After we spent most of our Saturday indoors, researching vans, insurances and other exciting things for our big trip next year, we needed to get out. So Janneke did some late night planning and we decided to take a train to Honeybourne in the Cotswolds the next day.

Come Sunday morning, we cycled to Paddington and hopped on a train. Our plan was to make our way from Honeybourne to Moreton-in-Marsh by running and walking along tracks, through fields and along parts of the Cotswolds way and other signposted long distance hiking paths.

On top of the world. *hay bale

Shortly after setting off from Honeybourne station, we found ourselves in a field full of cows. The path went diagonally across the field and roughly half the herd was to our left, the other half to the right. About halfway through the field we realised that we had aroused a fair bit of interest from the cows. At this point we also realised they weren’t actually cows. They were bulls. We were in a field of bulls. It was cold enough to see the steam coming out of their nostrils and some of them were dragging their feet while staring at us. We decided to move around the herd and then make our way along the hedge towards the stile on the other side of the field. Unfortunately, this didn’t go unnoticed, and a number of the bulls decided to move towards us. This drew more attention to us and as we got closer to the stile, more and more bulls joined in and started speeding up in our direction. We hurried the last couple of metres and only just made it over the stile before a good dozen or so randy bulls arrived there too. This was a bit more excitement than we had bargained for.

A bunch of randy bulls cornered us after crossing their field…

On our way up to Broadway Tower.

A selfie with Broadway Tower.

Luckily, the second most exciting thing of the day was bumping into Tom, who I met at the Lakes Sky Ultra. After a brief catch up Janneke and I headed up to Broadway Tower for our lunch break. A couple of Pret sandwiches later we were running down the Cotswolds Way.

Janneke running along the Cotswolds Way.

The second half of the day was a lot easier to navigate (less fields with randy bulls to cross), and therefore more runnable. We were super lucky with the weather too, so didn’t actually need any of our warmer layers during the run (although we were happy we brought them sat on the train and cycling back home later).

Running along the Cotswolds Way.

We ended up doing around 28km so we were quite happy that we had enough time to nip into a shop to buy some snacks before we caught a train from Moreton-in-Marsh just after five and were back home at half past seven. Awesome day!

How did we plan our day?

Google Maps to get an overview, OS maps online at the hug to plan a rough route, National Rail website to plan the train journey.

 

How did we navigate?

On the day, we used the ViewRanger app: it’s got all the paths (although it is missing most fences and some bigger features too) and uses your phone’s GPS to show you where you are. Pretty easy! Pretty awesome! Plus it’s free and works worldwide. The app allows you to download areas so you don’t need a data connection to navigate.

 

How did we get there?

By train. We took a GWR service from London Paddington to Honeybourne in the morning and returned from Moreton-in-Marsh in the afternoon. Super easy.

 

What did we take?

Small backpacks with some warmer layers + a rain coat + some snacks and sandwiches and enough water to get us through the day.