As we were walking today I took a ‘phone call from a friend who had forgotten we were away adventuring. There we were, crossing a field, somewhere between Tormarton and Dyrham and I’m chatting to my pal in Brighton – it makes you think. Later, as we called in at Dyrham Park (NT) for a spot of lunch, we each checked emails, sent the odd text and reflected again on the mild inconvenience of staying in a village without access to the internet on our final night. It’s easy to take technology for granted. That said, I think it’s probably even easier to be complacent about the magnificence of our own sceptred isle and why I'm do delighted that the trend towards the staycation has been a positive outcome of the economic downturn. It's also what I love about Treasure Trails. Our fundamental mission is to encourage as many people as possible to get out and about, exploring, appreciating all that the UK has to offer whilst enjoying working together, having fun, in the fresh air. If this week has done nothing else then it has at least underscored that there are endless places that we should and could be appreciating more and by writing a Cotswold Way Companion Trail I’m hoping to be able to incorporate some of the Gloucestershire gems that would otherwise probably be missed on a standard Trail. How popular it will be remains to be seen but it's been fun in the creating.
We were rather dragged back to reality today. Suddenly the world reemerged before our very eyes - from narrow lanes, fields and escarpments which had dominated the landscape and our surroundings for the past several days, today we were faced with busy roads. As lorries hurtled past through Old Sodbury, we later crossed the M4 and the noise of the nearby A46 buzzed in our ears for a large part of the day it was apparent that our end goal really was now not that far away. Suddenly the absence of wifi in the remote village of Cold Ashton seemed like a blessing. Even my daughter remarked recently that whilst her iphone had been out of action she had returned to the joys of reading a book but this had only struck her once the said piece of technology was fully functionning again. So anyway, apologies if you missed me.
On Friday evening, I was talking to real people.
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