John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 051 - Pandy to Monmouth

Day: 051

Date: Thursday, 21 July 2022

Start:  Pandy (after bus from Abergavenny)

Finish:  Monmouth

Daily Kilometres:  27

GPX Track:  Click here and here for Julie’s Strava & Photos of our walk and her run

Total Kilometres:  1426

Weather:  Mild to warm and partly sunny.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries/muffins

  Lunch:  Egg & cress sandwich/Coronation chicken sandwich

  Dinner:  Kebab, salad & chips, Caramel cheesecake.

Aches:  Dave - sore shoulder (but getting better).  Julie - nothing.

Highlight:  We reached the fabulous White Castle ruin at 9:40am, just at the right time for our breakfast break, and had the large castle ruin, dating from the 11th century, and its manicured grass grounds to ourselves in the morning sun.  Perfect!

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We caught the 7:00am (high-speed!) bus from Abergavenny back to Pandy, where we finished yesterday, and were walking eastwards on the Offa’s Dyke Path by 7:20am on a beautiful mild sunny morning.

Apart from the historic and interesting White Castle (see above), there was nothing particularly remarkable about today’s walking.  For the most part, our trail crossed beautiful, undulating and peaceful rural landscapes on easy walking field paths and country lanes.  There were pastures, grain crops, a local day-hiker who joined us for a couple of kilometres and talked non-stop, a couple of cheerful “Scouse” lads walking the Offa’s Dyke Path home to Liverpool, the “dangerous” bridge we crossed rather than take a recommended (but long) detour, and the perfectly-placed picnic table for lunch.  In the latter’s case, we had already decided, hours earlier, that we would look for somewhere to stop for lunch around 1:00pm.  As if on cue, on the edge of a mown grain field in the middle of nowhere, and for no obvious reason, a picnic table appeared exactly at 1:00pm.

As a break from the field paths and lanes, the last 5 kilometres passed through pleasant shady woodland on a warm afternoon, before entering the busy town of Monmouth.  We found our accommodation at 3:15pm and checked in.  After studying her Garmin app, Julie decided she hadn’t done enough for the day and went for a 5km run around the town!  Dave, sensibly, decided to recover in front of the World Athletics Championships replay on TV.

Another great day.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 050 - Hay-on-Wye to Pandy

Day: 050

Date: Wednesday, 20 July 2022

Start:  Hay-on-Wye

Finish:  Pandy (then bus to Abergavenny)

Daily Kilometres:  27

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

Total Kilometres:  1399

Weather:  Mild and overcast all day.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries/Flapjacks

  Lunch:  Egg & salad sandwich/Chicken & bacon sandwich

  Dinner:  Pizza, Raspberry trifle

Aches:  Dave - sore right shoulder (see below).  Julie - nothing.

Highlight:  Eventually getting some views from the top of the Black Mountains after being in thick fog when we first reached the high ridge.

Lowlight:  Dave tripped and fell on a relatively easy part of the trail, landing on his right shoulder, which is now giving a lot of discomfort when the arm is moved though it’s OK when walking with the pack on.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our destination for the day was the hamlet of Pandy, though the only accommodation we could get was a pub in Abergavenny, a 20-minute bus ride from Pandy.  The buses go every two hours, so our goal was to catch the 3:00pm bus and we left Hay-on-Wye at 6:30am to give ourselves every chance.

It was cooler than yesterday as we climbed out of the village, but still quite humid and very hazy with a low cloud base.  We started out across fields but soon encountered some steep trail in a wood.  By 7:00am, Dave could see the sweat running off the end of his nose like a leaking tap and was wondering where the cooler weather was.

After some easier climbing across moorland and a cooling breeze things looked better, but then we had a really steep and long climb up to Hay Bluff, the last part of which was in thick fog so you could not see how far you still had to go.  We just had to keep plugging away knowing that eventually the crest would be reached.  We were quite warm when we reached the trig point marking the end of the climb, but a teacher/instructor huddled there in all his warm gear waiting for Duke of Edinburgh students to arrive looked anything but.

The fog was still very thick as we set off along the long plateau-like Hatterrall Ridge and we began to despair of getting any of the great views we knew were there.  However, the walking was easy, the temperature good and we just motored along.  Coming the other way, we encountered some groups of teenagers on their Duke of Ed expedition (as we did all day), not always looking happy, and not always appropriately dressed.

