Sunday, September 10, 2006

The Cowley & 'Green Dragon' Walk


Well today our team of walkers were exactly the same as last week, Dave (aka Country Curry Dave,) Liz (aka Doc Leaf Liz,) Ben and his dogs Farley and Sofie and of course myself.
We started from 'The Green Dragon' near Cowley Manor which is in a small village on the outskirts of Cheltenham off the Cirencester road.Leaving at 10 am we were welcomed by brilliant sunshine and light cool winds, again ideal for walking for the second week on a trot.Farley got in to his stride quickly and proceeded to chase every bird in sight, but mainly pheasant, so Ben had to put him on the leash.Sofie is a lot more chilled and slow so she doesn't need one, though she does like to pretend that she is hunting.The tracks were easy to follow as they were very well 'Way-marked' which is not always the case out on a walk in the Cotswolds. We continued up through a wood then hit lots of freshly ploughed & stone walled fields. Before finding ourselves on a narrow road on the way to Elkstone. And being September there are lots of berries on bush's and nuts in trees, so we duly got stuck in to some black berries throughout the walk. That was before stumbling upon some corn, where by 'country curry' picked some and unravel the leaves to take a bite, 'Sweet' was his verdict, so duly again we all got stuck in and had a bite, so much so that I finished it off, Delicious! What a treat! Forward we then went into a small valley then onto Colesbourne and from there up and over the hill passing a small stream for the dogs to drink, The views up there were pretty spectacular so I had to take a panoramic picture for the blog. Then onward in the direction to 'Seven Springs' before cutting back down the hill for yet more berries, and No it wont ruin our lunch because we've now been walking for 3 hours now and are absolutely starving.
So would the food at the 'Green Dragon' be 'Treat' Or 'Tripe' ? The Green Dragon is a quintessential English public house beside a quite but fairly steep road, so you'll need to watch out if crossing after having too many beers as the cars can speed up in order to reach the top. Inside it is a very clean and tidy place with beautiful exposed beams and a massive fireplace, so I'll have to check it out in winter. For lunch I had marinated lamb on a bed of spring onion mash and veg. Though the lamb was slightly over cook (I like mine pink) it didn't detracted from the taste which exploded in the mouth and went down all too quickly. It is a bit more pricey than the Woolpack last week, you can expect to pay around 12 to 16 pounds for a main course. But it was defiantly 'Treat'
Dave and Doc Leaf had a burger with bacon and mozzarella both report back with favorable verdicts.
Thats it for now i hope you've enjoyed my second Blog. . . . . . . . . Cheers Carl.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This all looks rather pleasant I have to say. I'm beginning to reform my opinion about you walking types and may even decide to join you at some point in the future (if that's cool of course). I guess the best time for this sort of caper is the summer though eh? Can't imagine it's much fun if it's p-ing down.

Carl said...

You Can joint me anytime mate,
But the best time is just coming up -Autumn
Summer is to bloody hot.

Anonymous said...

Food looks good Fry!

Caley

Anonymous said...

Walk and views looked good hun, I have heard the deserts at the Green Dragon are excellent - did you manage to eat one.

lol kxx

Anonymous said...

Another good report Carl - I particularly like the 'bush-tucker' episodes. Be careful what you eat for 'tis almost shroom season! NRM