After a comfortable night in our fancy hotel & a tasty breakfast, we started the day by attending the morning eucharist at Wells cathedral and buying sandwiches cafe Nero, one of the few places open on a Sunday.

Our walk today was now the West Mendips Way and as we were in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we were treated to some good views.

The path climbed up to Arthur’s Point which had a nice view, but nothing on the views later in the day. After wandering through the curiously named Wookey Hole, we climb up lots and lots of steps to the top of Ebbor Gorge. We rewarded ourselves with coffee & some flapjack we’d bought at the Flapjackery in Wells while admiring the view.

Next we headed to Priddy and we enjoyed looking at the campsite. The pub also looked interesting with beach hut ‘palaces’ in the garden, but pressed on and had our lunch in a field about 3km after.

We should have held off for our lunch because after the summit above Stoke Woods opened up to the most amazing view of the Mendips to the sea & even to Minehead & Cardiff.

We took the option to walk along the hillside through Draycott Sleights Nature Reserve (rather than descend down to Draycott). This was a good choice because as well as avoiding another ascent we enjoyed some of the best views on the route so far.

After a tea break overlooking Cheddar, we descended down into the town and found the Youth Hostel we were staying in.

For dinner we enjoyed a delicious meal at Zen Thai. We are a bit sore but we still took a stroll to see the touristy bits of Cheddar which is spectacularly nestled in a very steep gorge.

Today was about 11.5 miles. Tomorrow should be shorter, but promises to be a hard day with more steep ascents!

R & L