The cloud base began to lift a little as we followed the ridge and we began to get hazy glimpses of the valleys way below.  We had our breakfast break around 9:30am on the broad moorland and quickly cooled down in the fog and breeze, donning our jackets.  After breakfast, the breeze dropped and the cloud lifted a little higher giving us better, but still hazy, views.  The usual sheep were around on the moor, but we also saw several herds of horses/ponies who seemed little-troubled by hikers and were sometimes hard to get past on the trail.

We continued to make good time, despite Dave tripping and hurting his shoulder (see above), and stopped for our lunch break at 12:30pm near the top of Hatterrall Hill with just over 5 kilometres to go and plenty of time in hand before the 3:00pm bus.

The last leg was mostly downhill and often steep, but we had the bonus of even better views as we dropped further below the cloud base.  We reached the bus stop with 30 minutes to spare and then caught it to the market town of Abergavenny where we checked into our hotel at 3:30pm just as it was starting to drizzle.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 049 - Kington to Hay-on-Wye

Day: 049

Date: Tuesday, 19 July 2022

Start:  Kington

Finish:  Hay-on-Wye

Daily Kilometres:  28

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

Total Kilometres:  1372

Weather:  Very warm and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich/Chicken & stuffing sandwich

  Dinner:  Shrimp pasta salad & cold omelette/Salami & salad sandwich, cheesecake.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles (left ankle, right shoulder) and some unwelcome chafing.  Julie - nothing.

Highlight:  The early morning walk across Hergest Common, near Kington, was very enjoyable.  Broad swathes of bracken, criss-crossed by wide mown grass trails, and fantastic views in all directions.

Lowlight:  The heat and humidity detracted a little from today’s enjoyment.  There was little shade for most of the day and the climbs were very sweaty affairs.  We felt fully-cooked after several ascents and though there was a cooling breeze at the higher elevations, it was absent in the valleys.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

The AirBnB we had booked for tonight gave us access to a washing machine and drier, so we decided to make sure we arrived around 3:00pm, the earliest we could check in.  It was to be a relatively short day, 26+ kilometres, so we left our accommodation at 7:00am and stopped by the supermarket in Kington on our way to rejoin the Offa’s Dyke Path, to get our supplies for the day.

There was a long and steady climb out of Kington, one of those climbs that keeps on giving, up onto the fantastic Hergest Common (see above).  We both thought it would be a great place to be a runner, and thoroughly enjoyed our walk across the broad moor.  A long descent took us down to the hamlet of Gladestry and then, before long, and in increasingly warm conditions, an enervating climb up onto the next hill.  Along the top of the broad hill we found a place in the shade opposite a farmyard to have breakfast around 10:00am, and really enjoyed the break.

From there, we mostly followed field paths across the broad ridge, noticing all of the sheep utilising every bit of shade available, before gradually descending, with a couple of short sharp and very hot climbs, towards the River Wye valley.  Around 12:30pm we stopped for lunch in a little wood, one of the few for the day, happy that, with only 5 kilometres to go, we were going to easily make Hay-on-Wye before 3:00pm.

Most of the last leg involved crossing fields adjacent to the River Wye, where it was very warm and the river looked very enticing.  We crossed the river into Hay-on-Wye around 2:20pm and found somewhere shady to sit and had a cold drink and an icecream.  Soon after 3:00pm we checked into our AirBnB and, after much-needed showers, did some much-needed laundry.  Hay-on-Wye, a very attractive little town, is famous for its bookshops, of which there are many.  Later, while doing some shopping, Julie had a look around the castle where there were even more booksellers.

We planned to have take-out for dinner, but could not find one open in Hay-on-Wye.  Everything seems to only open Thursday to Sunday.  In the end we decided to go to a nearby recommended pub but found they weren’t offering meals because it was going to be too hot in the kitchen for their cooks.  Plan C was to wander down to the small supermarket and buy what cold food we could find that was appealing, and that is what we did.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 048 - Knighton to Kington

Day: 048

Date: Monday, 18 July 2022

Start:  Knighton

Finish:  Kington

Daily Kilometres:  26

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

Total Kilometres:  1344

Weather:  Very warm and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg mayonnaise rolls

  Lunch:  Tuna mayonnaise sandwich/Ham & cheese sandwich.

  Dinner:  Lasagne & vegetables, icecream

Aches:  Dave - the usual few niggles.  Julie - sore feet (from her walking shoes, which she should probably throw out).

