That's All Folks, Signing Off

The last 13 and a bit miles have now been done and we are Offa's Dykes veterans. Sadly, this was our least favourite day's walking. There was far too much very muddy, woodland path walking, high above the River Wye, with nothing to see but trees. We did get a bit of relief when we took the River Wye river bank alternative path option (but still official ODP). This was very nice walking ...


The approach to Chepstow and the Sedbury Cliffs finish was also rather uninspiring. Sorry to any locals, but we definitely preferred the Prestatyn end. We did pick up Offa's Dyke again today and it was with us during the last few yards, which felt good. After all the big ups and downs of the path, we had to smile at the fact that the last few yards to the end, were a real steep pull up, worthy of a guide book double chevron - the path wasn't going to let us go that easily ...


... we liked the 'nearly there' encouragement we got on the sign, to encourage us to dig deep, for that last, almost vertical section.

Then suddenly the end had arrived. We sat on the marker stone (which has the distance wrong) and looked out across the River Severn ...


We might have grumbled a bit about today's stretch but don't let that put you off having a go yourself. It is a truly great walk, and as all the Australians, Americans and other nationalities we've met, who gave travelled long distances to do the walk tell us, we are truly blessed to have such riches in our land to walk and explore.

Signing off now,

Love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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The End is Nigh

Not the end of the world, hopefully, just the end of our Offa's Dyke walk. Today we did what felt like a marathon, but wasn't quite. We were delivered back to Whitecastle where we'd finished walking yesterday, at 9.10 and we proceeded to yomp the first 11 miles into Monmouth getting there before 1.00 p.m. (It was quite easy walking!) On the way the path took us through a new type of scenery, apple Orchards for Bulmers Cider ...


Monmouth itself took us into some even more novel scenery i.e. The Offa's Dyke path runs right along the High Street ...


It made a change to encounter a plethora of refreshment facilities during the day so we took full advantage and enjoyed a coffee on a riverside terrace and then an unhealthy lunch of a Mr Whippy ice cream.

The afternoon's leg should have been a further 7 miles to take us up to a grand total of 18 miles but, as always seems to happen, we managed to do a bit more and the final total was 19.5 miles. The going was harder with some big, double chevrons ups (and downs) and by the time we arrived at this evening's destination of The Florence Hotel we were definitely flagging. Still, once again we are rewarded by excellent accommodation. We don't actually know where we are, but we appear to have no neighbours and be just the other side of the road to the River Wye. Just look at the view from our bedroom window ...


... We can see the river from our bed, from the bathroom and from our little sitting area a step up from the lounge - how lucky we are! And not knowing where we are doesn't matter as we haven't got to go anywhere - our hosts are cooking for us. As it is our final night in guest accommodation we're treating ourselves to 3 courses; we think we've earned it.

We believe we've got about 14 miles to do tomorrow to the trail's end at Sedbury Cliffs near Chepstow, but we seem to have come so far today it hardly seems possible.

Thanks Aunty M for all your comments on our posts - they have encouraged us no end.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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Back in the Tropics

A really comfortable room, a fantastic breakfast and the excellent conversation of our hosts Idris and Gwen meant that we lingered over breakfast so were late-ish setting off today. It was nearly 10:00 a .m. when we were dropped off back at Llanthony Priory. This was part of our strategy though, as we only had a short day today and needed to take it easy to prepare ourselves for a much longer day tomorrow.

We climbed back up to Hatterrall Ridge, the same Black Mountain ridge we were walking along yesterday. We hardly recognised it, as while yesterday we froze, today we were very comfortable wearing 3 less layers! Today we loved romping along the ridge and we were pleased to find wild ponies surrounding today's trig point which made for an interesting photo for our sister blog, but which we'll also share here.


We descended into Pandy, which was seemed to be a non event (no coffee shop) so we were glad we had overnighted off the route not here (sorry Pandy).

After Pandy the sun really shone and it became very hot. We felt our pace slow as a result. Just after Caggle Street we also awarded a lead paw to the tractor driver ploughing up a field crossed by the ODP making both navigation and passage difficult (the chicken manure also smelt horrible).

