Ascent: 1000m
Weather: Cloudy start, rain started about 4pm
After a very flat day yesterday, today started with quite a lot of up quite early. We went through the Llanymynech Rocks nature reserve, which has lots of wildflowers (including pyramidal orchids) and a fine viewpoint. We also took a short detour to see the old brake drums from the quarry which was not at all a result of missing the right path.
The path crosses a golf course and through some woods down to Pen Y Coed, down a hill, through a wet field and then wiggles around a bit for a while, with lots of ups and downs, seemingly heading back the way we'd just come a few times.
From the village of Nantmawr we headed up the hill and through Jones' Rough where we didn't see any pretty ferns and didn't have an icecream on Moelydd Uchaf hill, but we did see some pig-cow-hybrid-goddamn-ugly sheep.
After Trefonen we walked along the Dyke for a while and then through Candy Wood which comes out at the old Oswestry hilltop race course, now a ruin, and we sat near the old grandstand to eat our lunch.
Second lunch was an hour or so later, with a view of Chirk Castle in the distance, which we then visited (via the summer permissive path though the castle parkland.) We had a nice pot of tea with cake and flapjack and then headed out into the rain. We donned our full waterproofs for the first time this holiday and prepared to get wet.
We dropped down over a short bit of dyke and then onto the Llangollen Canal towpath. The canal was very busy with boats, crossing over the Pont-Cysyllte aquaduct. We crossed too, but on the narrow path to one side, thankfully it has a rail on the footpath side. It was very impressive but I didn't get a photo with my phone, as that was tucked away dry.
The Bryn Howel hotel is just off the canal, we left the ODP about a mile back, staying on the towpath to avoid a bit of road walking. The hotel has fine showers but is a bit lacking in its choice of real ales.
The pictures look a bit grim below but that's more to do with the rather crappy camera on my phone than the day, it really wasn't that bad.
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