In episode 117 of my weekly blog (read last week’s post), I promised that by the time I wrote this week’s episode, I would have completed the Winchcombe Way. Happily, I can report I did manage to do that – although not quite in the way that I thought I would. I’ll share a little more about that mini adventure in a bit.
It was another four-day week for me thanks to a random day of annual leave I booked for Friday. I am fortunate to get a good chunk of holiday days from my day job to use each year, and for one reason or another, I have a bunch to use up or I risk losing them into the ether in the summer. I must do better at spreading out my leave next year – but I say that every year, because I just can’t really bring myself to use leave up in winter when I don’t feel like going on adventures!
It’s even been warm and sunny. The weather has been very kind indeed over the last week. It has warmed the bones and lifted my mood, and given me morning chores (putting the washing out and watering the plants) which guarantee I get natural light and my bare feet on the ground first thing each morning. It’s been such a gloomy start to the year, I hope this brighter and lighter weather window sticks around for a good while.
Birthday Baking
The most important thing to report in my this weekly blog, is the fact we celebrated my husband’s birthday. I might not put much effort into marking my own, but I do enjoy doing my best to make his feel special. We went out to our favourite local burger place for dinner, ate too much ice cream, and I stocked up the cupboard with good hot chocolate to help him decide exactly what kind of watch he’d like.
One of my major successes was making a birthday cake. I’m not a good baker, I don’t find it relaxing like I know many people do, but I don’t mind making the effort every now and again. I made this “easy caramel cake” I found on BBC Good Food – looks okay, right?! I used (probably more than I was meant to) Tesco finest salted caramel sauce on the top and in the buttercream, and little fudge pieces on the top.
Crucially, I can confirm it was delicious (yes, it’s all gone!). Although, who can possibly get 14 slices out of a two-layer cake baked in 20-inch tins?! I know we have a tendency to cut big slices, but even so, there’s never 14 portions in a cake this size. (Please don’t disagree with me – I know I eat way too much sugar…)
Completing Winchcombe Way
The Winchcombe Way is a 42-mile figure-of-eight long-distance trail centred on Winchcombe. The waymarked trail is designed to show walkers the hidden gems of the northern Cotswolds, and being a figure of eight route from a decent sized place with amenities, it can very easily be split into two 21-mile walks – a western loop and an eastern loop.
Back in April 2021 I went out intending to tackle the route on two consecutive days. But as I mentioned in last week’s weekly blog, I really wasn’t fit or strong enough to do that at the time (this was pre-Coast to Coast and it was likely I was already quite anaemic). Instead, I did the first loop and had every intention of doing the second one a bit later in the summer… Fast forward 25 months and the eastern loop remained un-hiked.
I decided to use Friday – my random day off work – to make good on that promise to myself to complete this thing. A day hiking in the Cotswolds was the perfect way to spend a day.
Not Feeling It
To be honest, on Thursday evening when I was preparing for my day hike, and still on Friday morning when I got up, I wasn’t really feeling the big miles. A combination of being tired, not really eating and drinking well for a day or two, and definitely feeling a bit daunted by the 21-mile day, meant getting up and out took me much longer than it should have. I mean, hiking over 20-miles in one day is a big hike, a really big hike.
I went anyway, intending to walk the full eastern loop, but my head just wasn’t in it. It wasn’t long before I was wondering if I should continue, but stubbornness had me plod along. The trail was gorgeous, the weather bright and warm, and the views wonderful, but my legs were heavy and I found myself feeling more and more intimidated by the enormous route.
About seven miles in I sat on a well-appointed bench to drink my flask of tea and had a look at the map. I spotted a footpath through woodland that I’d walked before that would turn this 21-mile loop into two smaller loops – 15-ish miles and 9-ish miles. I then looked at the weather forecast again to help me make a decision – heavy rain showers were due around 3pm. Done. The eastern loop would become a two-day mission.
Genius Decision
What a stroke of genius that was! From that moment the heaviness in my legs and head as-near-as-vanished, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my day hike. The views seemed nicer, the trail easier, and the task more fun. The rain arrived much earlier than forecast, too, and included a bit of thunder, but that didn’t matter now as I was almost done. I was back in Winchcombe having done 15.5 miles by mid-afternoon.
And the second part of the eastern loop, a 9.5-mile hike through lots of villages from Snowshill – was even better. Honestly, I was such a happy hiker on Saturday morning, everything was perfect; the weather, the trail, the waymarking, and even the mile-long hill I had to climb to link up the route. I mean, right down to the fact that I got up on Saturday morning really excited to get out and hike.
I absolutely could have carried on and hiked all 21-miles on Friday, but the enormity of the challenge, despite 20+ mile days not being an alien concept to me, had enveloped my thinking and took away the enjoyment. Sitting down, drinking tea, studying the map, and making a proactive decision to create two hikes instead, made all the difference.
Life Lesson
I guess the moral of this story, and my life lesson for this weekly blog, is that you don’t have to do big miles to have an amazing time out hiking. And if there can be a second lesson, that changing your plan to match how you feel is never a bad thing. I mean, I knew both of those things – but sometimes I need to be reminded.
My intention (and you know I am full of good intentions…!) is to write a blog post all about my experience hiking the Winchcombe Way in a whopping 25 months, including some information about the route and what it was like to hike it. I hope you enjoy that post when I get to writing it in the next couple of weeks.
In the Mail
Cast Iron Skillet from Petromax
My friends at Whitby and Co, who I’ve been working with for a good few years now (they’re the people behind my Klean Kanteen and Leatherman gear reviews), sent me the most amazing package this week.
I am very excited indeed to extend my cooking skills to include my new Petromax fire skillet. Made from high-quality cast iron, this 30cm skillet is going to be the perfect addition to my garden fire bowl set up this summer. It’s got some real weight to it, is pre-seasoned so I can cook in it straight away, and should be an incredibly versatile addition to my outdoor (and indoor) kitchen.
You can see I’ve been treated to a bunch of other bits from Petromax, too – including the 1-litre enamel milk pot, which for some reason excites me as much as the skillet does! Bring on the campfire-made hot chocolates!
While I’ve been admiring the skillet and am enthusiastic to master its use, I’ve not actually cooked anything in it yet… But I’m intending to have that fixed before I write my next weekly blog (there I go with the good intentions again, it definitely needs to be the title of this weekly blogs episode).
I’m thinking of starting with something very simple like eggy bread (a firm favourite), and then moving onto paella, as it’s something I cook indoors reasonably successfully. I reckon that’s probably my Bank Holiday Monday sorted.
I noticed that Petromax have a bunch of recipe suggestions on their website (they also make amazing looking Dutch ovens), but I’m also after your suggestions – if you have a cast iron skillet and have some great campfire meal ideas, you know where to put them!
See You Next Tuesday!
It’s already 8.30pm on Tuesday evening so while this is a bit of a shorter ramble this time, I’m going to leave this episode of my weekly blog there. Here’s hoping this beautiful warm and sunny weather continues for the rest of this week and over the Bank Holiday weekend so we all find it super easy to spend lots of time outdoors as May comes to a close.
Buy Me a Cuppa?
If you enjoyed this weekly blog episode and fancy supporting me and my mini adventures in 2023, you can “buy me a coffee” (well, tea, if that’s okay). Head over to Ko-fi to find out more. Thank you.
