Upton St Leonards, Gloucestershire

This walk was lovely but the dogs did have to remain on their leads for much of it due to us all crossing farmland and footpaths. The dogs still loved it and sometimes it is good that they remain on their leads but still have fun.

I googled a dog friendly walk and came across one that was only 10 minutes by car for the start ..... a 5.9 mile circuit around the Gloucestershire countryside - sounded great.

Off we set -me, 4 children and 4 dogs - this time it was Nibs, Sam, Angie and Leo.

They dogs walked well and even the kids behaved, but the map was a little ... pants!

The first field on a public footpath we came to we were met by 2 large horses...have no idea how any of the dogs behave around horses and there is me with all 4 of them on leads. Sally took Leo which made things easier for me. I was pleasantly surprised that none of the dogs were bothered and the horses were not either.

The horses followed us across the field which was a tad unnerving.

















As we fathomed out our way we then had to go through another field - this time full of cows... most of them were laying down but it certainly never looked like rain lol. I was doing fine until Will mentioned that a man had been stampeded by cows in a field while out with his dog recently and he had died .... then I realised that one of the cows was sporting a fine pair of handlebars and not an udder to be seen..... we walked on .... a little faster!





Leo was sounding more and more like a mini motorbike but then started to sound like a small motorbike with a puncture. Sadly his airways are not the widest due to his breed and he was obviously finding the walk really difficult. He had lost his spring. Frank and Will agreed to go back to the car and wait for us (we had walked about a mile and a half by now). We had a rest, dogs drank, the kids ate and I tried to fathom out where the next stile was going to be ... the fact that the directions were obviously old and many of the styles had been replaced by gates was not helping ... I began to wonder if the "pass the white cottage on your left" instruction was going to be of help or if it had been replaced by a tower block!





Angie takes a breather and tries to get her Gencon off




It was thirsty work




Nibs is a tad tired and wishes he had not eated a pack of potato flour and 100ml of olive oil recently.






Then off we went - up hills and down hill, through woods and over stiles... milllions of them in fact.

Look how well all 3 dogs walk together - it was really enjoyable taking them out.






Sally collapsed at the top of the hill (intentionally of course - it's a girl thing lol) and was gutted when I said that she had probably only burned off 200 calroes - her response was "OMG that is not even the packet of supernoodles I had earlier). She is not dieting but helps me with the reading of packages lol




Some of the views - overlooking Gloucester:





Some of the views of people capturing the views:




A lovely walk - we have not done it again since, but having just posted the pictures I think it will be a definite yes again for 2012

That sounds quite a walk! Very brave of you to take it on especially in January.....its a bit far for us to go for a walk, we love Trimpley, Habberley Valley and we have Puxton Marshes to the rear of our house so Hazel is spoilt for choice.