Talking with Strangers Ep. 2

Naturally, Michelle and I do some conscious and unconscious comparing of our walk this year vs last year’s Camino. One big difference this year is the number of local folks we meet on the trail who are using the Cotswold Way for their own recreation. And a beautiful Sunday (our weather has been postcard perfect) was a great motivator.

Say hello to Jackie and Fudge, her brown Irish wolfhound. Jackie came along at a perfect moment of indecision in our route. She’s lived here for years and shared some insight about the many breeds of sheep (Ryeland, Cotswold, and Suffolk), the hedgerows that were intentionally planted to help restore some of the nesting bird life. She quickly set us on the right course.

Further down the trail we met Pat, Maryanne and their border collie Millie. They were the first to speak up - seeing us consulting our phone for directions - “Yes! You’re on the Cotswold Way!”. Come to learn he’s a native Brit but spent most of his career in Canada. They are in retirement and while their ultimate destination is France, the Cotswolds is their very lovely intermediate home. They said we’re getting exceptionally rare, fabulous weather. “It’s definitely not like this in May!” We’ll take it.

And along the way we also met Peter Mullaney from New Hampshire, heading in the opposite S->N. He and Michelle spoke New England / Boston language for a bit.

Then there was Jan from Australia walking the Way solo. We’ve overlapped several times this week so it only seemed right we introduce ourselves.

And now, for our wonderful merchants. Say hello to Nigel, who runs a fabulous organic coffee stand at a popular park area. It so happens it falls exactly on the halfway mark of our full Cotswolds journey. Nigel was a banker who travelled all over the world and finally decided to move into semi retirement- and started this coffee business, and also is an executive coach, so we shared some common threads there too. Amazing coffee by the way.

But the best merchant story of the day and possibly the week, was our arrival at The Bell Inn here in Selsley Common. We had a lovely upper floor room overlooking the valley, and we arrived right on time for Sunday roast…which is definitely a thing here in the UK. Beyond delicious. An afternoon nap was unavoidable but necessary, because later that evening also happens to be trivia night at The Bell! What a complete hoot bc 80% of the questions were all UK based and yes, the Nashville Yanks(our team name) came in dead last. Which prompted me to address the pub with a “Ladies and gentleman, I just want to say that as an American it’s very hard to think clearly these days”. That brought collective roar of approval Al from the room so the night didn’t feel like last place at all.

Wonderful Sunday roast!

Our trivia leader Amanda, and Bell Inn owner Sarah.

And crowd…