Day 51 A day of two halves (footpaths that is)

Today I once again had a delicious breakfast made for me by Stephanie (and a delicious dinner last night and the night before). It was pouring with rain at breakfast time so I was slow in leaving. I felt confident in my route choice today. The first footpath was on the Bangor on Dee’s list […]

Day 50 Chirk to Bangor-on-Dee

Today I set off feeling light at heart and light of load. I had borrowed a day pack from Stephanie and was only carrying lunch and waterproofs. Stephanie dropped me off at the station where I met the couple we had been bumping into for the last few days. They were on their way home […]

Day 49 Llanymynech to Chirk

Llanymynech, it turns out, is on the main route from Chester to South Wales. This means that, from what feels like 5am, the road is busy and if you have left your windows wide open, the noise is going to disturb your sleep. Our hotel was an old coaching inn so the landlord explained this […]

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 […]

Day 47 Blue Bell Inn to Welshpool

Today we started early. We had booked the taxi for 9.10 aiming to arrive at the defunct Blue Bell Inn at 9.30 You will see from the photo that it had been raining. All night. The walk today was much less hilly. It took us through grassy fields. Yes, wet grassy fields. Within minutes our […]

Day 45 At last, Offa’s Dyke

Today I spent a lot of time walking along the Dyke itself. As I reached Kington, I realised that apart from the failure to notice it on the way to Monmouth the Dyke hadn’t seemed to feature at all. Had I just failed to notice? Do I spend the whole time looking down at my […]

Day 46 More of Offa’s Dyke

Today, the guidebook said, was the toughest day of the whole trail. It was sixteen miles long and very hilly. The day was sunny, and we headed out of Knighton having bought lunch for two days at the local bakery. Out we went, past the Offa’s Dyke Centre (closed), uphill (Knighton is in a valley) […]

Day 44 Rest Day 8

I woke at my usual 6.30 and dozed until 7, when I got up and dressed and made my way downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast is a help yourself affair so I enjoyed my cereal and toast (with peanut butter, a first for this trip). Next port of call was the washing machine, everything except the […]

Day 43 Hay-on-Wye to Kington

Today it was raining. I had a very slow start. Blandine was off and out before I had finished my breakfast (and arrived, I later found out, at 1.30). The rain gradually stopped and I went in search of a sandwich for lunch before packing up. Although the rain had stopped the grass was pretty […]

Day 42 No views at all.

There aren’t many photos today. Today started with rain, that had clearly been going on for some hours, then the rain stopped but by then I was in the clouds and stayed there for the next few hours until descending into Hay on Wye. But I’m skipping ahead. I had decided that I was not […]