Highlight:  After our climb out of Knighton, and before it got too warm, we had a beautiful hour of walking along a broad ridge, mostly across open fields, with wonderful views over the River Lugg valley to the west.

Lowlight:  We had been unable to get accommodation right in Kington (we prefer accommodation within easy walking of grocery stores and take-out food shops) so had to settle for a cabin 1.5 kilometres south of town and not on our route.  On arrival in Kington, we stopped at a supermarket and bought dinner supplies and drinks, and then had a very warm roadwalk with an extra few kilos in our packs to our accommodation that we could have done without.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Originally, we had planned to walk 45 kilometres to Hay-on-Wye today and then have tomorrow off in that interesting town.  However, last week, when the first warnings about a UK heatwave for today and tomorrow began to be issued, we changed our plans and decided to split the journey in two and dispense with the day off.  So, we set off today with just a 23 kilometre walk planned to the village of Kington (turned out to be a bit further) and didn’t leave until 8:30am, giving Julie time to go for a run before we left.

We first walked into Knighton, and Wales, stopping to buy supplies for the day, and then joined the Offa’s Dyke Path, a UK National Trail, which we will follow for the next five days.  Knighton is about the halfway point of the whole trail which pretty much follows the Welsh border north to south from the Liverpool Bay to the River Severn, so we are only walking the southern half.  Offa’s Dyke is an earthwork ditch and wall, presumably defensive, constructed on the orders of Offa, the King of Mercia in the 8th Century, to mark the border between his kingdom and the Welsh kingdom of Powys.

The Dyke is still visible in many places and we followed it for much of today’s walk, marvelling at the engineering feat of all those years ago.

It did get quite warm today and we cut our usual interval between breaks from three hours to two.  At the higher elevations there was a cooling breeze and there were also some very nice shaded wooded sections, but there were three solid climbs which were hot sweaty work.  Our phones indicated that local temperatures were in the mid-30s Centigrade during the afternoon, which was warmer than we would like, but not unmanageable.

Most of the day’s walking was on very pleasant paths of one kind or another, with seemingly endless great views, though our average pace was down, probably due to the hills.  We eventually reached the village of Kington just before 4:00pm and stopped in at the supermarket to buy supplies and drinks for dinner, before walking the last 1.5 kilometres to our cabin and checking in.  Another good day.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 047 - Church Stretton to Knighton

Day: 047

Date: Sunday, 17 July 2022

Start:  Church Stretton

Finish:  Knighton

Daily Kilometres:  35

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

Total Kilometres:  1318

Weather:  Warm to very warm and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Ham & egg sandwiches

  Lunch:  Chicken & stuffing sandwich/chicken & bacon pasta.

  Dinner:  Savoury mince, rice and vegetables, apple turnovers and custard.

Aches:  Dave - still a few niggles.  Julie - nothing she is owning up to.

Highlight:  Amongst many moments on a good day, making our way on a narrow path through a chest-high field of wheat waving synchronously in the breeze, like waves on the ocean, was memorable for two town-dwellers.

Lowlight:  We had a few stretches of path which were very overgrown with nettles and brambles that left us scratched and stung.  But, often, these are paths that link excellent trails, so we’re not complaining too much.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We made an early start (6:00am) on a day forecast to be quite warm, in the hope that we could reach our destination, Knighton, by mid-afternoon.  As it turned out, we were a bit later than that, but no complaints.

Our plan was to use our navigation app to plot a way back from Church Stretton to the guidebook route and this worked out well.  The first hour was walking along a main road, but there was a footpath for some of it, and there was little traffic at that hour on a Sunday anyway.

We left the main road at the hamlet of Marshbrook and then followed a series of field paths of varying quality, but mostly good, across pleasant undulating rural countryside that is part of the Shropshire Hills “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” and then down to the lovely little historic village of Wistanstow.

After some more paths, one of them more of a dump site for a few hundred metres, and some backroads, we rejoined the guidebook route near the hamlet of Rowton around 9:30am and half an hour later we finally found a comfortable spot to stop and have breakfast.  We like benches or picnic tables best, but rarely find them when we want them.  Otherwise, something to lean our packs up against as backrests and some soft grass or other vegetation to sit on.  In this case, we found a farm gate with grass in front, but it was on a crossroads and there seemed to be a steady stream of locals passing through and giving us the eye.

