Flashback Friday Travel Photo Memories 26 – Cotswolds Cycling and Camping

May is a great month for getting away for a long weekend as in the UK we have 2 bank holiday weekends in May, hot of the back of the 4-day Easter weekend! In 2010 with a group of friends we visited the Cotswolds – it was a great location as it is pretty central UK and is very pretty!  We all have tents and so we thought we’d camp and see the Cotswolds cycling. I wouldn’t say that we had all the kit for camping, but since the trip Mr P is slowly building it up in the garage, this little drip definitely meant he could compare notes and see what the seasoned pros had!

Friday started with warm and sunny weather – we stopped for lunch on the way past Newbury and had a rather leisurely half-day off work.  Pitching our tent is easy and before long Mr P was investigating the little stove that my parents had passed on to us (I think they assumed we would dispose of it, not bring it back to life)!!

Setting up camp

As soon as we were all set I of course had my nose straight into a book! You’ll see we really did prepare for all weather – we had picnic rug and seats, but also an umbrella and extra blankets!  All proved to be vital!

Nose in a book as soon as we were set up

It did sadly rain on a few occasions!  The first was on the saturday morning at breakfast time – our whole group traipsed off to Tesco for breakfast (the glamour), not something we’ve done before or since!  The memorable detail is that there were no baked beans left (we wanted beans) and the staff behind the servery didn’t take kindly to our suggestion that we could go and get some beans off the shelf to help….

The next time it had rained we had thankfully just cycled into a village and into this pub garden and so it was there that we stayed (under cover)…..

The weather had its moments!

What did we discover – that it is really easy to lose people even if everyone is following each other.  We came out of Waitrose after getting a picnic lunch and Mr P for some reason didn’t follow us!  It then took most of the morning to re-locate him as his mobile phone died…  Fortunately the lakes in the Cotswolds are clearly numbered (who knew), but of course our map didn’t have the numbers on it… We also learnt that not all sailing clubs are as friendly as they should be.  We arrived at one to watch the sailing (normally a nice spot for reciprocal membership rights and a drink by the water) and the locals clearly thought we were unsavoury characters, despite the fact that we were all decked out in professional sailing event tops… The cotswolds isn’t all flat, but that it is all beautiful!

Lovely flat cycle ways around the water park

Gorgeous countryside

When we weren’t hiding out in Tesco, trying to find missing members of the gang or trundling along in our bicycles we managed to fit in 2 BBQs at the campsite (wrapped warmly – May is nice in the daytime but baltic at night) and also completely by chance discover a gastro pub just minutes by bike from our camp! The Bathurst Arms was a great discovery and we had a real feast (before having to retreat back to the ‘warmth’ of our tents)!

Chilly in the evenings!

A great weekend!  Simple trips away with friends are fantastic fun and ladies, I think something like this is well overdue (although perhaps in a cottage now we are a little older and wiser!!)