We are seniors in our early 70’s but we are very active and in good health. We are planning a 3 day walk in the Cotswolds starting in Chipping Campden with stops in Stanton , Winchcombe and finishing in Charleton Kings. Our concern is that the walk from Chipping Campden to Stanton is hilly and may be too strenuous for us. Has anyone who has made this walk give us some advice on this leg of our walk?
Posted by
Southern California
377 posts
We walked the full Cotswold Way last summer with our British friends--all of us in our mid to late 60s. As I recall, pretty much every day of the hike had a lot of uphill and downhill, though we did cover a bit more ground each day than you are planning. (For reference we walked Chipping Campden to Wood Stanway on Day 1, ended Day 2 in Cleeve Hill, and Day 3 in Birdlip.) However, since this is your first day out, and it looks like you're planning to cover under 8 miles of relatively flat ground the day after that, you should be fine as long as you train for hills. That was my mistake in preparing for this hike--I could cover a lot of distance, but had not done as much hill climbing as would have been wise. Still, though I vividly recall the hill out of Broadway, it was not a difficult day. I should also add that we used a luggage transfer service (Sherpa Vans), so carried just day packs with food, water, rain gear and trail guides. So we weren't trying to do the hike with full backpacks, which makes a big difference also. If you are used to doing 10 mile hikes, and add some hill training, you should be fine.