John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 052 - Monmouth to Chepstow

Day: 052

Date: Friday, 22 July 2022

Start:  Monmouth

Finish:  Chepstow

Daily Kilometres:  30

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1456

Weather:  Cool to warm, with some occasional light drizzle and sunshine.

Accommodation:  Hostel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries/Breakfast bars

  Lunch:  Cheese & onion sandwiches/Ploughmans sandwich

  Dinner:  Hamburger & chips, icecream

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  We passed through some beautiful ancient woodland today.  Magical.

Lowlight:  Reasonably-priced accommodation was hard to find in Chepstow, so we are in a privately-run hostel which has regulations posted all over the place.  Particularly irksome to us, since we are here for two nights, is that the self-serve kitchen is only open from 7:30am - 10:30am, no food is allowed in rooms, and rooms must be vacated between 11:00am and 3:00pm.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Some unexpected admin for Dave as a result of overnight emails delayed our planned departure from Monmouth a little and it was nearly 7:30am by the time we started walking out of town under very grey skies and in a very light drizzle.

As soon as we crossed the River Wye, we began a long and sometimes steep climb away from the river which set the pattern for the day - effort followed by reward - as it should be.  At the top of the climb, we had superb views over the Wye valley and Monmouth and then had some kilometres in very peaceful and mossy old-growth forest on lovely trail.

As the day progressed, the same thing happened after two more similar climbs.  In between there were some beautiful field paths and a long stint alongside the River Wye, sometimes sandwiched between steep forested slopes.  Large fish (trout?) occasionally leapt out of the steadily-flowing river but we were not fast enough to get a photo.

As we neared Chepstow, the ancient Offa’s Dyke was visible next to, or beneath, the trail for a long stretch and, at one lookout, we had a spectacular view down to the impressive ruins of Tintern Abbey, dating back to the 12th century, next to the river.

After a final long and steady descent through a mix of farmland and lovely old homes, we crossed the River Wye for the last time and entered the town of Chepstow, with castle ruins to our right, and found our hostel in the middle of town, checking in at 4:00pm.

We met quite a lot of walkers during the day, on this deservedly popular part of the Offa’s Dyke Trail, along with some families on what is, apparently, the first day of the summer school vacation for most children.  We could be seeing a lot more on our remaining days of hiking.

We have a day off here, which would likely be more enjoyable at different accommodation (see above).