We reached Whitecastle just after 4.00 p.m.and called our host at The Old Rectory at Llangattock Lingoed for a lift. We knew we were in for a treat a we had walked past the accommodation earlier and even spoken to the owner as we came out of the Church next door after a welcome coffee.

Once again we have a lovely room and just look at the view we have over the gardens ...


The sequence of buildings where we are is B&B, next to the Church, next to the Pub. Perfect! We are still in the pub as we type ...

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx


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Feeling Like Polar Bears

After the sunshine of yesterday, we always knew from the weather forecast, that today would be cooler. We hadn't bargained for by how much though.

Leaving low lying Hay on Wye and our aptly named B&B, Rest for the Tired ...



... we climbed steadily, first through fields, then across grassy foothills, then up to Hay Bluff in the Black Mountains to reach the Hatterrall Ridge. It was the first long climb and it was definitely a claim of Lake District proportions - about 700 metres of ascent. It had the look of the Lake District too - wild moorland of heather, bilberry and tussocky grass with (thankfully) flagstones laid across the peat boggy sections of the path.

Once up on the ridge, we stayed up, for mile after mile, and it was really flat and easy walking. We stayed on the ridge until it was time to come down to Llanthony for our overnight stop. The walk on the ridge might have been easy, but conditions were truly arctic. It was cold and there was a biting wind. We could have been on a different continent to yesterday, and more and more layers of clothes were added until we had nearly empty rucksacks.

Descending into Llanthony it felt like we had entered the tropics in comparison. We arrived via the picturesque ruined priory (photo lost, will rake another tomorrow).

Our host for tonight, the very charming Idris, met us there and whisked us off, in his car, quite a few miles to our accommodation for tonight. We are at Pen-y-dre Farm in Llanvihangel Crucorney. We have a lovely big room with comfortable arm chairs and the village pub is just 200 yards away. The icing on the cake is a fridge with fresh milk for our teas and coffees, and the 2 large slices of fresh cream and apricot sponge which were left for us along with the milk. Yum and a big laws up!

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx


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Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Today has been a simply glorious day. We woke up to sunny weather which has been with us all day, and we had one of our best breakfasts, thanks to Sue at De Lacy House.

N.B. We forgot to say last night that we had rounded off our evening with drinks at the Olde Tavern. This was a traditional but very friendly beer drinkers pub. We were made to feel very welcome and there was a good choice of real ales which we just had to sample. The hosts are new there and we believe it will get even better, so do visit if you find yourself in Kington.

So Kington gets a paws up from us.

The ODP climbed steadily out of Kington onto the Hergest Ridge. What a ridge walk this was. We cannot extol its virtues enough. There were 2 special treats for us, the first being the path crossing another old racecourse, this one last used in 1880. It was very obvious when we'd reached the racecourse as the 1 mile oval track could still be seen. We split into 2 parties so we could walk the entire racetrack, one party circling left and the other right, so we could get a feel of what it would have been like to race round. We could see the imprint of horses hooves in the turf, and with the wind in our fur it was quite atmospheric.


Our other special treat, as if the glorious views weren't enough, was to see a herd of wild ponies with a number of foals. We held our breath as they came past us, then they gathered to drink at a watering hole. It was a special moment.



Then the next joy of the day was descending into Newchurch to find that the church there (St. Mary's) provided a kettle, tea, coffee and squash for walkers. It must be nearly 100 miles since the last church (at Llandegla) which offered refreshments. Given the fact that refreshment stops, except for at our overnight stays, are virtually non existent on the ODP, this is a vital service churches can, but rarely do, offer, so we'll done St Mary's.

We must be getting into our stride, as we covered our 16 miles to Hay on Wye, with about 820 m of ascent, quite quickly and were in Hay by about
16:20 - I think this had something to do with getting our minders there with time to look round Hay's many second hand bookshops before they closed. Mind you, fast though we might have been, on the way we met a very nice man who was walking Hay to Knighton today - that's a walk we've done in 2 days and a distance of nearly 39 miles. We bet he drinks Carling Black Label!

