Well, an easy day for me. There was no miracle cure overnight. My feet and legs are still unfit for walking. Irene was also looking for a day off. So - we caught a ride to Machynlleth with the taxi that was transporting our luggage. We were in before noon. Machynlleth is a larger town (population about 3000), so I went to the pharmacy to get something for my heat rash. Nothing I have tried before has worked, but I’m willing to try anything at this point. Creams in hand, we went to a coffee shop and dug into our packs for lunch. A short stroll around town - the clock tower, a lovely little park, and the site of Owain Glyndwr’s Parliament House of the 1400’s. The town’s history goes even further back than that, with a market charter established in 1291. Irene did a bit more walking but I took my feet back to the hotel to soak them and put them up. Got lots of reading done.....
The walkers reported that they had a great day. They didn’t get in until after 7 and had done some “add-ons”, but they said it was beautiful and they had some great viewpoints as today’s route reached the highest point on the entire trail. Here are some of Gary's pictures:
It seems there were some navigational challenges during the day, including the ascent of one rather big hill that really wasn't on the route. Nada was feeling pretty good upon reaching the top of that hill - before she was told - "oops" - they would have to go back down to find the proper route.
Apparently Machynlleth finally came into view but the route down was not exactly direct. A mutiny was barely averted as the route was followed past the town before turning back around to descend the Roman Steps into town.
We had drinks and dinner and drinks and laughs at our hotel. Irene and Nada will leave us tomorrow and the remaining 4 have a scheduled rest day, so there was no hurry to bed. In fact the staff were trying to get us out of there so the last guy could finally go home.
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