PS

I had to include these!  John enjoying a nap on the way back home.

and then Lin!!

Thank you again to everyone in the team for a great challenge holiday.

Some wonderful views - 

Bodfari to Prestatyn

We started out this morning on the last day and we were all quite jolly, the sun was shining, it promised to be a dry day, and we were nearly there!  However, we turned the first corner after about 10 yards and saw our first hill, which was steep; just the thing you want first thing in the morning! Well Tim promised only 2 hills today then all downhill to Prestatyn – hmm – do we believe him.  

We got up high and saw some wonderful views, but interestingly Prestatyn still seemed to be a long way away – well I suppose 12 miles is quite a long way. 

To keep us amused, we got Steve W to try and name some wild flowers then we taught him how to flick grass heads!

We stopped for elevenses in a small village called Rhualit, where there was a convenient bench and wall just after crossing the A55.  We carried on crossing fields and walking up the 2 hills then found a great field for lunch and we then only had about 3 miles to go.  

There were a few undulations (not hills) to go up and then a big undulation on the cliff above Prestatyn.  (you need to look at the line of the ups and downs pictured below to see how much of an undulation the last one was!)  Once past all the ups were done, it was downhill all the way and though the town for about a mile until we reached the beach, where tradition says that you need to paddle in the sea.  We then had an ice cream – no T shirts to buy or fun pubs, or many people about really – an odd place!

Carol had a good morning looking round St Asaph, which is the smallest cathedral town in Britain; I understand she had a good breakfast somewhere too!  She was a bit early arriving at Prestatyn to collect us and marvelled at how little there was to do there!!

No-one really knows how far the trail is; there were the signs at the half way point saying 88.5miles each way, then the book says 177; there is a sign in Prestatyn saying 183, but George has 179 miles on his satnav.  But anyway – it was a long way; feet held out well; knees behaved;   we saw some spectacular scenery; and it was very enjoyable

George has provided the following statistics  – 179 miles; moving time of 64.40 hours; stopped time 20.18 hours; moving average of 2.8 miles per hour; overall average 2.1 MPH; Total elevation of 29,049 feet (just a bit taller that Everest)

Tonight we had a great time with all the funny award ceremonies and congratulating everyone; eating fish and chips and enjoying cheese with port.

So homeward bound tomorrow, and looking forward to our next adventure.

Thank you for reading this blog!

Alison x

Moel y plas to Bodfari

Well that's very peculiar,  yesterday’s blog post seems to have disappeared!  I don’t know what has happened to it, but I think a few of you must have seen it before it went AWOL.

Anyway to today -  ooooo  we are very tired;  we started off as usual at about 8.15 with the usual hill, but there seemed to be quite a lot of hills today.  Of course it was raining, but before we set of it looked as though it was going to be quite a nice day, so no-one put any waterproof trousers on – so on the bus as the rain set in we were putting our trousers on.  There was also quite a lot of mist first thing and at one point where I was near the back I couldn’t see the front person.  However the mist did clear and it was quite spectacular as we walked over the  Clywdian range, there were views for miles and we caught our first glimpse of the sea – it still seems an awfully long way away; we spotted an off shore wind farm which is near Prestatyn.  

Elevenses

We plodded on and got to the high point of the day (1818 feet) which was George III’s golden Jubilee tower (1810) .  There were signs on top with distances, and amazingly we were only 20 miles from Liverpool pier. 

 After this is was up and down for what seemed to be a long way at which point I in particular wished I was with Carol on the bus as my legs were not really doing what they were told – I don’t think I was the only one feeling the effects of 11 days walking – I thought I was supposed to be getting fitter!  We eventually went down a very steep slope – some very slowly due to having dodgy knees (none of us are that young any more L) and we had a very welcome break and lunch sitting against a sheltered wall – it had actually stopped raining by now and the sun was beginning to make an appearance, so we stripped off the leggings.  Walter had forty winks J  and it was the quietest I had known us to be as everyone was just eating and resting, and no-one could even be bothered to take a photograph! 

After lunch – you’ve guessed it – more hills,  and then a very long 3 mile descent into Bodfari and Carol with the bus – hooray! 

