Saturday June 16

Welshpool to Montgomery. 19 km.

It’s getting hard to find the enthusiasm for these posts. Even harder to remember what this morning was like. We stayed at the Moors Farm last night. A great night’s sleep. It’s quite an operation. In addition to the b&b house, they have a number of outbuildings which are the size of a small motel. Lots of people in those; a wedding party I believe she said. In addition to the usual sheep and cows, they have a huge pheasant operation. They raise 30,000 pheasants - a relatively small operation apparently. It seems there is huge money to be made in accommodating and organizing shoots. This is prime shooting territory and the season runs October to February. Good to know that we’re not in danger!  We did see a few pheasants today. They must have escaped the hunt last year. Our hostess, Henia, liked to talk and had lots of stories to tell. Besides feeding us honey from Prince Charles’ estate, and introducing us to a potent liquor called King’s Ginger, she told us more than any of us cared to know about the shooting subculture as well as the history of Moors Farm.

We finally said farewell about 9:30. We delayed long enough to allow the rain to stop.  It sprinkled on and off through the day but never enough to get wet. The wind and largely overcast skies kept it cool, which was good for my ever-diminishing heat rash.

The first photo below is Buttington Bridge, which is crossed by the Offa's Dyke Path.

Out the front door and across the street and we were onto Offa’s Dyke Trail. I found much of today’s route not all that interesting. Quite flat in most places and a fair amount of road walking.  There was a nice climb up to Beacon Ring, some nice forest walks. It’s not so much that I like the grunting up of hills, but I like that you generally get some great sweeping views from up there.

Later on in the day we crossed back and forth between Wales and England several times.

I believe I read that if you were to hike the entire Offa’s Dyke Trail, you would cross about 200 times.

Eventually we came to the turnoff for Montgomery and walked a fair distance into town. We saw a cricket match just starting up so we watched for a bit and had 2 of the locals try to educate us a bit. We have a long way to go.......

Finally in to town

and to the pub where we were to meet our hostess. Off to our home for the night, great showers & dinner. She did some laundry for us. We did a briefing for tomorrow and look forward with glee to all the climbing.....not!  Everyone’s in bed early, yet again. Hope Gary’s feeling better tomorrow.....

Friday June 15

Meiford to Welshpool.  17.5km.  Plus 2 miles to the castle & back.  Plus 1.6 miles to the inn.

The weather today was a mix of sun & cloud.  Temperature was probably in the mid-teens.  A perfect day for walking...........

Our stay last night at the Tan-y-Graig was great; a wonderful host & hostess!  This morning we were served a lovely breakfast of poached eggs & toast and sent on our way with a packed lunch.  We were driven back to Meiford and found the house that Rob & Rachel (our previous night's hosts at the Cann Office Hotel) were renovating.  It's huge!  A former bank building, I think.  Here's one of Gary's photos of downtown Meiford.

We had a varied and quite nice walk today.  Not too tough, although there were a few steep climbs.

A few interesting buildings in the early going.

Past a lake, Llyn Du..........

Views back to Meiford.

The garden at Fron-las.

The happy hikers...........

The greeting committee(s).

We passed a mobile home park, aka Caravan Club, by the name of Hidden Valley Holiday Home Park.  The buildings were nothing to look at but the grounds were lovely.

This old house is apparently called "Pant".

More sheep, rolling hills and windmills.

Then through a field of some very high crop (barley perhaps, or maybe wheat?).

And then onto a golf course / sheep pasture.  A very diverse day, indeed!

I 'm actually completing this blog months and months later, but I have in my notes that we only needed the GPS a few times today, and it probably saved us at least once from wandering too far off-route.  It was an especially convoluted route today.  When I look back in the guidebook (which Ron carried in his hands the whole way, even as he shows off his golf form above), it's amazing that we found our way anywhere.  Here's a sampling from today: "Go through the gate and bear slightly right down through a field and cross a stile.  Turn right and walk straight ahead, looking for markers that lead to a gate and a culverted drainage ditch.  Climb straight uphill alongside a fence.  Drop a little to cross a minor road, using stiles on both sides.  Bear right across a field, heading for the nearest big tree in a woodland, which is a horse chestnut.  A marker post reveals a sort of track, but the idea is to turn left and climb straight towards the hill ahead."  etc., etc.  But then - finding our way each day was part of the fun!

We did have some beautiful views from up on the golf course. 

We had a long walk on a road into Welshpool.

And then took a long detour to see Powis Castle. 

Back into town, to the official end of Glyndwr's Way in Howell Park.

Although this is the official end of Glyndwr's Way, we will be completing a loop back to Knighton by walking three days on the Offa's Dyke route.  After drinks, dinner and groceries in town, we headed another few miles to our accommodation which will position us well to start on Offa's Dyke tomorrow.  It was a lovely walk along the Montgomery Canal to The Moors Farm - a rather large operation, and at one time the principal farmhouse of Powis Castle.