Day 48 Cloudburst

We left Welshpool this morning, knowing that the weather forecast was for showers. We also knew that it was going to be a fairly flat day, with almost no hills. Hooray. We would be walking along the Montgomery canal and the River Severn to Llanymynech.

The towpath was beautifully surfaced, there were very few people about, despite it’s being Sunday morning.

We walked along the canal for a couple of miles enjoying the bridges, the locks, and the wildflowers before the path switched over to the River Severn

We walked along a flood defence embankment beside the river until we came across the cows. Bullocks actually. We tried a few stick-waving/shouting manoeuvres but to no avail. Down the bank, under two electric fences, over a gate and round the field. The next field of bullocks was OK but in the third they ran all the way from the river bank, up the embankment to meet us. Down we went over another gate prepared to wait for them to lose interest in us. But they didn’t. Round several fields looking for ways out, chasing footpaths that exist on the map but not the ground. We wasted a good twenty minutes before we worked our way back onto the embankment just beyond them.

Feeling rather defeated we sat down for lunch, only five minutes before a table and chairs set out with cake for walkers to buy. Oh well. We bought some cake anyway.

And then the heavens opened. The rain was torrential. Visibility plummeted and thunder and lightning swirled (does thunder swirl?) around us. We made for a small group of trees below (hold onto that word) the embankment. I got my phone into its waterproof cover, put on my waterproofs, realised the ground in front of me had turned into a stream -flowing down from the embankment -shuffled as close as I dared to the barbed wire fence, holding my bag off the ground (I had got its raincover on) whilst trying to disable the touchscreen on my handheld GPS as the raindrops were activating it. Of course, I forgot that my map bag was open and filling with water… Meanwhile, Helen had had to move due to the stream and was completely drenched.

It was, it has to be said, just a bit miserable. However the thunder and lightning stopped, the rain died down and we set off again. After walking through soaking wet grass and puddles, we eventually reached Four Crosses where the underpass for the A-road was decorated with a mural

After that it was only three miles or so to Llanymynech where we are staying tonight. Three miles and an Aqueduct. It was weird. Following the canal one minute and then high in the air above the River Vyrnwy, still following the canal.

We carried on, just keen to get there, passing a very pretty lock

We had a warm welcome at the Bradford Arms- they have a drying room – with a comfy bedroom and dinner. What more could one want?