Cotswold Way - Days 1 & 2

 Day 1

I slept badly last night. Nerves kept me up. I had planned to take the 6.56 train but lay in for a bit deciding to take the next train which was due to leave an hour later. My anxiety was high and my stomach was twisting. After ablutions, I had a breakfast of porridge and left at 7.35. Just a few minutes into our ride to the station, I realised I had forgotten my poles behind and went back to pick it up. As I bid Ramu goodbye, I asked him if I would be alright. You have done it 6 or 7 times already, you will be fine, he said. I had to dash to catch my connecting train to Moreton-in-Marsh. A few minutes after I arrived, I boarded the bus to Chipping Campden. 

The card machine on the bus was not working, so I rode free. Loads of roadworks and diversions meant it was almost 45 minutes before I arrived at my destination for the start of this adventure. A quick ask around and I found the starting point. A circular plaque placed on the foot of the market hall with a line of poetry by TS Elliot would mark the beginning of a 102 mile journey on foot. It was a gentle walk, some easy climbs and some gentle slopes past a tower and some fields. Blue skies and stunning autumnal colours all the way. Stopped for soup and bread lunch at a pub in pretty Cotswold village of Broadway with some questionable items on the menu (local faggots?). Fell into conversation with Helen - a 50-something woman with a campervan who drives to a campsite by herself every other weekend, takes photos of insects (dragonfly is a favourite) and tries to identify them without the help of Google but using her big book of insects instead. Postcard pretty countryside. Found the Vine B&B. My room has a shower in the room but the loo is in the corridor. Had tea on arrival and porridge for dinner later. Hit the sack early.

Day 2 

Met an American family of five - husband, wife and 3 daughters - from Oklahoma at breakfast which was not served till 8. They homeschooled their kids and led a gadget-free life. We sat chatting with the unmentionable American election looming large in the corner. The cooked breakfast was slow to come and by the time I left it was close to 9 and since the clocks had gone back an hour I wish I had left sooner. As I had come to predict, I began walking the wrong way before correcting myself. Some easy stretches in the morning and then some really steep climbs where I found myself repeatedly lost in fields. Then took a slight detour into an orchard to pick some apples that had fallen on the ground and was held up by a tractor rally. By the time I arrived at Winchcombe I was not hungry at all but for some reason, instead of carrying on walking, I stepped into a pub for a bite. The pie I wanted would take 45 minutes and so I asked for a salad instead. By the time it arrived and I had eaten it, it was 50 minutes since I sat down for lunch. Kicking myself for taking it easy and worried that it would be dark by the time I reached the hotel, I quickened my pace. As I began climbing I saw a man a bit further ahead dawdling. He had neither a bag nor a dog with him which made me queasy. Rather than climb ahead, he was pacing side-to-side which seemed a touch odd. There was no one else in sight and when I saw the man turn around to take notice of me, I instinctively  exaggerated my slowness. As I was on an incline, it wasn't so hard to be slow but sooner or later I would have to pass him, so I made a group call to my family but when it went unanswered, I sent them my live location. In the blink of an eye I did a mental calculation. If he wants my money or phone, I’d hand them over but if he were to assault me, I’d use the sharp ends of my poles to attack him, throw my bag at him and run down to the town I’d just left. He was bigger than me but relieved of the bag, I figured I can still get away quickly.

I recited my favourite line from Hanuman Chalisa* and kept walking. As I passed him, I said my usual hello while trying to keep my voice from shaking. Don’t mind me, he said, I’m injured. I brushed aside my instinct to offer help and quickened my stride to get away as quickly as possible. Once away, I checked to see where he was, he was much further back and quickly receding. Soon I met another lone woman walking the other way and I asked her if she knew if the local area was safe for women. I hope so, she replied and waved me on. I was angry and upset that the lecherous bastards who had molested me as a young woman walking along the streets of India had managed to reach beyond time and space to strike terror at my heart. I reminded myself that the walks I do are in defiance of what we have endured. That they will no longer hold power over me and that I refuse to be a victim of their perversions. As I walked on, it was starting to get dark and I walked through some woodlands, I began making a note of places I could stop and call for a taxi. I passed a B&B and soon I reached a field which warned me that there were horses roaming free. And sure enough, there were two horses by the gate blocking my way. Just as I was wondering where to go next, I turned to see a couple emerge from a path that was descending towards mine and they asked me if I needed help shooing the horse away. The man used my poles to jab the air in front of the horse and after a couple of attempts, they moved away but not very far. The wife told me that they would walk with me across the field but soon realised that they would have to walk past the horses again to get back on their actual trail. 

The man asked if it would be better for me to go with them to my hotel. I only had another half-an-hour's journey left but it was getting dark and I would have to step off the trail to get to my hotel. So I agreed instantly. Julian and his Czech-born wife Anna were spending some time with his mother in the Cotswold. We walked back the way I had just come and we had a wonderful conversation about everything and nothing really and before long we were at their car and they dropped me off at the hotel wishing me a safe rest of the journey. I ordered an Indian take away dinner and fell asleep shortly thereafter. I had just completed a quarter of the journey, what new adventures lay waiting for me?

*tum rakshak kahu ko darna - why fear when you are the protector?