Back to the house and a very welcome cup of tea with a rock cake that Carol had made during the day.  Now a very tired Walter, Helen and Tim are cooking beef stroganoff. 

So – just 12 more miles to do tomorrow into Prestatyn, and we will have completed the Offa’s dyke route – talking of which, we haven’t seen the dyke for the last couple of days as apparently it wasn't ever totally finished, so who-ever put this long distance route together decided to finish the trail through another area of out outstanding beauty  - the  Vale of Clwyd.  

Llangollen viaduct to Moel y Plas

The missing blog post.

It was a good walk with very varied scenery.

Porth y Waen to the Llangollen aqueduct.

We started at about 8.30 again with a slight downhill walk - very unusual!  It didn't last long though before we were up those hills again.  The weather was a bit mixed today, we didn't have any heavy showers but there was quite a lot of drizzle, so everyone had to wear wet weather gear.  We seemed to make really good time to start with and Tim promised us a car park with a proper toilet near an old racecourse after about 5 - 6 miles which would be good for elevenses.  

At the old racecourse

Well I'm afraid the car park and toilet had disappeared once we got to where it should have been, so we carried on in the drizzle to try and find an alternative coffee stop.  We tramped a good way along the road, and I was feeling that I really did need a comfort stop - so I mentioned to Steve W as we were walking that wouldn't it be good if we found a church with coffee again around the next corner - well blow me down, we went round the next corner and although not a church, there was an equestrian centre that had a sign saying walkers were welcome to use the facilities which were toilets; kettle; coffee / tea/ chocolate machine; chairs etc.  So how amazing was that!

After elevenses we walked on up and down hills until we eventually got to castle Crick       where we found some logs to sit on to have lunch.  Before getting there though, we met a group of D of E walkers who were training for their bronze award; the teachers were with them and they were wearing T shirts that said they were from Holly Lodge school in Liverpool, which was where Pat's Mum used to teach PE - small world! 

Castle Churck

 After lunch it was another 4 miles or so to the end and the last part of the walk was beside the Llangollen canal again.  As we approached the end for today we caught sight of the aquaduct that will be part of tomorrow's walk.  We found Carol and Phil who had had a great day walking about 11 miles alongside the canal into Llangollen; they then had scones and tea while waiting at the bridge for us; and apparently the quality of scones was good :)

Tomorrow we will start the walk by going over the aquaduct, but an alternative is to walk round it so you can look at it.  George and Kim wanted to do both, so they set off to walk over it this afternoon so they can walk under it tomorrow; it didn’t take them very long, but the rest of us found the tea shop and had a cuppa!

We drove back to the house – then – who had the front door key?  Steve Y thought he had picked it up and handed it to George to give to Carol; all denied knowledge and the key couldn’t be found, so it was thought that no-one picked the key up (it’s a yale type lock that just shuts).  The owner was found who didn’t have the right key, so she went to look for her Husband ..... hang-on ....Carol suddenly felt in her pocket and found the key – yippee!!

The hot tub was great again; dinner is smelling good, it’s vegetable curry tonight cooked by Pat and Steve W with head chef Alan.

I’ve got to play snooker tonight as it’s our semi-final.  I’m not sure who is winning at this stage, but will report tomorrow on how it’s going.

The wool round the heels worked really well, it was comfortable and no new blisters formed and the old ones didn’t get any worse.  So I think that it is a big thumbs up for the welsh sheep wool.

Welshpool to Porth-y-waen

We had a good day today; we started walking at about 8.30 from Welshpool; Carol and Phil started the walk with us too.  After crossing a couple of fields we got to the path along the river Severn, and then a little further took us to the path along the Montgomery canal.  The first 10 miles of the walk were all flat as we had quite a lot of river and canal walk to do.  We were very blessed with the weather again; we only had a couple of showers, despite the forecast saying that we could have had more.  After the first part of the canal, we went away from there to follow the path of the dyke again.  Carol and Phil left us at that point and walked a bit further along the canal before doubling back to the bus.  We carried on across fields and found a great stop for elevenses; the owners of the house had put out chairs and there was cake to buy, and chickens to share it with!  We carried on following the river, through fields of cows who gave us the once over!
We then found the canal again.  We kept seeing canoeists on the canal and eventually found out that they were doing a triathlon, which entailed them cycling from Newtown to Welshpool, then canoeing a few miles then running or walking the last section - a total of 35 miles.  They were doing it to raise money for the rejuvenation on the canal.
Carol saw one lady paddling a coracle! ( a round Welsh boat)
 And we saw the canoeists at various points struggling to take the canoes in and out to avoid obstructions and locks, and helpers handing out bananas - they even gave some our group one!

