Day 9, Saturday, September 9th: Heat Dome

The local church bells rang 12x at exactly the stroke of midnight. Then again at 03:00 and 08:00. Beautiful sunny morning. Pigeons have been cooing since the sun came up. We are in a pretty quiet neighbourhood and not much traffic early in the morning. Funny that the wooden stairs squeak when going up or down in our place--there is one particularly loud floor board third from the top. Pretty sticky from the heat yesterday, but eventually the upstairs bedrooms cooled down during the night. Before 09:00 it is already 21 degrees and the predicted high will be 29 degrees with 0% chance of rain. Quite the contrast with our weather experience in Iceland. Plus, no winds here. We haven't figured out our walking plan yet today, but we have many options! 

Breakfast of assorted fruit and for Lana yogurt, fruit and some toast. We seal up our place by closing all blinds and windows. Our decision for today's walk is Broadway, Tower, Snowshill and Stanton Circular estimated at 15 kms and four hours duration. Lana is using an All Trails app recommended by her friend Cheryl. We are bringing the last of our German pretzels for snacking and cutting up some carrots for a snack if needed. Hoping to leave around 10:10 and high probability we have lunch in a town somewhere along our circular route.

Lana's Yoghurt purchased at the Co-Op yesterday. Bonne Maman is known for its delicious jam--but here they make yogurt in containers that look similar to their jam jars! Very good yogurt!!

This is our Circular walking Trail app called "Hike at Broadway, Tower, Snowshill and Stanton Circular"

We begin our walk by heading the very short distance to the War Memorial on High Road (main road through Broadway) and turning right heading towards Broadway Tower. It is very hot already at around 25 degrees and during the afternoon it will reach 30 degrees! The first part of the walk is walking uphill on grassy surfaces on farmer's pastures. Pretty easy walking trail. What makes it more difficult is the steepness of the slope and the heat. There are many fellow hikers heading both up and down the hill. Younger people and older people. Hikers/walkers from America and Canada for certain. 

This is an example of a "kissing gate"."The gate consists of a small enclosure - usually semi-circular, square or V-shaped - on one side and a hinged gate that swings between two shutting posts. Kissing Gates are so called because the gate merely 'kisses' (touches) the enclosure either side, rather than needing to be securely latched". These kissing gates are all latched and are very common on our Cotswold hike. Mainly due to keeping the sheep within the various pastures.

Common signs found during the hike to keep you on the right track as it is easy to get lost in some places. 

Lana walking up the steep hill towards Broadway Tower. She brings her umbrella to keep the sun away and try to stay cooler. Plus, good for avoiding the sun on your skin. When Lana wasn't hiking she was picking and eating wild blackberries growing beside the trails!

Views during the initial hike up the 2.5 km hill to Broadway Tower. Expansive valley below and you can really see the amount of smog present. 

This is the iconic Broadway Tower at the top of a major hill in the Cotswolds. It houses a nuclear bunker and museum. I didn't see any visitors or hikers enter. Not sure if I want to visit a nuclear bunker as it brings back nightmares for me growing up during the Cold War and having Air Raid Siren practices...   

Picture from a higher angle inclusive of the British flag. Jolly good!

One segment of our hike between Broadway Tower and Snowshill town. Walking on the road and trying to ensure the cars can see us. Beautiful tree lined street that kept us cool in the shade!

Damn it! Which way to go? Oh yeah, we are headed for Snowshill. All these towns are in the Cotswolds. 

Pretty cute sign although they have a point as there are sheep in many of the pastures. BTW, that is 30 miles per hour --- not 30 km/hour as in Canada. 

We dropped down in elevation to get to the very small town of Snowshill. We decided to stop, sit at a bench and eat our snacks. We demolished the remaining German pretzels and almost finished the carrot sticks. We had walked for about two hours and 7+ kms. Lots of cyclists zipping through the village. Public toilets available as well. It was a good resting spot in the shade as we had a long way yet to go. 

To us this looks like the perfect English manor home you see in the movies. The "Ashwood House" is just outside of Snowshill. Almost all the homes along the way whether big or small have titles. For a Canadian this would be seen as pretentious, but for the English this is just part of their cultural heritage. 