Our B&B tonight has the wonderful name of Rest for the Tired. We've got a lovely little suite and we're well situated for the town centre. Tonight we are in the Red Indigo Indian Restaurant where, if starters are anything to go by, the food is very good. It's nice and quiet in town tonight but it will be very different in 2 days time when the Hay Literary Festival starts.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx


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The Rollercoaster and Beyond

So, we have two days to catch up on. Yesterday was the biggest day of the trail so far, with, according to our guide book 7-8 hours walking with stops in addition. Fortunately the location of our lovely previous night's B&B had given us a head start of an hour which was very useful.

The day is famous for its switchbacks which basically means you spend a lot of time climbing some very steep inclines and a similar amount of time going down the other side. Offa's Dyke path doesn't seem to do zig zags to lessen steep sections, it only does straight up and straight down. This is why we called it the Rollercoaster day, or Nessie day (as in the Loch Ness monster) - take your pick of which fires your imagination.

We're pleased to say that we loved the day. It was wonderful walking and we were mentally prepared; it is certainly true that the best things in life aren't always easy or cheap and all our climbing effort was amply rewarded.

It was a very sheepy day and very apparent that sheep love walking Offa's Dykes but also that they love pooping on the Dyke. We walked through loads of sheep poop as a result and weren't sure it was respectful to such an historic monument.

We bagged 2 more trig points for our sister blog on the way and also had our first heavy rain shower of the trip. We donned full waterproofs and cowered under a tree which gave some shelter. We were just a few steps away from the finger post marking the half way stage, 88.5 miles to Prestatyn and 88.5 miles to Chepstow.we needed a volunteer to go out in the rain for a picture and Yorkie drew the short straw!

The rain was over in about 30 minutes and our fur dried quickly. Our minders returned to shorts and t-shirts.

We rolled into Knighton at about 5.30 p.m. and installed ourselves in the George and Dragon pub. We recommend it for beer, food and accommodation. Sadly the Offa's Dyke visitors had shut at 5.00 p.m and didn't open again until 10.00 a.m. so we didn't get to visit.

Today we had a lovely 13.5 mile stretch into Kington (note Kington tonight Knighton last night - we haven't got confused. The weather was dry and sunny and the ascents and descents less punishing - but they will still there - we climbed over 800 metres. We saw hardly any one as we walked. This was unbelievable as the scenery was once again stunning on all sides. We compared it to the Lake District and agreed that noted that we had magnificent views over a much bigger area and not a person in sight. You just wouldn't get that in the Lakes, wonderful though they are.


As we turned off the Dyke to descend into Kington we said a sad farewell as it has been a constant friend for the last 80 miles. We think it ends now and we will miss it.

Tomorrow's walk into Hay on Wye sounds rather special though.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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All the B's - Buttington to Brompton

The Moors was such a lovely B&B it was hard to tear ourselves away, especially after breakfasting with 3 laid back Australian ladies. As we left, we said goodbye to our hosts' most impressive guard dog ...



It was forecast to be quite wet today so if was wonderful to start out in the dry and in sunshine. It didn't last long, but we were lucky to encounter nothing worse an a bit of drizzle and a few light showers. There was something quite reassuring about starting to climb again and encountering those double chevrons in our guide book - it's what we've come for after all.

We climbed up to Beacon Ring where we bagged another trig point for our other blog. There was an Iron Age hill fort at this site and it all felt quite old. We descended through a forested estate then we spent the rest of the day crossing the Plain of Montgomery with the Dyke (Offa's Dyke no less) in evidence much over the time e.g. as below.


After just over 15 miles we reached Druin's Farm where we are spending the night. It's another great B&B and we chomped our way through the jam and cream scones and Welsh cakes that were kindly offered on arrival. Our hosts drove us out to nearby Mellington Hall for a meal and kindly collected us after.

We will have an early night tonight as we will be facing the biggest walking test of the trip so far tomorrow.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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The Montgomery Canal to Welshpool

Today we had our second easy day, an official 10.5 miles which we managed
to extend to 14 miles with a few small detours to other places of interest to us. This really was a flat day with only about 30 metres of ascent.

