Day 5 Tewkesbury to Gloucester

Reveille 7.30. Breakfast 8.00. Departed 9.55. Arrived 3.55. Distance 12 miles. The late start was due to getting into the launderette at 9am. I got our clothes tumbled dried whilst Ian went and bought lunch and sourced some travel wash from Boots. Tewkesbury is a very nice town in a time warp from the days of the battles between the York and Lancashire houses - war of the roses. The area has suffered badly from flooding in 2007. Today’s walking was pretty uneventful, windy with a few spots of rain. There is hardly anyone around apart from people walking their dogs. We came across two police ladies on the river path sorting out how to recover a transit van with a crane on the back that had been driven into the river. As we left the tow truck turned up along with an irate farmer. We also encountered another footpath deviation due to a mass of fallen tries. We stopped for a sneaky lunch at the Red Lion. I fancied a coffee and Ian wanted a hot chocolate, it was also lunchtime-however every single table and all the fences made it clear we had to eat food purchased on the premises, so it was hoods up, backs to the pub with the rucksacks strategically placed to hide our activities-talk about behaving like naughty school boys. We are staying at a Travel Lodge which is ok, one double and a put you up-all very basic but for £19 a night not bad, but all in breakfast is £7.50 (it’s cheaper at Benji, s on the Earls Court Road!). It is a shame that more of these facilities don't have washing and drying facilities. We had our evening meal at the Tall Ship pub. I went for stir fry vegetable tagliatelle with blue cheese followed by pancakes with cream, golden syrup, pineapple and ice cream - stuffed or what! In the pub they sell a drink called sex on the docks, I asked the barmaid if she'd ever tried sex on the docks, she said yes-but I wasn't sure if she meant the drink? Japanese knot weed is still prevalent everywhere although not as bad as further up river. Tomorrow we venture into the Cotswolds thus moving relative flat walking to a lot of hill climbing-at least it will be constantly changing scenery.