1/6/2019 - walking from Stanton to Snowshill and the Edge (circular walk)

Well, the walk notes did say that it was the hardest in the series , but we found the climb on this one a bit difficult.

I for one had legs still crying out "help" after the climb above Bath a couple of days ago, and they were seriously unhappy about a steep climb rising out of Stanton at the start of this walk.
There was about 400m of climb over the 12km of walk.

The map that we downloaded with track notes to help us find our way. 

Our track (as far back as the pub, where we stopped for a long, cold cider on the way back to our car) 

Our first challenge was to find the start of the walk "Towards the top of the village, just down from The Mount Inn".  Amazingly, this was found easily.  On the way we enjoyed the beautiful old stone homes.

This lamp-post was the one we were looking for at the start of our walk. 

These were the signs that we were following along the way (at least for the time we were on the Cotswold Way).  We deviated from the main track to complete our circular walk, as instructed.

 The paths were varied and attractive.  sometimes wide and sometimes narrow.

We met quite a few horses on the way.

 We went through some lovely wooded areas.

This was the view of Snowshill as we approached, leaving the woods and heading across fields.

The church

One of the many kissing gates (again well used and enjoyed)

This horse was pretending to be a zebra, but he didn't fool us.

one of the common flowers along the path today. 

on one section of the walk someone had bothered to place a rock on each fence post (every metre or so) for quite a long distance.  

We wondered if these lumps of dirt were mole hills? 

rewarding views all the way to Wales towards the end of the walk. 

I loved the name of this walking path (which way does this go??)... Wyche Way....

The cider at the end was well earned, and we headed home to rest, drink tea, read and listen to the Aussies playing Afghanistan in the cricket.