Monarch's Way Walk 2022

The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, as we set off from Hawkesbury Upton for the 15th leg of our walk.  Lily was wearing her elegant Swamp Cooler vest to keep her cool as the temperature was predicted to rise to 20 C.  Di and Rod, Deborah and Lily the dog were joined by Ceris, Melanie, Jacky and Katharine (all repeat walkers having caught the Monarch's Way bug themselves!) We joined the Cotswold Way for a lot of this walk, so the route was familiar. We walked past the drovers' pool and up an stony old drovers' lane, through lush fields of wheat and oil seed rape. We followed the drovers' lane through fields for some time. There were beautiful views on both sides of us. To the West we could see the Severn Bridge and over into Wales - reminding us how far we have come on our walk from Stratford-upon-Avon to Bristol. To the East we could see over to the hills of the Ridgeway. Eventually we  reached a road, and immediately turned into some lovely shaded woods full of

Eight walkers plus Lily the dog had been watching the weather forecast very carefully in the days before the walk. We were promised a warm, dry, sunny day, but this seemed unlikely as we gathered at Leighterton, in rather overcast conditions. The carefully worked out transport logistics were thrown into confusion at the start of the walk, because we hadn't realised that the Badminton Horse Trials were taking place just down the road, and the traffic was very heavy.  Eventually, we were all assembled at Leighterton, the sun came out, and we set off.  After about a mile along a lane, we passed the very handsome Boxwell Court. It is reputed that Charles II stayed the night here on his flight to France, although the King’s own account does not support this; we do know that the owners of the house at the time strongly supported the Royalist cause. We all agreed this walk was the best for scenery so far this year; we were soon treated to lovely views across Ozleworth Bottom, a deep but