The terrain became hillier after breakfast and the views more spectacular.  After the next long climb through a welcome shady forest and then a horror stretch of brambles and nettles, we found a lovely place for lunch in a little wood and could have stayed there all afternoon.

But, Knighton beckoned and we descended to the next valley where we got in trouble from one farmer for walking down her “private drive” even though we were pretty sure we were following a marked public footpath.  Then, in contrast, a few minutes later an elderly woman went out of her way to open a big gate as we passed through her farm and asked whether we needed any water.  The next climb took us high onto moorland on Stow Hill and then we had a long descent into Knighton, made longer by a few navigational mishaps and some slow trail.

We reached our AirBnB, which is metres from the Welsh border in Knighton, around 4:00pm, glad that a warm day was over, but having enjoyed the walk very much.  Julie later crossed the border into Wales and the village to buy food and drink for dinner and we settled in for a warm evening.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 046 - Church Stretton

Day: 046

Date: Saturday, 16 July 2022

Start:  Church Stretton

Finish:  Church Stretton

Daily Kilometres:  0

GPX Track:  Click here and here for Julie’s Strava & Photos from her race and afternoon walk.

Total Kilometres:  1283

Weather:  Warm and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal & pastries

  Lunch:  Pastie/Sausage roll. pastries

  Dinner:  Sweet & sour pork and rice/Beef Cantonese and rice, icecream

Aches:  Nothing to report

Highlight:  None really

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

A quiet morning for Dave who, after walking up to watch the start of Julie’s trail half-marathon in the Carding Mill Valley amidst the nearby Shropshire Hills, spent more time on his keyboard.  Julie ran the race, doing very well to finish 5th female, and returned to our AirBnB after which we walked into town to buy lunch and supplies for tomorrow.

After lunch, more computer time for Dave, while Julie relaxed and then went for a short walk.

Back on the trail tomorrow after an enjoyable day’s break.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 045 - Ironbridge to Church Stretton

Day: 045

Date: Friday, 15 July 2022

Start:  Ironbridge

Finish:  Church Stretton

Daily Kilometres:  32

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

Total Kilometres:  1283

Weather:  Cool early, then mild, breezy and partly sunny.

Accommodation:  AirBnB

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Ham & egg sandwiches

  Lunch:  Cheese & ham sandwich/Cheese, ham & coleslaw sandwich

  Dinner:  Burger & chips, icecream

Aches:  Dave - still a few niggles.  Julie - nada.

Highlight:  We were following the route suggested by our navigation app after breakfast and expected it to take us via the usual field paths and country lanes to Church Stretton, our destination for the day.  And this was the case until the last six kilometres of the day when, from the very attractive old village of Cardington, it guided us between the beautiful Hope Bowdler and Willstone Hills on the left and the impressive Caer Caradoc on the right.  It was like being back in the Yorkshire Dales for a short while.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We made another early start, sneaking out of our hotel at 6:00am and walking back and across the Iron Bridge (no tourists, or anybody else, around) to the south side of the River Severn.  Our guidebook route then climbed steadily through dense and peaceful woodland, apart from the occasional cooing of doves and twitter of smaller birds, eventually emerging into some farmland.  The farm paths were generally easy to follow and the walking pleasant to the historic village of Much Wenlock where we arrived around 8:00am and bought supplies for the day at the village store, kicking ourselves when we passed a bakery a short distance later (though we picked up a couple of “pains au chocolat” to eat while walking as compensation).

From there we climbed steadily up onto Wenlock Edge, a forested limestone escarpment, and followed that westwards.  It was more pleasant woodland walking, though it only provided occasional vistas out over rural Shropshire to the north.

We stopped for a late breakfast by the trail at 9:30am and decided to leave the guidebook route and use our navigation app to plot the most direct route to Church Stretton where we had an AirBnB booked for two nights.  It proved to be a good choice, following rural lanes with negligible traffic and passing through very old hamlets with Tudor-period houses.

After lunch on a bench in the churchyard of the historic village of Cardington, the last stretch for the day climbed through some attractive hill country (see above) on an old cart track, before descending to the pretty village of Church Stretton.  We arrived at our AirBnB, which is excellent, at 3:00pm and are looking forward to a day off tomorrow (for Dave) and a trail half-marathon race for Julie in the Shropshire Hills which starts just a kilometre from where we are staying.