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.....
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