pretty "jungly" wooded section through disused quarries, then we crossed a road and continued through woodland. Eventually we turned right and descended steeply though the trees, with Cam Long Down now in front of us and another hill (Downham Hill) to our left.

We passed Hodgecombe Farm, complete with black sheep and lambs, then climbed very steeply...There is a perfectly decent path around the edge of Cam Long Down, but actually the climb was worth it, for the views from the summit and the sense of having done the walk properly.

We emerged onto the summit by way of a zig-zag through bluebells, just behind a family who had been ahead of us as we'd climbed. The summit was indeed rough downland, with excellent views in all directions, though it was difficult to photograph down to Dursley with the Tyndale Monument beyond because the Sun was in the wrong place. We descended more gradually, past more bluebells and - thankfully - we didn't have to ascend the next summit of Peaked Down. Instead we continued to descend gradually across pastures, eventually reaching the rather grand house of Chestal and then on down to Dursley.

Dursley is an attractive enough little town and, yes, the Dursley Family in "Harry Potter" are named after the town; J.K. Rowling was born in nearby Yate. If we had chosen to stop for something to eat (a possibility that we'd considered) we'd have had a good choice of take-aways and pubs in Dursley, but neither of us were feeling hungry, so after stopping near the 18th Century pillared Market House to check the right route through the town, we headed past the bus station and the Old Spot Pub and steeply uphill. I was now feeling rather tired so didn't particularly enjoy yet another climb, but there were lovely views back down to Dursley.

The climb continued on a path through woodland and eventually we emerged onto the Dursley Golf Course. The Cotswold Way has a choice of routes at this point - the longer one follows the edge of the escarpment on a convoluted path around the golf course; the shorter route (2.5 miles shorter) goes straight across. Helen and Tom took the longer route when walking the Cotswold Way and warned us off it (with a comment that this route was designed "to irritate both golf players and walkers by keeping the two in close proximity for as long as possible") and today's walk was already challenging enough in the time we had available.

Straight across we went!

We descended though trees, eventually managing to see through them to the promised view of the Severn bridges. We reached undulating farmland, and the Tyndale Monument, came into view, with the village of North Nibley nestling beneath it. At the western end of the village we could see the Church and Nibley House, today's destination. We continued to walk towards the village and about half a mile short of it, Richard's mobile phone rang. It was the owner of Nibley House, asking how long we would be, because they were going out (note: this is a rare event - mother and son were going to a Ladies' night at the Mason's Lodge).

Richard assured them that we'd be there in 10 minutes, which we were, though this necessitated making my legs walk faster than they really wanted to!

Thus is was that we ended up having the run of Nibley House to ourselves. After recovering in our elegant room, we sauntered down to The Black Horse for a meal. The icing on the cake, after a wonderful day of walking, was a good selection of ciders at the pub!

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