Jigsaw puzzle box lunch spot.

The original plan for today was for it to be just 11 miles and finish at Llanymynech where the canoeists were finishing at .  But as we have a long 17 mile walk later in the week, Tim thought (and we agreed) that it would be good to add a couple of miles to the next day or two's walks to reduce the 17 miles to about 14. So we finally finished our  walk at Porth-y-waen.

One fascinating fact the we have been discussing during this walk is whether putting sheeps wool on your feet prevents blisters.  Before we came away we had some relations stay with us from New Zealand.  They had just done the Queen Charlotte walk (we had done a day of this walk when we were in New Zealand earlier in the year, and it was fabulous) , but they had told us of several people on their walk who were putting sheep wool next to your feet.  I couldn't quite get my head round this, so have 'googled' it and found that you can buy the fleece which has been lightly washed (so some of the lanolin remained) and carded and a short video of how you put it on your feet.  So Pat thought she would try this idea - the only trouble is that we didn't have the proper fleece, but there are plenty of welsh sheep around, so we have collected some off fences that looked fairly clean.  So as Pat had some quite poorly toes, she tried wrapping the fleece around her toes - and amazingly it has worked!  Her toes are not as red and it wasn't painful to walk downhill.  So I might wrap some round the heels tomorrow and see what happens!!

I might also have to report that last night we had a game of cribbage - I was partnered with Lin and we played Steve W and George - well we won 2 games - the boys weren't very happy!  Steve was really pleased with himself when he scored 24, but believe it or not, I also had a score of 24 in the same round!!

Brompton crossroads to Welshpool

Today began with the usual 7.30 start and we had about an hour and a half drive to the start of the walk.  We drove through a bit of rain and the forecast was for showers, so we all put on waterproofs.  The first part of the walk was flat through lots of fields with lots of stiles and lots of long grass so the waterproof trousers worked well.  As the miles went on we gradually took off the waterproofs and we were very lucky with the weather as we hardly had any rain.  It was still windy though especially when we got to the top of a big hill!!  The walk was a lot easier than than the last one and with just one long big hill at the end.  But - we get to the 100 mile mark - only 80 more miles to go.

100 miles, - 80 to go.

We just went slightly wrong at one stage and we needed to slither down a steep bank to the path!

Alan slithering!!

Elevenses.

The walk was just under 13 miles and we finished about 2.45 which was good, the flat path at the beginning made for quick going.  We had about an hours journey back to the house where Pat, Jacqui, Lin, and I got straight in the hot tub which was fantastic.

We are on dinner duty tonight and it's bangers and mash with bread and butter pudding.

Unfortunately Tim B had to go home today - so we miss you Tim, and I'll miss my early morning tea.

Carol and Phil had a nice day and walked along a bit of the canal, then after picking us up, went off to buy some locally brewed cider :)

Tomorrow promises rain again, but an easy walk to start with along the banks of the river Severn.

to Corwen near Llangollen

Today we had a lie-in!!  We actually got up after 7am, packed our bags then wandered downstairs where my Steve was cooking bacon and eggs.  We had a great breakfast then cleared up the house, and started to pack the minibus with all our bags and provisions.  We left at about 9.45 and traveled back the way we had driven yesterday and found a coffee break at a place called Bishops Castle - have to report that it wasn't the best coffee in the world and the scones were more like rock buns - but quite tasty though.  On we drove to get to Corwen at about 2pm.  It is a fabulous house with everything we need - snooker table, hot tub etc.  It had been raining most of the time, but for a while whilst we ate lunch the sun shone and we ate outside in the garden.