We started off going the wrong way along the Montgomery Canal as we wanted to see how far the restoration work had got. We strolled along until the canal ran out and the derelict section of canal started. It was sad to see; if Eddie had been here he would have been quite upset.

Here I am standing on the towpath looking at what should be canal ...


We itched to get our paws started on clearing, but today was not the day, we had a walk to continue.

We have named this leg of the walk the dairy milk (cow) walk, as we walked through fields and fields of young friesian cows as we followed the course of the river Severn, in its early stretches. It seemed to be a bit of a game for the cows to gather in the gateways we needed to go through, and forging a passage wasn't always easy.

It wasn't the most exciting walking and several people we met weren't enjoying it, but we weren't unhappy, even though the rutted path (from all those hooves) wasn't the easiest to walk on.

We have struck gold with our B&B tonight. We're staying at Moors Farm near Buttington where the rooms are fabulous (lovely big bed with wool blankets) and our hostess delightful. She's driven us down to a curry house in Welshpool and we will walk back shortly along the Montgomery Canal. We can help ourselves to drinks in return for a donation to the Air Ambulance. What a great idea and generous gesture. We feel duty bound to participate.

Lots of love, George, Gio and Yorkie xxx

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Doing the Hokey Cokey

Today was an easy day with a much reduced mileage, officially only about 10 miles but in reality about 12, with a sprinkling of the, the now to be expected, double chevrons (the sign of a steep section). As a result we had a late and leisurely breakfast, with our fellow walkers (Tony and Barbara) and left our horsey overnight stay to wander just a mile down the road to the old Oswestry Racecourse. Being racing fans we were very interested in this. We lurked round the remains of the grandstands and looked out on the former figure of 8 racetrack, now carpeted by bluebells.


The last race was in 1848 so sadly we were a bit late!

We bimbled onwards to Trefonen, home of the Offa's Dyke Brewery, beside the Barley Mow pub. Despite it being lunchtime neither were open which was a bit of a disappointment, especially as we'd had a glowing report of looking round the Brewery from a fellow walker we'd met a day or two ago. We settled for a coffee in the village store - good for them.

Our descent into Llanymynech, end of today's stage, took us through an old quarry, now turned into a nature reserve. As we hit the main Street we found ourselves in no man's land, with 'Welcome to England' a few feet to our left and 'Welcome to Wales' a few feet to our right. We wandered down the road, into Wales, to find our accommodation, the Bradford Arms. Because this was the other side is the street, it was in England! You'll see what I mean now about doing the Hokey Cokey: one foot into Wales, then the other into England.


Our evening at the Bradford Arms is going well. we haven't strayed far as the first real rain of be trip arrived just after we got indoors. We've had a great meal, the beer is well kept and the landlord most genial. We've also been chatting to a single Swiss chap who is walking in the opposite direction. It's all most satisfactory.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxxx

Location:The Street,Llanymynech,United Kingdom

Days 3 & 4 - Getting into our Stride

This evening we are bereft of wi-fi,  so we can't post, sorry. However, we will pen our post, so it is ready for the next sniff of some working wi-fi.

What a walk this is. There cannot be a walk like it for the sheer diversity of scenery. Yesterday we came off the Clwydian Hills only to walk through a forest ...


... then later, across a narrow path half way down some big, Lake District style scree elopes.

As a lot of people walk the path south to north, rather than north to south as we are doing, we get to meet quite a few fellow path walkers and have had some great chats. We even met a lady who had stayed with Ken and Barbie on the Coast to Coast (Aunty M will appreciate this).

Last night we stayed at the Squirrels in Llangollen. We didn't see any squirrels, but we made lots of new bear friends as it was a bear friendly B& B. Our new friend Porter was there to welcome us in reception ...


In a pub, the Wynnstay Arms, which we called into on spec, we met Offa's Dykes friendliest bar maid, probably Wales' friendliest bar maid, Nia. She was just lovely so we stayed longer than we planned to and enjoyed a tasty and great value meal.

