Yep, I'm now settled at my brothers gaff in Sheffield for a few days!

But more of that in a minute. Monday was to be a walking day with our visitor, the forecast looked good, plans were made and we set off on a sort of sightseeing route across the south Cotswolds. Up through Tetbury and Cirencester we went, past prehistoric features, forests and Royal homes until we reached our destination, well almost! We were headed for a chambered tomb, Belas Knap which sits on a hilltop high above Winchcombe, a stiff half mile uphill from the nearest parking. An hour later we were back, first stop of the day completed and a new site added to my palmares!.

The next stop was to be a Roman Villa some ten miles south but on arrival it was closed for some reason which was a bit of a spanner in the schedule. We pressed on instead to Stroud where we had a short walk and a very enjoyable lunch. My plans hadn't been firm from this point, but i knew of several stops we could make as we headed back towards Brizzle, the first barely five miles away, Nymphsfield chambered tomb. Bit of a theme here, we enjoyed the views across the Severn and watched the lightning lacing down into the Forest of Dean. That could only mean one thing and sure enough to the south a band of liquid sunshine was approaching our position, we checked out the tomb then returned to the car as the first few spots hit terra firma.

Of course, we had to go for at least a look at the next stop, Hetty Pegler's Tump, an almost intact chambered tomb barely a mile further south. We almost reached the mound before the damp arrived, fortunately you can crawl inside so we ended up sheltering for a few minutes inside the tomb. The wet eased allowing our escape back to the transport without getting drowned and then we were off to what was supposed to be another walk to the Nibley tower.

It was hissing down when we reached it so we pushed on through Wotton and on to the Somerset Tower where we did have the shortest of walks for a slightly closer look at the memoriak tower. Then it was back to base where the rain was doing its thing and i cooked our tea.

Tuesday was forecast quite warm and bright for the journey north, we got an earlier than expected start and with light traffic arrived in GOC somewhat earlier than i expected. me and Foxy were unloaded, tea consumed and Teri set off to complete her journey further into Yorkshireland and home.

And so to today. A damp start delayed me going outside but by late morning the rain had stopped and i headed out for a short, 40ish km that included over 500m of up and reached nearly 300m altitude when i climbed onto the Eastern Edges. I have rides planned but the forecast looks quite dismal for the next few days, hopefully i can get out on two wheels again at the weekend but until then i may be resticted to a bit of more local walking, the budget might just stretch to a bus ride to town, we'll see.

So there we are, my bro is away working into next week so i'm here on my own, not ideal but that's the way it goes.

There won't be any Gaby but i should manage to put up an update at the weekend, but for now,
Ciao,
Madeline Anafrid