The boys wasted no time in getting acquainted with the snooker table, and Steve W wrote out a league for snooker matches.  One game was played this afternoon and that was me with Steve W against Helen and Tim S;  I have to report that we won - just, and believe it or not I had the biggest break of 8; one red and one black !!

We had expected the Sainsbury's delivery between 5 and 6pm, but at about 6pm Pat had a text (not much mobile signal here) that was sent at 3pm that there had been a problem processing the payment card and to phone.  Pat managed to get through on the phone, and they tried the card again and this time it worked!  Well we had ordered loads of pizzas for tonights dinner and they couldn't now deliver until after 9pm!  So Phil (Carol's husband who has just arrived for the weekend) drove us to the local shop where we bought 13 pizzas and some garlic bread.  We rushed it back and got it into the ovens; amazingly we were eating by 7.30 and we even found time to make a pineapple upside down pudding.  It's now gone 9pm and the order hasn't arrived yet!

Well tomorrow it's back to the walking, and the weather is looking a bit mixed again.  The feet and legs have had a good rest and apparently the walk is not too challenging  :)

Knighton to Brompton crossroads

Well .... today was interesting; Tim told us that it was supposed to be the hardest day as it was 15 miles of undulating hills.  We thought (foolishly) that if the walk up on the black mountains was supposed to be the second hardest then today’s  shouldn’t be a problem.  It was about an hour in the bus, so started at 8.30 with a reasonably steep hill, but not too bad. 

Elevenses - hiding from the wind and drizzle!

Well it gradually got worse as the hills just kept getting steeper both up and down, then it rained a bit so we had to put on waterproof trousers; then the sun came out and we had to take off the waterproof trousers; then it got really windy on top so had to tread carefully so as not to get blown over.  No nice lunch stop today, we hid from the wind in a barn sitting on a big trailer. 

 Several really steep hills after lunch before descending again and meeting up with Carol and Tim who had walked a couple of miles to join us for the muddy walk back to the bus.  We finally arrived at about 4.45!  Walt picked a good day to join us again!  

The highlight of the walk was the fact that we reached the half way point of the whole walk – 88.5 miles – so only 88.5 miles to go!! The other piece of information is that we have climbed  over 16,000 feet over the past week; over half the height of Everest!

Dinner tonight was ably prepared by Jacqui, Tim and John who set to as soon as we arrived back at the houses – it was about 1 ½ hours journey back.

Carol has just informed me that she and Tim tasted some rather nice beer from a micro brewery, and walked up to a hill fort, and managed to stay dry, and they didn’t finish the crossword! .... why am I walking this year???   I’ve got to finish it now as I’ve passed half way.  Feet still sore L

Thank goodness that it is a day off tomorrow; we move house to a village much further up – I’ll let you know the name tomorrow I can’t be bothered to get out of my seat to find the piece of paper with it written on!!  It apparently has a hot tub.

The sainburys order has been done and should arrive tomorrow afternoon – the red wine club have added their requests to the order!

The dyke

Kington to Knighton

Thank you to Tim B who was a star and delivered tea in bed again this morning at 6am, and to my Steve who put coffee in the flask again today!!

Today’s walk has been very pleasant, with quite a bit of sun and some beautiful scenery – but someone should have told this Offa person to build his dyke on the flat, because it was very ‘undulating’ today.  We actually walked on, or next to the dyke for quite a lot today, as we hadn’t really seen it for a couple of days.  I picked up a leaflet at the Offa’s dyke visitor centre in Knighton where we finished the walk and it lists the areas of natural beauty we go through – Wye valley, Shropshire hills, Clwydian range / dee valley; Brecon beacons (black mountains).

Girls on the dyke

The highlight of the day was when we stopped for lunch; we had just seen some other walkers who told us the local church in Dolly’s green (what a great name) was doing teas J.  So the church was about 50 yards away from the path, but we went up and found that they were clearing up after their bank holiday festivities yesterday.  They had had the Swansea male voice choir and lots of other events.  We were made very welcome and sat on benches outside the hall; the pastor (John Thomas) put the kettle on and his wife and others fetched cake, sausage rolls and sandwiches which had been left from yesterday; then they introduced us to 2 South Korean girls who had been staying there and they played the violin and sang to us – they were very good; - what an amazing lunch stop.

