The weather today was, to say the least, unsettled: rain, then drizzle, then clearing, then cold fog, then rain and wind and then sunshine. So when we arrived in Bath we were soaked, both from the rain and our sweaty raincoats, which keep one’s pack dry but don’t necessarily keep one’s self dry. Our route took us through pastures on the heights overlooking Bath. We passed through a Civil War battlefield and two golf courses. Eventually we reached Bath’s suburbs. There the path took us on a circuitous route towards the old city. When we reached Royal Victoria Park, though, the way markers disappeared and our map became useless because it didn’t include any street names, just a vague squiggly line indicating our path. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find the Abbey, the end of the Cotswold Way, but it was. Eventually, armed with a better map, we found our way there. It was somewhat anticlimactic–there were no signs indicating that it was the end of the Way and the Abbey itself was closed to visitors–but that’s not unusual. I remember that I didn’t know I’d reached the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela at first. If the purpose of the journey is getting to the destination, not the destination itself, then arriving has to be somewhat disappointing.
We had a beer in a pub and found our guest house. I watched two episodes of Fawlty Towers on the plane but hadn’t met Basil Fawlty until we arrived here. Well, that’s not entirely fair; one of our hosts regaled us at length about the faults of his neighbours and other drivers and the local council. He was pretty close. Anyway, when we got to our room I sat on the bed and it broke. The slats had been repaired before, poorly, and at least one was missing. I might end up sleeping on the floor.
Now we are tourists rather than walkers (to the extent that there’s a difference). Our muddy walking clothes and boots will go away (after they’ve dried out) until we get home. Our walking sticks will get taken apart and put into our backpacks. There is a guided walking tour of the city and we’re planning to take that, but that’s not the same, is it? We have two days in Bath and then we’re heading for home and until then we’ll see what we can of the city and take a trip out to Stonehenge. But our walk of the Cotswold Way is over and that’s a little sad.