LOWER SLAUGHTER TO WINCHCOMBE – 14 MILES / 7 HOURS

After a typical English breakfast at The Slaughter’s Country Inn, we began the trip’s first major hike in a light misty rain. Since the day before we had hiked down to Bourton-on-the-Water on Monarch’s Way (the first segment of the scheduled route), we took a shortcut on Macmillan Way, joining the proposed Windrush Way about a half mile west of Bourton-on-the-Water, saving ourselves a few extra miles. Using our GPS app we soon found our way through fields of grazing sheep . . . lots of grazing sheep . . . and the timeless, unspoiled classic English villages of Naunton and then Guiting Power, where we had lunch at the only pub in town, the Hollow Bottom. This part of the hike found us walking through farmer’s fields of crops, grazing sheep, or horses waiting for their morning riders.