Saturday, 21 May 2011

Welsh Boundary Walk - Walton to Hay on Wye

Saturday 21st May - day 32
There was contrast this morning in the pub: calm, quiet prevailed compared with last night's funeral wake hubbub which went on until elevenish. Strangely it was a sort of constant drone of noise with little variation in pitch, and it didn't really disturb me.
The highlight of the day was crossing Hergest Ridge. On the LEJOG walk I crossed it from west to east. Today it was north to south. It seems that whatever long distance walks I plan or undertake they seem to repeat some part of previous ones. This will persist for the next couple of days going south to Chepstow.
Hergest Ridge produced a biting cold wind and a smattering of rain and I was glad to be descending the other side. There was no footpath for a while and I took a gps fix and walked on a compass bearing for a few hundred yards and it brought me onto the track; I was well pleased with this.
A high road above the Wye valley gave extensive views then I descended and had a scary time walking facing the high speed traffic on the Wye valley A road until I could turn off and follow the Offa's Dyke path into Hay. Along that path I met one of those guys who always crop up on these walks, the born pessimist and spreader of doom. He thought it would be very difficult for me to find accommodation in Hay. At the TIO the first b and b situated within one hundred and fifty yards had a room. Never take too much notice of prophets along the way.
This morning I found I had a missed call from my daughter Jill last night (I later found the silly little switch on the side of the iPhone had flipped to render it silent). Fearing it may be urgent we exchanged text messages. Jill had been inveigled into attending Bingo last night and she had won. "what?" I asked. "a bottle of wine and a pedicure" - if it had been me they might have thought twice about giving me a free pedicure when they saw my feet.


Sent from my iPhone

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