Day 8 Old Sodbury to Bath

Reveille 7.00. Breakfast 8.00. Departed 9.00. Arrived 6.15. Distance 14 miles. Neither of us slept well due to noisy "A" road right next door to the cottage, this was further compounded by heavy Lorries actually making the beds shake as they went past. Breakfast wasn't that clever either as Ian didn't get an omelette although scrambled egg was managed with funny shaped pieces of toast. The Dog Inn although a convenient place to stay but not on our favourites list- B&Bs are definitely the way to go. Today’s walking was fairly uneventful-just a slow plod with a coffee stop at the Tormartin layby (all quiet here - no action ;-)). Lunch was eaten just outside Dyrham Park a very nice national trust place that Di and I had visited previously with the motor bike club. Lunch was provided by Cath's Kitchens courtesy of the Texaco garage next to the Dog Inn; we thought it would be too much trouble to ask the pub to make a packed meal. Lots of spectacular views, we even saw sheep shearing taking place in an open field. Weather was very sunny becoming overcast later in the afternoon. We climbed a really steep hill outside Bath which reminded us of our Pennine Way hills- luckily there weren't too many of those around. We planned to deviate from the Cotswold Way path to save time and mileage- so map reading became challenging discovering paths that haven’t been used for a while and mostly overgrown. At one point Ian was chased by a cart horse and foal- quite entertaining seeing Ian move quickly :-)) The M4 could be heard for miles around and if it wasn't the M4 making the noise then it was these stupid single engine flying things droning away. At one point we thought they might be drones sent up by the respective wives to check up on us. We came across a flower shop at the end of a very long lane in Cold Ashton-this had a very big wooden seat outside that Ian and I enjoyed a nice cup of tea on courtesy of the flower shop and a nice piece of homemade flapjack as well. Ian has decided that he is going to build his own wooden seat in the same style- I'm just not sure when! We are staying at the Bath YHA tonight - a real come down to what we have been used too- I just feel sorry for the other six people sharing with us, by the time Ian and I have finished snoring our heads off they will have all moved out-good plan! Bath itself is very nice. A lot of work has been done to clean the place up and pedestrianize the area- we managed to grab a Nero's whilst waiting for the number 18 bendy bus to the YHA - up another steep hill! At least they provide an evening meal. We're having homemade quiche followed by fudge cake and custard. Tomorrow we go our separate ways with a planning meeting scheduled for October for the final push to Lands’ End.