Snowshill, Stanway, Stanton circular, 8 miles

Before this walk had even begun, we were lucky enough to spot a buzzard in a field not far from the car. We passed it, stopped, reversed and it flew off, only to circle round and pose on a post in front of the car. We approached it slowly and it looked right into the car and only took to the wing when we were three or four metres away. None of us had ever seen one so close-up before and I was struck by how colourful it seemed close-up. Obviously, when in flight they're generally seen against a bright sky which contrasts their feathers heavily, but my goodness he was pretty, his eyes were bright and true and his beak curved and strong.

We parked in the free car park at Snowshill which is, by no small statement, one of the most beautiful villages I've ever been through. Striking Cotswold stone, no street signs or lamps, traditional house-name plates, well-kept gardens and a gorgeous church on a hill in the square in the middle of the village surrounded by houses. I'll be going back there again. Very soon after we left the village we were greeted by a very gregarious tit - marsh or willow we couldn't say - but it sat in a bush and jabbered sweet whistles until we carried on. A robin treated us to a similar display a few minutes later.

Much of the first two kilometres was steadily uphill, reaching a walk peak of 300m before heading down through Lidcombe and Longpark woods on a stony track cut into the hillside, past a hydraulic ram making wonderful rhythms and pumping bright, sparkling freshwater over stones tinged turquoise-blue with natural copper. I took one such stone for my collection. The amount of water running off this hillside surprised me, but in retrospect we'd had a fair amount of rain over the preceding few weeks.

Along the road to Stanway with its stunning Manor House and interesting wall sections in the graveyard. Follow the contours with slight ups and downs all the way to Stanton and through the village which, I think, was nice but unremarkable as I can't really remember too much about it. Here began a steady climb from 105m to 200m, then a brief rest, then a long, steep, non-stop slogging climb up to 300m and the settlement at the top for lunch. This was the longest and most challenging hill I've done since the cliff walk last summer and I hope to do many more like it this year. I only questioned my sanity once during the ascent which, compared to the cliff walk, isn't anywhere near enough for me to consider it "hard".

We extended this walk north a kilometre then east and south and east back to the car park. The final section was another long-down followed by a long-up although less challenging than the earlier climb. All in all, a bloody brilliant walk with hardly any flat and a good, humming buzz to carry into the week.