The river actually flows North from its source on Cleeve Hill to the confluence with the River Avon in Evesham. There is an urban myth that it is the only river in Britain to flow North for its entire length and some claims that it is only one of two in the world. The truth is rather different I'm afraid. The River Trent flows North from Staffordshire to the Humber. Worldwide, there are many including the Mojave River, U.S., 110 miles, Nile, Northeastern Africa, 4,132 miles, Ob River, Russia, 2,268 miles, Red River, U.S. and Canada, 318 miles, but either way, it's in good company and who cares?

Me being me, I decided for reasons I can't now recall, but may have something to do with the proximity of the Rising Sun pub to the finish and a good place to be picked up at the end. Anyway, early on Bank Holiday Monday, my faithful collie Rosie and I were dropped off on near to the river. Of course, I had to walk to the actual end of it, so crossed the road and walked the 100 metres or so to the Avon, turned around and began the long walk to the source.

Once back across the road, the path enters open fields following the river on our left hand side. Rosie was let off the lead and of course, not knowing how far we had to walk, went completely loonie tunes racing around the field like her tail was on fire. She loves the countryside and is intelligent enough to know that she can run around and explore the new sights and smells to her hearts content, provided she comes back when daddy whistles. Happily walking along, we continued until, via a good bridge, we crossed to the other side for a short while, then back again to emerge onto a small road which is followed a little way, before turning off onto another lane for a brief period.

The footpath appears to go through some houses, but just before that, there is a grassy walkway alongside the end garden. I decided to follow it, partly to get off the road - Rosie is not good on roads and partly because my OS Maps app, left to its own devices, mapped the path as doing just that. From reading other reports, I believe the path does indeed go through someones back garden. A small field, another road crossing and we were back in open countryside again.

I had already noticed some Isbourne Way signs, clearly designed for walkers following the course of the river, but it is mostly obvious anyway. The signs are a welcome confirmation of the correct route.

As previously mentioned, Rosie is not good with roads so I was not looking forward to crossing the very busy A46 which seems to have traffic flowing more or less constantly in both directions, making crossing difficult and with a dog that wants to lie down in the road, frankly terrifying. My plan was to pick her up and carry her over, no mean feat as she is 15kg and car drivers being what they are, would see me as a target rather than an unfortunate dog owner needing at the very least, some sympathy and tolerance. I need not have worried, the thoughtful road planners built an underpass so we were across with the minimum of fuss. Walking through Sedgeberrow itself was easy enough, taking just a few minutes before we entered another field and onwards skirting around a low hill (Blake's Hill) then more fields until we emerged onto a huge ploughed field. Rechecking the map, the path went straight across and so did we. Luckily it was dry, otherwise the field would have been considerably harder and muckier than it was, and even in the dry it was tough going. Eventually across, we arrived at Wormington where I spied a seat built around an Acer tree on a nice green. Time for a drink and a biscuit for both of us.

The day was very pleasant, sunny but not too hot, ideal walking conditions. Sitting by the tree, it took some will power to get up and leave, but we had a long way to walk. We left and were soon in open country again. Shortly we came to Mill Farm which I immediately recognised. We had joined St Kenelms Way, a walk I had done back in 2022. The two walks shared the path for about 3km before St Kenelms headed directly into Toddington whereas we headed towards the West side of the village, past Toddington Manor house and followed a lane to pop out on the B4077. The steam railway starts more in the centre of the village so was not in sight or earshot, that would have to wait until we got to Winchcombe. Quickly crossing the road, we passed an unusual finger signpost, then entered a huge field. I had decided it was lunchtime but we had to wait until the far side to find a suitable stopping place.

Lunch done, we were off, past the lovely little Toddington Mill, then steadily uphill to Grove Farm, our first climb of any note, and even that was short lived, rising to just over 100 metres. From there, a long downhill into the small village of Greet, which almost seems like a suburb of Winchcombe, although I doubt the locals would be too happy to hear it described thus.

There is a bit of unavoidable road walking here, through Greet and out to the B4632. As we walked down the road, we could hear the Steam Railway, the hiss of the steam and the whistle as the train began its journey towards Broadway. There are pavements for the majority of the road and we were soon past. The route then follows a public footpath behind a small industrial park, but the path was so overgrown, it was impossible, or impassable. Instead, we walked through the industrial area and found the end of the path which followed both the Isbourne and the main road almost into Winchcombe.

Emerging back onto the road, we crossed it and were soon onto the Riverside Walk, a well kept and well maintained path that neatly avoids the road into the town centre. Possibly deliberately, possibly because there is little choice, but the route meets a road and heads into the town centre. We'd had lunch and had enough provisions for the remainder so didn't stop, but the town has plenty of cafes, shops and bakeries to keep everyone happy.

In addition to the Isbourne Way, the Wardens Way, Winchcombe Way and Cotswold Way all make use of Winchcombe before heading off on their various routes. Our destination lay to the South East with a short road section before a small path took us up towards the huge paper mill at Postlip. The path is neatly directed around the mill and whilst its presence cannot be ignored, it is well disguised and we were soon past. We had started climbing from Winchcombe but now it became more obvious and steeper. Onwards and upwards we emerged onto Cleeve Hill itself, turned left and within a few minutes, arrived at the washpool that is claimed to be the source of the Isbourne. This washpool is fed from a a couple of springs higher up the valley but marks the official start, or in our case, the official end of the Way. Having said that, curiosity got the better of me and I followed the tiny stream a short way up the valley until I came to a tiny pool. There was nothing further up, so this, I concluded, was where it all began, the source of the mighty River Isbourne, the only river in the whole world to run North, well, apart from all the others that is!

There was now just the small matter of walking over to the Rising Sun. Unfortunately, Cleeve Hill itself gets in the way and, after 24km of walking, was a big pull onto the ridge line and an even tougher descent on tired legs and knees down to the pub but it was soon done and I was enjoying a welcome pint, Rosie enjoyed the remains of her energy bar and a drink whilst we waited for our pickup.

Claimed distances vary but I recorded 24km from start to finish, with another 1.2km walk over to the Rising Sun. My walking time was 5 1/4 hours not including stops and my watch rather amazingly recorded 1,600m of climb, something I find very hard to believe. The OS Maps app claims 470m of ascent, more realistic in my opinion when you think that Evesham is 25m above sea level and Cleeve Hill is just 317m, so allowing for some up and down along the way makes 470m believable. The app also claimed 25.1km of walking which is pretty much exactly the same as my watch.