Knee Brace and I had a Disagreement

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Day 2 Hiking.

Friday, July 18.

White Hart Inn, Winchcombe to Tibbiwell Lodge, Painswick.

36,870 Steps, 15.33 Miles, 9 hours.

”You will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” Mark Twain

Local bakery near the hotel sold me a Cornish pastie which was carried until lunch.

Belas Knap, a Neolithic Long Barrow. Excavated in 1863/1866 has a false entrance and side chambers. Remains of 31 people discovered. Barrow has since been restored.

Arial view off internet.

Upon arrival at left corner I was the only alive person in the enclosure. Used the opportunity to switch shoe inserts and remove knee brace as it was difficult climbing the mountain with it on. Stowed brace on top of pack on outside.

Upon trying to leave the ancient site I became confused about which direction to head off. Tried a path for a couple blocks and was not sure it was correct as there had been no Acorn or round tag with arrow saying Cotswolds Way. Finally returned to monument and began going back the way I had come up from. Met a friendly local man walking with a friend from Holland. He pulled out his phone and quickly confirmed that path I had started down was right.

Learned he actually knew where Wisconsin was as he had worked at/in Kohler as the UK representative. Next summer he will be going to the Oshkosh air show to photograph it for four days with a friend.

After the confusing day of walking yesterday I had written up a list of the main places being passed today, so if I got waylaid by foreign women hikers I shall not follow them.

Todays list: Sudley Estate, Belas Knap, Breakhead Plantation, Potlip Hall, Cleeve Commons, Cleeve Golf Course spread all over the hill top and sides - (Cleeve Hill is the highest on the Cotswold Way), Bill Smylies Butterfly Reserve, descend down to Dowdeswell where a taxi will collect me to be delivered to tonight’s bed and they will collect in the morning and take me back to where I left off tomorrow.

While sitting at a table outside a barn (had to maneuver many pastures of horses, cows, and sheep), and taking a break a man came striding up from the opposite direction. We fell in to chatting. He lives near Oxford in a 400 year old home and comes out and takes hikes. He drives for about 60 minutes from his home, parks car, and figures out a circular route that often includes a pub in the middle and certainly one at the end. We started more talking about what I was doing, what went wrong yesterday. Showed him my notes for the day and he started laughing when he saw my entry for Bill Smylie’s Butterfly Reserve. Said it was his family’s. He pulled out his membership card and I took Dave’s photo.

We talked about what we did when not hiking and learned he paints watercolors of deer which he showed a couple images - cringe. I showed him a couple of mine and he actually bowed and said he felt honored - silly man. Parted ways never to see again.

Lunch stop was at the Cleeve Golf Club House.


Shoes and socks came off to air toes. When I took the pack off to retrieve the Cornish Pastie I realized the knee brace was AWOL. Must have come off in the last 3-4 miles. That brace and I had been having some serious attachment issues and the brace seems to have made the decision to escape. I might not have been been happy with it, but it might be needed. Still have a set of elastic ones from Walgreens.

From top of Cleeve Common the view was off to the west and the bridge linking Wales to England could be seen as were the Black Mountains which I hiked in 2019.

Trig Point.

The Butterfly Reserve was interesting but not many fluttering about while passing through.

Taxi pickup was scheduled 5 pm. No time to repeat the mileage to find the AWOL knee brace. As it was the last 2.5 miles were done as fast as I could, and with no brace. Everything took a pounding. Arrived at designated location and the vehicle pulled in right after.

Taxi driver was from Bulgaria and has been here 10 years. The vehicle was a Jaguar. He drove like we were on a race track, but then all the other cars did exactly the same.

Viktor from Bulgaria.

Tonights B&B hostess is from Romania and just returned from spending 2 weeks with family.

Rethinking tomorrow’s hike.

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