We were on a very long descent between pastures and shaded by many trees. Very narrow path. We came upon the town of Stanton and decided to stop in for lunch rather than venture further and look what else was available.  Good call because this was the one only pub in this very small town. We were hungry and thirsty so time to stop and have a later lunch around 13:30. The houses in the town were built in the 16th and 17 centuries. Wow! Sitting under our gazebo was a couple from Florida, but originally from Illinois. They were walkers as well, but due to the fellow's knee problems they were waiting on a taxi to take them back to their base. It was another great rest stop. We had a good chat. 

The very friendly and competent bartender at "The Mount Inn" located in the very small town of Stanton (population 150). He poured us our pint of Mortimer's Cider (fizzy). We indicated we needed to drink our cider with ice so he provided two separate smaller glasses with ice cubes and did a pour into each glass.All the cider like the beer is on tap in the pub. 

Online pic of The Mount Inn. 

We ordered the Cured Meat Platter for our table 410. Our table was under the Gazebo so out of the sunshine. Platter consisted of two very large buns, sliced up proscuitto, spicy salami, salami, hummus, olives, sun dried tomatoes, capers, two types of chilli peppers, cornichons and quince jam. It was filling and delicious. 

Path after leaving Stanton. Pretty narrow as you can see. 

On this part of the walk we came across many of these gates where you needed to step over and then down some steps. Lana didn't like these step over things--she says it just another situation where she can trip and fall over!!

Lana went online to find the names of these bright red tomato looking plants. Not tomatoes at all so good thing she didn't try to eat some. 

This is what my Garmin watch produces for the stats of our hike today. What I like about this is it shows each kilometre. My stats showed: 15.94 kms, 5 hours, 376 metres elevation gain and around 25,000 steps. 

During our hike and especially towards the end when we were walking on very narrow trails in the middle of the forest we were stung by stinging nettles plants. It really does sting the skin and there is residual pain for quite some time afterwards. After we left the very popular Broadway Tower and walking east we did not come across many fellow walkers/hikers. For about the last three to four kilometres Lana is really suffering with the heat. I don't blame her as it is stifling hot especially when you are not walking in the shade. Towards the end of the hike there was a fair amount of inclines as well. That just makes it harder mentally and physically. 

On our return Lana had a very cold shower to reduce her body temperature. Then opened one of the ciders we bought yesterday that was nice and cold in our small fridge. Plus, we had some ice cubes. Delicious and refreshing! Our own Happy Hour. I had my cold then warm shower and felt much better. 

Lana had a couple of naps while I tried to load our photos via Google Photos as my usual system of drag and drop from the email wasn't working. We decided around19:00 it was time to get some dinner. On our walk around town yesterday we noticed this pub and wanted to give it a try. A bit of a walk to the opposite end of the High Street to the Horse & Hound Pub. It was pretty deserted although there was an international football match between England and Ukraine. We ordered our meal and drinks at the counter and eventually decided to dine inside. Meal was just OK. 

Selection of Gins behind the bar caught Lana's eye immediately. 

Lana's order of a Pineapple Gin & Tonic and Randy's apple cider (fizzy of course). Yes, I asked for a glass of ice as well. 

Lana's order of Fish & Chips and peas. 

Randy's order of a beef burger with fries. It was an OK burger and the fries were decent. They did not provide a bottle of Ketchup, but used packets of ketchup. 

Lana here--for a brief word about english "chips" versus french fries. I didn't think there was a difference except the British call theirs chips (which is what we call potato chips = chips) but last night at dinner I noticed on the menu a snack option for either a basket or chips or a basket of fries. Made me stop and think--then when our meals arrived I had an aha moment. You can see from my plate of fish and chips, that the pieces of potato are larger cut (like wedges) and have no potato skin on them. They have a similar taste to french fries but because they are larger, there have more fluffy potato texture and possibly may need to cooked twice in order to ensure the inside is properly cooked through. French fries are longer, thinner and come with the skin on. So in North America, when we order classic fish and chips, we really don't get true "chips" but rather french fries. But somehow "fish and french fries" doesn't have the same ring to it does it? 

The walk back to our Airbnb place was perfect weather as the sun was setting and it was not so hot. Our total steps were a little more than 27,000 so another good day of walking. Given the sheer heat that was not forecast before we left we find we are short on lighter clothing. Plus, apparently the weather in London is extremely hot so we may need to purchase some lighter clothes.