A Hill in a village - Cam Peak

It was a warm sunny day, the sky was blue and the clouds were small puffy white candefloses floating high up in the sky, there was almost no summer breeze so there wasn't a break from the heat as the sweat slowly dripped from my forehead; I had travelled to the small peaceful little village of Cam found on the edges of the Cotswold with my mother and the dog Beethoven, it was once home to my great nan but who had sadily passed away a few years before, we still like to make trips here, it was where I have many fond memories of my childhood.

We decided to slowly make our way to St George's Church also known as Upper Cam Church which is where many of my passed relatives are buried, the walk was slow but peaceful, the local boys were joyfully playing a good old fashioned game of cricket and fellow dog walkers were gracefully passing by, after following the quiet main road to the church the front gates emerged as we went round the corner, the tall brownish grey tower of the church towered over us as we went around the side of the grouds, graves as old as the 19th century can be found here from all the local people from the area.

Myself and mother put a small bouquet of flowers next to her plaque, a quietly spoke to her, my mother kneels down and says " there you go, lovely new flowers for you." The serenity of the graveyard brought me at peace with myself, the crows & magpies flew above us from tree to tree and the crocking of the grasshoppers echoed the grounds.

We both decided to take on a challenge which you can find in Cam, I have trekked up it's steep paths many times through my upbringing, the challenge is to make our way up the funny domed shape hill of 'Cam Peak' which is a high grassy hill found on the edge of the village, from the top you have a 360 degrees view of the surrounding lush green countryside of Gloucestshire as well as the River Severn. We were making our way up a slight incline of a hill passing the aged victorian English houses which truly bring beauty to your surroundings, they light brown walls looked gold as the sun shined off the brickwork, the carefully prepared gardens with the perfectly trimmed bushes really gave of an English charm, seeing these exquisite houses truly brings meaning to the famous saying 'an Englishman's home is his castle'.

We couldn't find the entrance of the path to Cam Peak, we were submurged in a forest with a narrow road which doesn't give us much room for passing cars, so we went over to an entrance of a farm where there was a youngish lady in a pubby green slevless coat tending to her horse, "excuse me" I said whilst placing my palm in the air, I hurrily crossed the road even though there was nothing coming, "which is the way to Cam Peak" I asked her with a little confusion in my voice as I had made my way to Cam Peak many times before, "your pratically on it my lad" she replied all churpy with smiles, of course me and mother were totally lost for words at this point, the kind lady pointed us in the right direction "thank you very much" I replied to her hastily making our way to the gate which was only a few metres up the road, we walked through a dry muddy path in the forest past the many bushes of brambles to the edges of the tiny forest.

We were met with a herd of cows all starring in our direction, the dog wasn't quite sure what to make of them, I don't think he has ever seen a cow before especially this close, we slowly walked through the heard trying not to provoke any of them, they followed us around the edges of Cam peak which I thought was strange as cows usually run at high speed to the other side if they see anyone coming, I guess these were true Gloucestshire cows who didn't give a damn who was walking past.

Finally we found ourselves at the bottom of Cam's peak standing in the thick of the long grass looking up the hill to the very top, it doesn't seem much but don't let that catch you out as the hill in some places can be quite steep to walk up, we calmly made our way up the hill, you could here the cows below casually moooing at each other, the view above the tree lines suddenly appeared and it certainly was tremendos, my legs started to slightly ache but the dog was racing up the hill at speed, we were finally high above Cam looking back down at the countryside; England is a beautiful country especially when the sun is shining down on such a pleasant land, the shine of the sun sparkled off the windows of Cam as well as the cars that were passing by, from the top you can not only see Cam but the small town of Dursley as well as Wales in the far distance across the river Severn which shined an almighty blue that day, I felt very happy to be up here the area is just splendid to see, whilst the dog had finally rested we sat down next to the cow pats with a small picnic and just watched as England was passing by below us, a few hot air balloons danced in the sky just to truly finish of this small adventure I shared with my mother.

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