Today rain was forecast for most of the day. We're delighted to report it largely stayed away and we only got a few spots. We also got enough sunshine to cause our minders to slap on the suntan lotion, so as not to add to their collection of sunburnt areas.

The climb back to the path from Llangollen was a big one but it was o.k. as we only had 12 miles to do today. Our route took us across the famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct which we had crossed a few years ago by canal boat so it was good to revisit and to sit by the canal and have a Spanish coffee, served barista style from an enterprising canal boat. Not long after leaving the Llangollen Canal, we encountered the historic dyke that King Offa built over 1,200 years ago for the first time. You can see the big ditch and sloping sides quite clearly.

We have ended the day at a B&B called Carreg-y-big which is attached to the Oswestry equestrian centre. As a result there are lots of horses here so we are all quite excited. Richard, our host cooked us an excellent chicken meal which we enjoyed with toffee fudge cake and red wine, so we all feel quite mellow now.

Hopefully we will get a chance to publish this post tomorrow so you can catch up with us.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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Off(a) We Go - on Offa's

Dear readers

We're very pleased to be posting to you live from our latest adventure. We're currently two days in to the stunning Offa's Dyke long distance footpath and we're very happy bears as we sit in the Miners Arms in a village with one of those great Welsh names that is instantly forgotten by the English. We're happy as we've had a second great day's walking and have a pint of Conwy Brewery's Clogwn Gold beer in front of us and the anticipation of the hake special from the tasty sounding menu.

We actually have our female minder's Aunt Elizabeth to thank for this trip. She invited us all to her 90th birthday party in Cheltenham on Saturday, and this inspired to us to think about fitting in a holiday around the party, as it isn't often we travel so far west from our Norfolk base. The Offa's Dyke Long Distance Footpath (LDP) running for about 177 miles along the England/Wales border between Prestatyn and Chepstow ( or vice versa) seemed to fit the bill, so on Saturday afternoon, after a lovely birthday lunch, we found ourselves being party poopers (sorry everyone) and leaving afternoon tea early to take a bus and a train to the start of our walk in Prestatyn.

Travel arrangements ran smoothly and we reached the Beaches Hotel in Prestatyn shortly after 9.00 p.m. Our room was so close to the sea, if the tide had been in, we could have played stone skimming from the window of our room. We were tired teds though so we let the sound of the sea send us off to sleep.

Sunday morning we woke refreshed to tackle a full English before making our first steps along the sea front to the start of the trail.

Perhaps I should clarify that 'we' is myself George, chief travelling bear and most reliable blogger; Yorkie, my faithful travelling companion, who blogs less as he's too busy eating, and Gio because he simply loves walking and thinks the best holidays are walking holidays.


I'm telling you this as we didn't manage to get a photo at the start with all of us in.

The first mile of the route took us, in lovely sunshine, from the coast, up the High Street of Prestatyn and we have to say we were quite impressed by Prestatyn - it's a lovely little town. The rest of the day unfolded very pleasantly with a lovely mix of gorse covered hillsides, country lanes, woodland and pastureland. Navigation was no problem thanks to all the national trail way marking, it was just a case of follow the acorn.

We had to walk a mile off piste to our B&B (Glen Clwyd Isa) where we had a warm welcome in this comfy but quirky establishment. There were extensive grounds to stroll around in the evening sunshine before we joined the 3 other guests for a lovely home cooked meal of asparagus and salmon (or duck) and berry sponge pudding.

Today the weather had been glorious, with really Mediterranean blue skies. We've walked just over 14 miles across the Clwydian Hills. If you don't know these hills give them a Google and find out more. They are wonderful and the views across to Liverpool and Snowdonia are stunning. The path is mostly turf so kind to our paws, but the ascents and descents between the hills were challenging to say the least. There is no accommodation at the end of this stage but we got picked up and taken to the Hafan Dag B&B where we've really landed on our paws - it's a real gem.

There's only one reason to Growl - the Clogwn Gold has now run out - we haven't drunk that much honest!

Hope to have another report for you soon.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx
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