Walking: three days in the Cotswolds

We're off to Scotland again at the end of August, heading back to Fort William to pick up where we left off at the end of the West Highland Way and walk the Great Glen Way to Inverness. In preparation for this (and also because we enjoy it anyway) we've been upping our walking distances, and a few weeks ago we also started talking about the possibility of doing a two-day walk with a night in a B&B to help us get back into the habit of doing long walks on consecutive days. At first the plan was to do a two-day walk, getting the train to Moreton-in-Marsh and walking to Charlbury via an overnight stop in Bourton-on-the-Water, but then we looked more closely at the map and measured distances with a bit of string and realised that it would be perfectly possible to walk home from Charlbury in a day via the Oxfordshire Way and the Oxford Canal towpath, so we extended it to a three-day walk. Unlike our normal multi-day walks, for this one we carried everything with us, but it's not as if three days of walking in high summer require that much in the way of luggage (pyjamas, two spare tops, two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, deodorant, toothbrush) and although I'm still wondering if my new 30l daypack is slightly too big for a day's walking it was the perfect size for a three-day walk, with enough space to add in my walking sandals so I didn't have to spend the evenings in boots.

( Day 1: Moreton-in-Marsh to Bourton-on-the-Water via Stow-on-the-Wold )

( Day 2: Bourton-on-the-Water to Charlbury )

( Day 3: Charlbury to Kidlington )

Generally, this was a really nice walk along well-maintained and well-signposted paths. It was a great way to relax and unwind after another busy term at work, and it was fun to go away with such minimal luggage and not have to make any decisions at all about what to wear. It also demonstrated that, lovely as Scotland is, it's not always necessary to travel a long way to find adventure or get away from things; Moreton-in-Marsh is only a couple of hours away by public transport, even with the rail replacement bus, and only 20 miles from us by road, and yet we managed a fabulous three days of meandering gently back home and might have been hundreds of miles away for all the thought we gave to home, work and normal life.