Offa’s Dyke Day 10: Kington to Hay on Wye
An account of walking the 177 mile long-distance trekking route between Prestatyn and Chepstow, along the Welsh-English border, in 12 days.
Day 9 of this walk can be found here.
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We waved goodbye to Ian who had stayed with us at Thirty-Six, in Kington and were glad to find the local Spar was open. We’d forgotten that it was Sunday and as such, most of the shops wouldn’t be open until at least 10am. We would have survived on bananas and cereal bars for lunch, especially after the meal the night before, but sandwiches seemed psychologically better. We had enjoyed an excellent evening meal in The Stagg Inn at Kington, with good company, which set us up for another day’s walking (or perhaps convinced us that we definitely needed to burn those calories off!). It hadn’t been a brilliant night’s sleep — a combination of the pub with tables in the alley underneath our windows and the heat had affected us as bit.
The walk out of Kington soon cleared our heads. It was uphill. Every morning of the walk so far seems to have started with battering our way uphill, and tomorrow’s walk out of Hay is no exception — in fact I think it’s the steepest and longest of the bunch. Anyway, the walk out of Kington brought us past a second golf course onto a lovely open moorland, with grassy tracks through bracken. We were surprised to come across a clump of about ten Monkey Puzzle trees, which had been planted in memory of a who died in 2006. They were a good thirty feet high already and very prickly. I know they were prickly because I touched their leaves. Having only seen fully grown monkey puzzle trees before, which have branches which start way up their trunks, I was fascinated. I can see why the sheep haven’t taken to nibbling them!
We got a bit complacent, charging across these grassy paths and notched up an 18.44 minute mile, before we overshot a left turn (see arrow)and spent a mile circumnavigating a hill on sheep tracks through bracken and very spiky gorse. Serves us right for being smug earlier!
Other than that, it was a lovely walk. The weather was sunnier than forecast, but with a stiff breeze which prevented overheating. We watched a red kite swoop and glide overhead and saw some badger-faced sheep. The stretch along the river into Hay on Wye was lovely, although we were quite envious of the people in canadian canoes, gliding down the river.
We met five guys on scrambling bikes who looked to be having a brilliant time on tracks through the woodland. I know it’s not ecologically sound, but it did look good fun!
I finished the afternoon drinking coffee in the garden of The Bridge B&B, which looks out over the river. I had a lovely latte made from ethically sourced coffee beans, ground in Hay and talking to a gentleman about his time in the Brecon Beacons in December doing national service (which he thought didn’t really prepare him for then being deployed during the Suez Crisis), his late German wife and his polyglot daughter who had moved to Sweden. The later was particularly interesting to me as it’s looking as if I’ll be doing some veterinary work in Sweden, later in the year. He also recommended a Spanish tapas restaurant we plan to try later.
We’ve just discovered the weather forecast for Tuesday is now thunderstorms, but thankfully we’ll be off the ridge above Hay at that point, so it should just be wet, rather than worrying about near-death lightening based experiences.
Our 15.8 miles today have taken the total to 137 miles.
Day 11 of this walk can be found here.
We are raising money for The Teenage Cancer Trust during the walk. If you would like to donate, we’d be very grateful.
Our trip was organised by Celtic Trails Walking Holidays, who I have so far been very impressed by. I have received nothing from them for this endorsement. #celtictrails #shareyoursteps
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