After lunch is was back up another hill and along a bit where we eventually met up with Carol and Tim who had started walking from the end.  We descended then into Knighton, which is another lovely town.

Feet didn’t feel as bad as yesterday, but unfortunately Walt didn’t walk today as he has knee and groin problems, but is hoping to walk again tomorrow.  Others in the team also have knee issues; not helped by lots of downs.  There are supposed to be even more up and downs tomorrow - and showers!!  Feeling very tired tonight, so off to bed really early.  But before I go, Alan has let me have his photos, and the following one was taken in Monmouth before we started that day's walk.

Occasionally we actually do it properly!!

Hay-on-Wye to Kington

I’m afraid Carol has the first mention today – she had a lie-in!!  We were all up and ready to walk by 7.30am, but as we were walking from the house today, she stayed in bed.  Tim B got up and did about an hour with us before turning back.  We had a pleasant 15 mile walk up a good few hills again, but as we had left early we finished the walk at about 2.30.  We had elevenses at ten and Steve actually brought the flask full of coffee! So I was happy J  Actually, we stopped at a church in a village that had put out coffee and tea and we could help ourselves, so Lin boiled the kettle and we had some biscuits too – we did put a donation in the box – what a brilliant idea and a great facility for walkers.  

You’ll get the theme in a minute – we stopped at a pub for lunch, so some had cider or shandy or soft drinks.  After lunch there was a massive hill climb before descending into Kington.

at the top of the last big hill, there used to be a race course here.

Carol had a frustrating day; tomorrow Walt, Helen and Tim S are supposed to be cooking cannelloni, but Sainsbury’s couldn’t deliver any as they didn’t have any, so throughout the last few days she and Tim have been trying to buy some; Waitrose didn’t have any in, Co-op definitely didn’t have any, and the man in the delicatessen said it was hard to come by at the moment.  So Walt and Helen will be cooking spinach and ricotta lasagne now .... but – Carol thought she would give it one more try and phoned Abergavenny Waitrose, and yes, they did have cannelloni; so she and Tim drove all the way there to discover that they only had ready filled cannelloni – Carol was not happy!!

Tonight Pat and I have started the next Sainsburys order (minus the cannelloni)  to be delivered to the next accommodation – Powys country house.  Then at 7.15 we drove to a pub for dinner called the Ship and had a fantastic meal – Walt had a 32oz rump steak!

My feet are now very sore - as are certainly quite a few others, but we have completed about 67 miles, just over a third of the way.

Only 13 miles tomorrow!!

Pandy to Hay-on-Wye

Today was supposed to be the second hardest day, but in fact it was not too difficult probably due to the great weather – no rain, quite a lot of sun, not much breeze, and hardly any mud.  We started at Pandy at about 8.30 and walked about 2.5 miles up and up to a ridge in the black mountains.  It was wonderful scenery, and the path along the ridge was good.  We met lots of other walkers who were probably just doing day walks.  I must report though that coffee break for me was rescued by John as he produced a flask full of coffee, and allowed me a cup – my dear Husband (Steve Y) did say that we could have coffee in the flask today instead of Steve’s preferred hot water and lemon, we’ll see if he can manage to fill it with coffee tomorrow! 

A good lunch stop

The path went on for a good few miles, before eventually descending for about 4 miles into Hay and back to the houses.  The walk was about 17 miles and we were back by about 4pm. 

Hay in the distance

The only problem now is that the feet are very definitely sore and blisters are appearing!  Hay is quite a big town with lots of nice shops, but I don’t think many of us are up to walking around them too much – unless you are Carol and Tim B who have had a great time looking around all the shops picking up bargains in Rohan and drinking coffee (no scones today though).  

The delicious dinner was pork in cider ably cooked by Pat and Steve W under the watchful eye of head chef Alan - who provided the after dinner mints.

An after dinner game of 'guess who's knees these are' was played!