With only 6 miles to cover from Chipping Campden to Buckland, we were in no hurry to depart Chipping Campden. Since the weather forecast that morning prediction showers and slightly lower temperatures than had previously been predicted, we decided to shop for warm gloves and scarves.
Setting out from the church, the walk to Broadway was reasonably pleasant and uneventful, with some interesting sights.
After some beer and soup in the pub in Broadway, we continued in the direction of Buckland. The sign posts had been easy to follow, so we continued through the fields and mud, past sheep and through kissing gates until we passed through one that did not clearly indicate which direction to go after passing through the gate. Should be bear to the left or to the right? We chose right, which turned out to be the wrong way, taking us back to the outskirts of Broadway.
I feel I must take a moment here to congratulate myself for marrying a man who is willing to ask for directions. Knocking on the door of a stone house, it was opened by a retired man with a German accent who was, I kid you not, watching an episode of Hercule Poirot. He pointed us in the right direction, but to satisfy out curiosity we continue a bit further along the path to discover where we'd gone wrong. We should have gone left. Sigh. Our first lesson about the Cotswold Way: the signage is not fool-proof.
We had lost time and put in extra mileage with all this back tracking, but we managed to make it to Buckland while there was still light in the sky. Unfortunately, the address was simply Buckland Manor, Buckland. There were no signs directing us to the manor house. As our luck would have it, along came a couple of residents who pointed uphill, "It's at the end of the drive".
A bit foot sore and back sore, we arrived at what was meant to be our one accommodation splurge while walking the trail: gourmet dinner, four poster room and full English breakfast at an actual manor house. Ever seen the film Gosford Park? It was like that, dialed up a few notches.
The drawing room where we enjoyed cocktails while our dinner was prepared:
The dining room (breakfast the following morning):
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