Walkers are Welcome

I haven't seen the show, but apparently the zombies in "The Walking Dead" are referred to as Walkers. This provided wonderful mental images when we frequently saw signs around many villages saying "Walkers are Welcome!" Probably not what the chamber of commerce had in mind. But seriously, this was one of my favorite things about the area. Apparently in England there is a "right to wander". So as long as you aren't poking about in people's personal property, you can walk through any field and generally go wherever you wish. This has been encouraged by the establishment of innumerable public bridleways or walking paths. There are stiles and gates providing easy access, and lots of maps published of circular walks. One of the most famous and popular walks is the Cotswold Way, which goes 100 miles from Chipping Campden to Bath. Walkers stand out a bit in their sturdy clothes and boots, and we saw lots of them. It turns out that our B&B is right on the Cotswold Way, and our hosts said that a little over half of their guests are walkers. There are walking tours, and companies that will move your luggage for you, and there are people who do it all on their own. We didn't see anyone carrying camping gear, or the large packs we use for backpacking though. It's very convenient to have all these charming little towns and pubs every couple of miles.

We did a very short circular walk of 4 or 5 miles around Chipping Campden. There were woods, which felt a little like Robin Hood, fields that envisioned Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and some nice views over the town, like we were walking through a Jane Austen movie set. We also thought we were lost a lot, and encountered more mud than we expected. I thought the biggest difference from the movie sets was that most of the walkers we encountered appeared to be retired. I guess the Tess's, Mr. Darcy's, and Little John's of our era are employed in other activities than walking through the countryside. Dang.



If I were to plan another trip to England, I would love to come back to walk the entire Cotswold Way, with another couple days in London, without a baby, cute as he is.