What a fabulous day today! 10.5 miles and about 1,650ft of ascent. But before I go on about that, I have to point out a mistake I made yesterday. Today is Wednesday, and so today marks 5 weeks of walking. It is an odd thing to be only concerned about the path, directions, weather, food supplies, accommodations, to the exclusion of days of the week or even hour of the day. It is not that it is disorienting, but oriented in a different set of concerns. I measure time by daylight, birdsong, and amount of clean clothes. Below is a rough approximation of where I am.
Today was full of joys. We left our Airbnb to find Angie’s Café, highly recommended by another walker who had left Hay a day before us, but he was making sure to pick up a sandwich. We found Angie’s this morning, ordered our lunch, and enjoyed the banter of the locals with Angie so much we decided to have a second breakfast. I mentioned to Rachel that these moments - laughing, eating, listening, talking, sharing - was what I’ve come to understand are truly the high points of life. Simple. Pure. Easy. Fulfilling. Silly. Mundane.
We left with our lunches all wrapped up, headed across the River Wye and along a path by the river that was littered with whimsy. There was a playground for children and adults all made out of carved wood that went on and on, pathways for the littlest feet with fairy houses, big bright wooden red mushrooms scattered amongst the trees. The walk continued on soft grass, through a gate and fields full of - you guessed it - sheep! There was one very pretty field of blossoming broad beans. But mostly sheep filled our day.
As we started at the riverside, there was some pretty relentless climbing. But when we made it to the top of the hill, the views were breathtaking. This was another day when changeable weather, chilly and windy, threatened, but as has been a theme - never materialized. It was warm, sunny and I had to bring out my sunglasses. We met many other walkers; we all seemed to keep at consistent paces so only caught up with each other as we passed groups stopping for lunch while sitting atop a hill in a field or at a village where the St. Michael’s church provided tea and biscuits. Interestingly, that same church has tombstones all congregated together on side and no burials on the other side because that side is reserved for the devil.
Most of the other walkers were doing the entire Offa’s Dyke Trail, but a group of four friends were on the LeJog/End to End Path. I don’t meet many of those folk, so it was interesting to swap plans and stories with them.
We passed a wild pony, climbed over too many stiles, enjoyed fields of bluebells, and eventually walked into the village of Gladestry. The Royal Oak Pub is officially closed (it’s Wednesday and it’s a sleepy village), but since we are staying in a room there they gave us drinks, served dinner, chatted and laughed for a good while, let Rachel pull a pint, and gave us all sorts of insights into local farming life. Sadly confirming that all those cute lambs and protective ewes would soon be separated as mostly they are being raised for their meat. I do think it’s odd that we don’t eat a lot of lamb in the States; if we did we’d have fields full of sweet gambling lambs in the spring!
My blisters are acting up still; it’s a good thing the walk was beautiful because it took my mind off the pain with each step. Fortunately tomorrow is a very, very short day of four miles over a beautiful ridge.
