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!

Monmouth to Pandy.

What a difference a day makes!  Today has been sunny and although a good 17 miles was a lot easier and therefore quicker.  We started at Monmouth at about 8.45am and walked through the town and then out to some lovely green fields where the sheep and lambs were playing; the hills were rolling and it was beautiful countryside (am I sending you a good picture!).  There was a bit of mud at times, but not as slippery as yesterday.  Elevenses were good and lunch was taken in a dry field and Tim B and Carol joined us.  After lunch there was just 7 miles to do, so most of us unloaded our rucksacks with everything but essentials and left them on the bus.  The last 7 miles were quite a bit more hilly, but not too bad.  The only incident was that some of us went slightly wrong and had to cross a stream on stones and carefully climb over a barbed wire fence.

Tim B has a poorly foot, so has not been walking with us; he has therefore been shopping in Monmouth with Carol checking out the bargains and tasting the local scones – I have to report that they were a bit crumbly, so not the best.  

Once we were collected at Pandy by Carol and Tim, we had about a 40 minute journey back to Hay.  We later enjoyed a lovely cottage pie and apple crumble.

Tim S is our wine waiter.

 Steve W enjoying the last of the custard!

Alan enjoying seconds of apple crumble.

Tomorrow is going to be another tough day, apparently you are advised not to attempt it in bad weather as we go a long way up and then along a saddle, then a long way down; about another 17 miles!  So watch this space tomorrow.

The graphs below are from the strava ap that Jacqui and Pat use; it shows quite well all the ups and downs and the maps of where we have been.

To Monmouth

I realised that as the wifi kept dropping out yesterday, some of the names of the team had disappeared, so have added them in this morning.
A good night's rest, and ready to leave this morning at 7.45 for the 1.5 hours journey to the start of the walk.  One of the reasons for doing 3 miles yesterday was that we had a slightly shorter walk today - about 14 miles instead of 17.

View from our balcony of the river Wye.

Oh my goodness - what a day!  It started by playing hunt the wheel arch - George found that nearby.  It seems to have just dropped off the bus; there was some damage to the same side when it was picked up, so we are assuming they must have loosened the wheel arch.  Well that set us back a quarter of an hour, so we left at about 8am.  George drove, but he disobeyed our nice SatNav lady, and we ended up by going almost to Newport, so another 10 minutes added to the journey.  We eventually started walking at about 9.30.  You may have gathered that I am doing a bit more walking this year, so I probably won’t be reporting too much on the quality of the Welsh scones, I’ll have to get that info from Carol.

Our walk took us through some beautiful woodland with lots of bluebells; in a lot of mud; up a lot of hills; down a lot of muddy slippery hills;  but – it didn’t rain!  It was a slow walk though, we did initially say to Carol we would be at Monmouth at about 4pm, we actually arrived at 5.30.  I’m sure we did more than 14 miles; in fact I believe it was about 15 miles, and we did a lot of up, at least 3290 feet.  So with the mud and all those hills, and it was the first day, it took a while.

Ooh – I nearly forgot – Helen (in charge of finding porcelain loos) actually for the first time ever used a happy bush; so congratulation Helen, you deserve your gold star from your daughter.

Poor Carol had an interesting time trying to get through the Monmouth market traffic and finding a carparking space.  Once found she did a short walk on the Offa’s dyke path, but not as far as planned due to time and mud!  She then had a long wait for us, but I think she walked around the town a few times getting to know the shop keepers.

Anyway, we eventually got back to Hay at about 6.30.  Carol, Steve and I were on cooking duty, so we immediately set to and prepared a lovely warming chicken casserole and bread and butter pudding.

Ok, this could be one reason why we took a long time today!!

So to bed in a moment, we’ve another 17 miles to do tomorrow.

Chepstow

The minibus was collected on Wednesday which made Day 1 start much easier.  Carol drove the bus to Pat and Steve's where we all met at about 8.30.  All loaded and off we went - ooops - got as far as Golflinks Road and Jacqui called out that she had forgotten her coat!!  So we did a loop around the roads to Jacqui's house to collect the coat, just as well that she remembered  Ok, off again, filling up with fuel at Sainsburys.  We will be a group of 15, but 2 of our group are joining later, Kim is flying in from France and George is picking her up from Hereford, and Tim B is coming much later after finishing work in Jersey.

So our group is - Tim S (chief map reader); Carol (chief bus driver); Jackie (photographer on walks) and Tim B; Pat (co. food order-er) and Steve W (kitty keeper); Me - Alison (blogger and co food orderer)and Steve Y (chief accommodation finder); George and Kim L (French speakers when required); Helen (chief porcelain toilet finder) and Walter (Mr. Pieman); Alan (Head chef?); Lyn S (carrier of the ruck sac with everything in it)

Our first stop was just outside Bath for coffee / tea and a dinner plate sized tea cake.  On we went to Chepstow where Carol dropped us off to find the start of the walk.  We had to walk down to the beach to find the path; well we got down to the sea, but couldn't find the path.  We walked along a bit, but decided that we must have missed it, so turned around and went back to  where we had joined the beach, and there was the path!  A good start; but at least it was dry but that wasn’t to last the rain soon started, so coats went on and we tramped through quite a bit of mud.

We just walked about 3 miles to get the urban part of the walk out of the way, and to stretch our legs on the way to Hay-on-Wye.

We got back to the bus and drove onto our rather fabulous houses in Hay.  We’ve got 3 town houses next to each other, and we have just had fish and chips, so all is well - except this blog has taken ages as the wifi keeps cutting out :(