Hanley Swan (Malvern)

This is a nice part of the country. We were on a caravan and camping club site so expensive again, on the plain just before the Malvern hills. The hills in the distance lay like a sleeping dragon dominating the skyline. We have decided to walk the Pennine way in summer so this became a trial week. We did 2 consecutive long walks to see if we could, just before we paid the deposit on the walking holiday. Unfortunately the 21 miles walk became 25 as we encountered 3 closed paths. But the good news was that after two days of long walks we still felt like we could do more. Walking the ridge of the dragons back is a splendid if rather cold day out. We cycled into Worcester, the town is nice, lively and well maintained, with an Elgar statue on the precinct. I am not an Elgar fan but some of his tunes are OK. The town has a row of nice Tudor looking buildings worth a wander past, but the cathedral really does leave something to be desired if you are expecting a grand building in nice grounds. Of course all museums, cathedrals etc are still closed. In town I bought lots of socks, different types but all declared as walking socks. I need to find some I am happy with for my 270 mile walk.

One of the things I dislike about the UK is how busy roads are and the fact that the powers that be think that by declaring a road a cycle route is OK. Some of the official cycle routes we followed were fast busy 60 mph roads with no cycle lane.