After a few days rest, and picking up a hired campervan at Glossop, we set out to join the route again at Gloucester. We’d spent our first night in the smart red campervan that Bob has named Bambo (rather than Bambi) at Alton. Setting off from their on Day 32 we had a three hour drive to Gloucester.
First we needed to drop the Picanto at the end point of the walk so I would be able to pick it up later. This was the Red Lion Wainlode Hill. Hannah and I had camped there on her End to End 7 years ago.
Bob then dropped me at the toilet block in the car park in Gloucester we’d last seen in the rain on Thursday. It was about 1.30 pm which was later than we would have liked.
I bought a sandwich and set off on the Severn Way again. It was quite near the river level and rather overgrown with nettles already, with fallen trees as an extra hazard, which made progress rather slow.
I took the road through the village of Sandhurst, with a stop at St Lawrence’s church. At the end of the road a farmer in a tractor encouraged me onto the track to Sandhurst Hill, with the promise of a seat at the top and ‘the best view in Gloucestershire ‘.
From that seat I could see back to Gloucester Cathedral. After that it was more or less downhill to the Red Lion where the car was parked.
Bob had taken Bambo onto the next campsite at Blackmore End. I drove there via two small Worcestershire wildlife sites. I was trying to find some orchids I’d read about. After we’d had some our meal, Bob and I went back to look for them as it was only 10 minutes from the campsite, and had a glorious evening enjoying the spread or orchids across the meadows.
Consider the Lillies of the field,
They don’t work by spinning or weaving,
But nothing is better dressed than these flowers.
May we be ever mindful of the vital importance of each species,
Each one an irreplaceable part of the complexity of the cosmos:
As we look around us, we need to heed the warnings to change our behaviours.
For each earwig, shield bug, field mouse,
We give thanks.
In each orchid filled meadow or cowslip lined cutting, we stand in awe, lapping up the evening light.
God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.
JAL 07.05.2019
Day 32 of the End to End: from Gloucester to Red Lion Wainlode Hill.