---

“Remind yourself that striving can be more important than arriving.” Marvin J. Ashton

12th Feb

The aim for this walk was 5.5 hours out. #littleDacombe joined me again this week, but we left #dogbeast at home. We picked a new route, working around the Cotswold escarpment anticlockwise and taking in a local landmark, the Tyndale monument, as a mini treat. It’s one of those follies that you can see from the M5 when your passing at night as it lights up. For years, before we moved to this area, I would drive past and wonder what it was. We have been here for some 11 years, so I thought it was high time to have a closer look.

Setting out at 9:30, with fruit, sandwiches and water, we assaulted Stinchcombe Hill head on and descended into the valley, keeping the tower firmly in our sights. The map was easy enough to follow, but it was good to have such a prominent beacon to aim for.

#littleDacombe’s fitness levels are at the level you would expect from someone who can roll out of a 10 mile walk and straight to a dance marathon, but honestly, the bridle path scales a hill which is described on Wiki as ‘quite steep’ and I was a little nervous. I didn’t want to wipe myself out early as I had done on previous treks.

We crossed the road opposite the Black Horse pub and started our second hill of the day, chatting as we went. When the slope levelled out I remember thinking, ‘OK, time for the climb.’

Except we had made it to the top of the escarpment and following the path to turn back on ourselves we were presented with the tower in front of us, golden cross at the top, catching the elusive morning sun.

I am not normally one for self-congratulation, but I was really pleased with the progress I seem to have made over the last 6 weeks. I was breathing hard, no question, but I wasn’t bent completely out of shape. We stopped for some photo’s and then headed back onto the path and struck out for Uley and the Long Down.

It was a couple of hours, but the time flew past. #littleDacombe and I chatted about everything under the sun, stopped for some lunch near a stream and talked to the sheep and pigs that we passed on our way.

There was a real ‘Dad Moment’ when I realised that we were on the wrong side of a fence as I saw the path that we were supposed to be on veer sharply to our left and disappear into some woods, so we spotted a low portion of the fence and decided to hop over. I say ‘hop over’, #littleDacombe hopped over, I confronted the barrier with the grace and poise of a rutting warthog, grabbed a branch to stabilise myself, which inevitably turned out to be dead, grimaced as it snapped off in my hands and tumbled face first into the mud and grime.

Helpfully though, #littleDacombe laughed heartily and skipped away like the elf that she is.

When we got to Uley we treated ourselves to a coffee in the Vestry Café and started the now familiar route home. Retracing our steps (albeit in reverse) from our previous walk together we got home just after 3pm.

Back in the kitchen, I asked whether she was going to another dance marathon, and she told me no, that wasn’t on the cards today. I smiled, and asked what she was up to that evening. My smile faltered when she told me she was going home to clean up and then going on to meet some friends at a local climbing club. To do some actual climbing, up a climbing wall. She continues to amaze me!

“Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn how to pick ourselves up.” Alfred Pennyworth, Batman Begins.